All through his information convention, standing towards a Purple Wings-branded backdrop within the aftermath of a loss to the Rangers on Monday, Derek Lalonde saved complimenting Igor Shesterkin. A “very, very particular goalie.” The distinction in a 4-1 recreation.
After which the Detroit head coach, who noticed loads of elite goaltending from Andrei Vasilevskiy throughout his run as a Lightning assistant, dropped his most notable reward of the night time: “I can see why he turned down the 88 [million]. Good agent.”
Within the three-game pattern of regular-season video games since Shesterkin declined an eight-year, $88 million extension that might’ve made him the NHL’s highest-paid goalie, he has continued to bail out the Blueshirts — particularly through the second interval towards the Purple Wings — and produce a robust begin to what has now turn into a contract season.
Monday didn’t have the identical ending as his opening-night shutout. It wasn’t as rocky because the Rangers’ loss to the Utah Hockey Membership on Saturday, both.
However whereas the Rangers work out their defensive points in entrance of their Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender, Shesterkin has supplied early proof — maybe sufficient to maintain bumping his price ticket larger and better — that he will help them bridge the hole till all the pieces clicks.
“It was a extremely robust recreation to guage him [Saturday],” head coach Peter Laviolette mentioned postgame, “and I mentioned this earlier than, there’s occasions the place I feel we simply do issues that — not a whole lot of goaltenders could make the save that wanted to be made final recreation. You would possibly make one, however once you want 4 or 5 of them on the market, there’s gonna be hassle coming at you.
“And so I used to be glad to see that we received higher proper in entrance of him, tightened up a bit bit in entrance of him, however there’s nonetheless work to do and that’s what goaltenders are there for, to make massive saves, and he’s actually good at that as effectively.”
Final 12 months, all the pieces revolved round Shesterkin’s struggles by the point the All-Star break arrived and his save proportion dipped below .900. He didn’t report his first shutout of the season till February.
There have been questions — briefly — about whether or not a surging Jonathan Fast may take begins from Shesterkin whereas he reset. However the Rangers caught by their franchise goaltender by means of the tough patch, and after a bit, and particularly throughout their run to the Japanese Convention Remaining, their endurance paid off.
However through the 2024-25 marketing campaign, by means of sturdy stretches like his first three video games and any struggles that may observe throughout the following five-plus months, the underlying context to Shesterkin will contain his contract scenario, the deal he turned down and his looming free company.
For now, he has performed a crucial position within the Rangers incomes 5 of six attainable factors. Shesterkin has an anticipated objectives towards of 9.34 — the fourth-highest mark within the NHL — however has allowed simply seven, per Cash Puck.
Halfway by means of the opening interval Monday, Shesterkin tracked Lucas Raymond as he neared the web, tucked the puck and hesitated earlier than wristing a shot towards him. Then, within the second interval, with the Rangers killing a penalty, Shesterkin held his positioning in entrance of the web as J.T. Compher and Patrick Kane each had probabilities — three of the six saves he made through the penalty kill and three of the 14 he made through the second interval.
“I simply must be centered,” Shesterkin mentioned postgame of his second interval. “If it’s 14 photographs, I must be prepared. If it’s one shot, I must be prepared, too.”
That center interval irritated Laviolette, he mentioned. The Rangers have been “too informal,” and in contrast to how the primary and third intervals marked progress, the second body marked the reappearance of the identical defensive points that plagued the ahead strains and the new-look defensive pairings — nearly everybody.
Shesterkin, Mika Zibanejad mentioned, provides the Rangers an opportunity to win each begin, and Monday was the newest instance. He has saved the Blueshirts defensive lapses from spiraling into one thing worse. For now, that’s quantified by 5 factors, zero regulation losses and all the saves he strung collectively.
Within the eyes of Lalonde, that’s price greater than $88 million.
