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How ‘unreal’ Igor Shesterkin already worthy of massive Rangers contract
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- How ‘unreal’ Igor Shesterkin already worthy of massive Rangers contract
Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images
If you wondered at all why the New York Rangers opened the vault to keep goaltender Igor Shesterkin , watch the video of their 4-0 victory against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.
The final score makes it look like Shesterkin had an easy time of it in the second game of the record-setting eight-year, $92 million contract ($11.5 million average annual value) that kicked in this season. You have to look a little deeper to appreciate his 37-save effort, which earned him the game's First Star and gave new coach Mike Sullivan his first victory with the Rangers .
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"'Shesty' made some huge saves when we needed it," Sullivan said in a postgame understatement .
Alexis Lafreniere gave New York a 1-0 lead when he scored 11:43 into the first period. It stayed that way for more than 43 minutes, with the Sabres carrying the action for most of that stretch. Shesterkin helped the Rangers kill off three Buffalo power plays in the second period and a fourth in the first nine minutes of the third.
After outshooting the Sabres 16-8 to start the game, the Rangers were outshot 26-8 before they regained control late in the third period.
Goals by Carson Soucy at 14:46 and J.T. Miller at 17:11 made it 3-0, and Adam Fox 's empty-netter at 17:25 was window dressing on Shesterkin's first shutout of the season and 22nd of his career. That moved Shesterkin past Lorne Chabot into eighth place on the Rangers' all-time list. He's tied for second in shutouts among NHL goalies since the start of the 2020-21 season.
Igor Shesterkin showing he's worth record-setting contract
"He's unreal," Lafreniere said Thursday . "Year after year, he's that guy for us. We're trying to get him a little less work, but he's been unreal again."
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Soucy, who joined the Rangers in early March in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks, said he continues to be impressed by No. 31.
"Athleticism, positioning — most of the traits that it takes to be a great goalie, he's got them," the veteran defenseman said. "He was big for us when they had their push. It's always nice having a goalie that you have confidence in. We just try to do our best at giving him clean looks at the puck; he's going to make those saves a lot of times."
Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images
Sullivan saw plenty of Shesterkin in the past six seasons, when he coached the division rival Pittsburgh Penguins . He smiled when asked what it was like to have "Shesty" on his side this season.
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"It sure is nice, I'll tell you," he said. "He's a world-class goalie. He's one of the very best, and when you get timely saves like he gives you — he makes really hard saves look routine sometimes, and we certainly don't take that for granted. He was terrific tonight, and he was terrific the other night also."
"The other night" was the Rangers' season-opening 3-0 loss to the Penguins at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Shesterkin was one of the few Rangers who played well, stopping 28 of 29 shots before Pittsburgh hit the empty net twice.
This time, the Rangers gave Shesterkin an early lead and he carried them to their first win of the season.
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"We did a great job tonight, played an awesome game," Shesterkin explained. "We (were) a lot better in the first period; we created a lot of offensive chances, and (the team) played much better in front of me. When you score first, it's much easier to win the game.
"Our players were playing (so well) in front of me, a lot of great plays. I always (saw) the puck well, and so they made my job easy. It's a very good feeling to get a win."
That's a very modest take by Shesterkin, who owns the richest contract for a goalie in NHL history, and proves worthy already with a ridiculous .985 save percentage. Sure, it's far too early to be throwing around stats like that. But it's not too early for Shesterkin to prove he's worth every penny of his whopping new deal.
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