There is still no decision on who will be in net on Monday night against the Islanders. Coach David Quinn was asked about it on Friday and he said that a decision would be made on Sunday and while they have, it’s not public yet.
Quinn acknowledged that Igor Shesterkin has been playing well, but pointed out that Alexandar Georgiev has had a lot of success against the Islanders. He also said that they need to get him some work.
According to Vince Mercogliano of USA Today, the decision is made, but they aren’t telling anyone.
I asked DQ about the goalie decision. No dice.
— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) February 7, 2021
"It is a tough decision and we’ll all find out about it tomorrow."
Added: "The decision that was made was about 51-49."#NYR
The odds are that it will be Georgiev if they are looking long term, but it will be Shesterkin if they want to get a streak going. At any rate it was, as Quinn said, a really close decision. It’s a busy week so both netminders should get a lot of work.
More on Kakko
Friday after practice, David Quinn talked about Kaapo Kakko’s performance against Washington. He played his best game of the year and ended up with an assist and was +2 for the night.
Quinn spoke about his improvement. “He was instrumental in goals one and three for us….He’s really hounding pucks, he’s skating more in small areas, he’s winning more wall battles, when you do that when and you’ve you got his skill set that’s when things really start happening from an offensive perspective…I was really happy for him.”
Kakko spoke after Sunday’s practice and kept his answers to one theme, getting better. ” I think I’m playing better than last season. I know what I need to do on the ice, in the defensive zone…I’m getting better.”
Asked if he was focusing more on the defensive game, his answer was the same :”I’m just trying to do my best every day….play so hard as I can and getting better all the time. ”
On Thursday night Quinn had said that we should stop thinking about Kakko as the player we think he should be (as the elite player who was drafted), but focus on what he is doing game to game.
Interestingly, there was a Twitter post by Stat Boy Steven that referred to a podcast in Finland last spring.
Kakko in May 2020, on a Finnish podcast: "Towards the end of the season I didn't really try anything special because if I tried something, then coach said Don't do this and don't do that"
— Stat Boy Steven 🇳🇱 🇿🇦 🇮🇪 (@StatBoy_Steven) February 5, 2021
Something changed. Last night he finally looked like the Kakko I remember from TPS #NYR pic.twitter.com/m178mf0NPE
Kakko has been careful not to talk about his relationship with the coaching staff, but on the podcast, he gave an indication that he held back rather than risk criticism. There’s no doubt that he was on a short leash and that even extended to this season when he lasted only one game on the Panarin line.
Hopefully, now that he is turning the ripe old age of 20 (on February 13), he will play with more confidence and display some of the skill he has shown throughout his career.