New York Rangers: Igor Shesterkin returning to lineup

After sustaining an injury on March 4 and missing 10 games,  Igor Shesterkin is nearing his return to the New York Rangers.

The New York Rangers currently hold a record of 14-13-4 and have been struggling to find consistency all year long. It certainly hasn’t helped that their best players have been out of the lineup for a variety of reasons. Artemi Panarin has missed nine games of action because of the Russia situation and Tony DeAngelo has been exiled from the team because of an incident with his teammates.

If you remove Mika Zibanejad‘s outlier six-point game from the equation his stat-line for the year looks like this: 30 games, 4 goals, 10 assists, 14 points. This is not sufficient production from a first-line center in a contract year.

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This all serves to paint a picture of why Igor Shesterkin has quite the workload this year, behind a beleaguered Rangers team. His record of 6-7-1 does not accurately portray the show he’s put on all year in Broadway.

Last year he got a ton of credit for bursting onto the NHL scene as a rookie goaltender. This year, however, it seems he doesn’t have all that pressure and he’s even outdoing himself in some ways.

Shesterkin’s Goals Against Average (GAA) and Save Percentage (Sv%) this year are 2.31 and 0.921 respectively. Last year he was 2.52 and 0.932. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, he’s improved in his GAA but his Sv% dropped by a significant amount.

I’m no stats guru, but there is obviously an explanation for this phenomenon.

The main difference between the two seasons is his record. In his rookie campaign last year he posted an incredible 10-2-0 record. This year, however, he got caught in a season of inconsistency from the entire team.

Recently, the New York Rangers have been on a bit of a roll, winning three out of the last four games, including a 9-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. They have been relying on Alexandar Georgiev and Keith Kinkaid between the pipes.

While Georgiev and Kinkaid were solid in their wins over the Sabres, Capitals and Flyers, the Rangers will have their starter back in action for the game on Thursday. The good news is, Igor Shesterkin will mind the crease against the Flyers in their chance at redemption Thursday evening.