Should The Rangers Ride The Hot Hand Of Jonathan Quick Even When Igor Shesterkin Returns From Injury?

On Thursday night, the Boston Bruins were in town to face the Blueshirts at Madison Square Garden for an original six matchup. The Bruins came into the contest having won five of their last eight games, while the Rangers had earned just one victory in their last eight. In those eight games, the Rangers failed to score more than three goals on every occasion. This meant that, in order to come away with two points, Rangers goaltending needed to have goals against averages better than the league average almost every night.

With Rangers starting goaltender Igor Shesterkin recently being placed on injured reserve, the Blueshirts looked to veteran goaltender Jonathan Quick to start against the Bruins.

The first period of Thursday night's game seemed to deviate from the Rangers recent play. Mika Zibanejad and Brett Berard got the Rangers on the board for a 2-0 first period lead, and it seemed as though the Rangers scoring woes would, at least for one night, subside.

Following their offensively productive first period, the Rangers would lay an egg the rest of the game- scoring zero goals in the second and third periods. It was going to take a special performance from Quick to help the Rangers come away with a win, and that's exactly what fans at Madison Square Garden were treated to.

Quick was in top form, shutting out the Bruins until about halfway through the second period when Elias Lindhom would finally break through for Boston. It seemed as though the Rangers were destined to once again collapse and miss out on desperately needed points in the standings, but Quick followed up the goal against with some world-class saves- including one that prompted visiting goaltender Jeremy Swayman to salute Quick during a tv timeout.

Despite being outshot in two of three periods, and not scoring after the first 20 minutes, the Rangers collected their first win since December 20th, with Quick leading the way. Quick posted numbers on par with his cup-winning seasons, registering a save percentage of .970, and bailing the Blueshirts out on multiple occasions.

One performance can be misleading and often not representative of a sustainable trend, but the shift put in from Quick does beg the question as to who should start in goal when Shesterkin returns from injury. Shesterkin is 1-4-0 in his last five starts, and registered a save percentage under .850 on multiple occasions. The recent struggles of the Rangers cannot and should not be pinned on Shesterkin, but if Quick is capable of providing a better chance at a win night in and night out, Peter Laviolette should consider giving him the reins in the short term.