Dylan Garand channels Henrik Lundqvist history as Garden serenades new starter

Tuesday evening marked the 21st anniversary of Henrik Lundqvist's first NHL win, and it was all too fitting that the Madison Square Garden crowd serenaded Dylan Garand with a "Dy-lan!... Dy-lan!" chant not all that different from "Hen-rik!... Hen-rik!"

The victory was Garand's third of the season, fifth of his career, and in doing so, the Blueshirts' young netminder matched some franchise history.

Garand joins rare company

The Rangers have been blessed with goaltending throughout their history, and in some respects what Garand is doing shouldn't come as a surprise. Those who have followed his career to this point aren't surprised that he's making the most of his opportunity, and his performance to date is just an example of history repeating itself.

In the case of Garand, his 25-save victory against Tampa Bay tied him with Igor Shesterkin and Cam Talbot for the fewest starts by a goalie to record five victories. In the case of Shesterkin, he won his first two starts, lost a 2-1 nail-biter to Columbus, he won the next seven in a row, lost against New Jersey, and then won his final start against Dallas to go 10-2-0 with a .932 save percentage and 2.52 goals against average during his initial stint on Broadway.

Talbot followed up his fifth career win by coming in relief of Henrik Lundqvist in what was an eventual 5-0 loss, and he picked up a sixth win against Vancouver before dropping back-to-back starts. He ended his rookie year with 19 starts and went 12-6-1 with a .941 save percentage and a 1.64 goals against average.

Garand in position to make new history

Without getting too far ahead of ourselves, Garand is in a unique position to make new history as the season continues. Shesterkin's stint was in the second half of a season as part of a three goalie rotation while Talbot was Lundqvist's backup. The season-ending injury to Shesterkin and subsequent injury to Joonas Korpisalo has resulted in him becoming the de facto starter as the last goalie standing, and he will get an opportunity to appear in more games than either did.

Shesterkin's progression was pretty consistent, as he went from 12 starts to 31 starts, and he hit the 50-start mark in his third season and that's where he's been living ever since. Talbot was a backup his first year, an unexpected starter his second year after Lundqvist's health scare, and from that point on he was mostly a starter.

There was no telling how the Rangers would react after losing Shesterkin for the season, and so far the team's responded just about as well as you could have hoped for. Garand is making the most of the opportunity presented to him, and he's looking more comfortable as time goes on.

The season is still very young, but all you can do is evaluate the Rangers for the game's they've played. Logic suggests that they are bound to have some trials and tribulations, but for now it's important to take stock of the victories both individually and as a team, and Garand continues to author one of the more impressive stories we've seen on Broadway in quite some time.

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