Colin Stephenson: Rangers' Igor Shesterkin shows just how essential he is
Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin skates to the net after a break in the action against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second period of an NHL hockey game at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
With 10 seconds left in overtime in Saturday’s Rangers-Penguins game at Madison Square Garden, Evgeni Malkin stepped onto the ice, took a drop pass from Thomas Novak, walked around a dead-tired Alexis Lafreniere and fired a point-blank shot at the Rangers’ goal. Igor Shesterkin made a pad save.
Erik Karlsson got the rebound and fed Malkin again for another point-blank shot. Shesterkin made another huge save with five seconds to go.
“I just tried to be focused on the puck,’’ he said.
In the shootout, Pittsburgh’s Anthony Mantha lost the puck on his attempt, Shesterkin closed the pads on Egor Chinakhov’s shot and Novak shot wide. Vincent Trocheck scored the only goal of the tiebreaker to give the Rangers a 3-2 victory.
“I think he’s the best goalie in the game,’’ Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “He has the ability to change the outcome of the game.’’
He did in this one. And afterward, one couldn’t help but think: If only Shesterkin hadn’t gotten hurt in that Jan. 5 game against Utah, maybe things would have turned out differently for the Rangers this season. Maybe they’d still be in the playoff race right now and not in a retool.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of things I wish could have gone different, but I can’t change it now, right?’’ Mika Zibanejad said. “I don’t think it helps you to regret things or wish it was different. We have to deal with it. That’s it. This is the situation that we’re in, and we’ll try to do the best out of it.’’
Zibanejad, who’s been the Rangers’ most consistent player this season, scored the Blueshirts’ first goal of the game on a second-period power play to start their comeback from a 2-0 deficit. Fourth-liner Taylor Raddysh tied it with his ninth goal of the season early in the third period.
Shesterkin took care of the rest. He finished with 31 saves in regulation and overtime (including five in OT) as the Rangers ended their losing streak at five games and delivered their first win since Jan. 26.
The Rangers (23-29-7) remain buried in last place in the Eastern Conference, well out of playoff contention with 23 games to go.
And general manager Chris Drury, who already has traded away Artemi Panarin and defenseman Carson Soucy, is bound to ship out more players before Friday’s trade deadline as the Rangers look to collect as many assets as they can for the future.
So the Rangers are staring at a second straight long summer.
Shesterkin isn’t thinking about that, he said. He didn’t read the Jan. 16 message when Drury announced the retool to the fans, he said.
“I am focused on my game,’’ he said. “I just play a game at a time, and that’s it. So honestly, I didn’t read the letter, because I don’t speak English.’’
He promised to keep giving the Rangers a chance to win as many of the remaining games as possible.
“We don’t think about losing,’’ he said. “We always focus on a win, and we try our best to reach it.’’
Sullivan was asked if he’ll play Shesterkin as much as he normally would in a regular season or if he’ll scale back his ice time, given that he’s still coming off an injury and the games don’t mean that much.
He said he’ll work with Shesterkin to figure out how much to play the 30-year-old the rest of the way.
Shesterkin said he’s healthy and good to go. And the Rangers certainly will have a better chance of winning games with a healthy Shesterkin — who is 18-12-5 with a 2.45 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage — playing his usual workload of games in the final month and a half of the season.
Even if Drury trades away big pieces of the roster — such as Trocheck and maybe defenseman Braden Schneider and who knows who else — having Shesterkin in goal will give them a chance in every game they play.
Unfortunately and realistically, it’s just too late to make a difference for this season.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
