Rangers goalie Jonathan Quick, a week shy of his 40th birthday, says he can handle added workload

It’s been more than a week since Igor Shesterkin was placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury, and when coach Mike Sullivan was asked this week whether Shesterkin or other injured players Adam Fox, Adam Edstrom or Conor Sheary (all out with lower-body injuries) are close to skating, he said no.

So as the Rangers desperately try to pull themselves out of the four-game losing streak they were in entering Wednesday’s game at Madison Square Garden against the Ottawa Senators, they are forced to rely on backup goaltender Jonathan Quick, who is a week shy of his 40th birthday.

Quick was in goal again Wednesday, his fourth straight start since Shesterkin went down, and the 800th of his career. Four straight starts, with no obvious spot for a night off in the immediate future, is a heavy workload for a guy who isn’t used to playing this much at this stage of his career. But Quick insisted it hasn’t been anything he can’t handle.

“No, it's good,’’ he said after Tuesday’s practice. “My body feels good, energy feels good. So just try to keep those where they need to be, and keep pushing it.’’

The Rangers have a scheduled off day upcoming Thursday, then will practice at home Friday before going on the road for four games, beginning with an afternoon match Saturday in Philadelphia and a trip to California next week. They have back-to-back games Monday in Anaheim and Tuesday in Los Angeles against Quick’s old team, the Kings, so there’s a chance Spencer Martin, who’s currently backing Quick up, or Dylan Garand, who’s currently the No. 1 goalie in Hartford, could get one of those games.

But until then, it appears Sullivan will be riding Quick, who he has called “a first-ballot Hall of Famer,’’ and who has won more games (407) than any other American-born goalie.

“I've talked with Quickie about what our intentions are here, going through this process, and he's really embraced the challenge in front of him,’’ Sullivan said. “Some of it's just going to be intuition, based on what we see. And obviously we want to set Quickie up for success, and we don't want to give him a workload where it becomes diminishing returns, and you get a lesser version of the player because of it.

“And that's something that we're going to have to watch. But we have a game plan sketched out.’’

The problem is, despite how well he’s played, Quick entered Wednesday on a 10-game losing streak (0-8-2). His last win came Nov. 7. Overall, he was 3-9-2, with a 2.80 goals-against average and .898 save percentage before facing the Senators. Those numbers took a hit after he allowed 13 goals in his first three starts in Shesterkin’s absence (including letting in six in the 10-2 loss at Boston Saturday). Prior to his start against Buffalo last Thursday, his GAA had been 2.23, and his save percentage was .919.

What hasn’t helped his won-loss record is that the team hasn’t scored much in the games he’s played. To be fair, the Rangers don’t score much overall – their average 2.55 goals per game entering Monday was the third-lowest in the league – but they’ve scored even less when Quick is playing. In his 14 starts, they’ve scored 27 goals (plus two in his 48-minute relief appearance against Utah when Shesterkin got hurt). That’s 29 in his 15 appearances, for an average of 1.93 goals per game.

Sullivan said he hasn’t noticed whether the team plays any differently in front of Quick than it does in front of Shesterkin.

“That's not my observation of watching it,’’ he said. “It's not like we're trying to play a certain game depending on who's behind them.’’

Quick was asked what he’s seen from the goal crease as the team has struggled lately.

“When you're going through stretches like this as a team, you gotta think about your individual game, and how you can be better personally for the team,’’ he said. “And get 20 guys to think of it that way. And (get) all 20 (to) improve a little, game by game. So that's where my focus is, is how can I make another save or two a game, to help this team get over the hump?’’

Notes & quotes: Sullivan took a fifth crack at winning game No. 500. He collected No. 499 in the Rangers’ win over Florida in the Winter Classic on Jan. 2… Artemi Panarin appeared in his 799th game.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

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.