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Henrik Lundqvist passing the baton to Igor Shesterkin — that would be tantamount to the line of succession in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers stepping in for Brett Favre or the one in San Francisco with Steve Young taking over for Joe Montana, correct?
The organization and the fan base should count their blessings here. The Rangers have not only made the seamless transition from one franchise goaltender to the next, but in a blink of the eye moved on from one folk hero to another. One monarch from Sweden to this one from Russia, with love.
Lundqvist did a lot of his styling off the ice. Shesterkin, other than when slipping into the role of Vincent Vega, does his styling on the ice. It is rare for a goaltender to be a team’s most exciting player, but with apologies to Artemi Panarin, that is what Shesterkin has become.
The goaltender is the one who brings fans out of their seats. The goaltender is the one to watch when he has the puck. You never quite know what’s coming. Shesterkin’s 150-foot bomb up the middle — Aaron Rodgers, see? — to send Panarin in alone on an ultimately failed attempt was breathtaking. Imagine what Shesterkin could do if he weren’t limited by the league’s anti-Martin Brodeur trapezoid rule.
Shesterkin, selected 118th overall in the 2014 draft on the recommendation of European scout Jan Gajdosik, is the one guy who has lived up to all the hype that preceded him. He was always expected to be heir to the throne. Three seasons into his NHL career, he is carving out a spot on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore in the Crease beside Lundqvist, Eddie Giacomin and Mike Richter, and it couldn’t be more entertaining watching him do so.
Then there is Alex Georgiev, whose career has stalled as an unintended byproduct of the handoff from Lundqvist to Shesterkin. It isn’t all that well remembered, but when the Blueshirts had their goaltending menage-a-trois following Shesterkin’s promotion to New York in early January 2020 for what turned out to be the final 29 games of the truncated schedule, Georgiev got 13 starts, Shesterkin (injured twice, once in an automobile accident) got 12 and Lundqvist, four.
The breakdown over the last 19 games was Georgiev 10, Shesterkin 8 and Lundqvist one. Georgiev played well, but he was bypassed in the qualifying round against the Hurricanes. Lundqvist started the first two games while Shesterkin, who’d suffered a groin injury in a pre-tournament exhibition, rehabbed before starting the third and final contest of the sweep.
That did not sit well with Georgiev, who had a 2020-21 season that was by far the worst of his career which began with a late season promotion in 2017-18. He got out of the gate poorly this season, but seemed to turn it around with a run of quality performances when Shesterkin went down with a groin injury in early December.
But not so much so lately. Fact is that Georgiev is 1-4 in his last five starts with a .871 save pct. and 3.65 GAA since Jan. 6 that includes his 41-second relief appearance in which No. 40 did not touch the puck while Shesterkin was in concussion protocol late in Tuesday’s overtime against the Bruins. Since winning his first three starts in the wake of Shesterkin’s injury, Georgiev has gone 2-6-1 with a .900 save pct. and 2.91 GAA. That’s not good enough.
The Rangers are in Ottawa on Sunday. They’re then off until Thursday’s Garden confrontation with the Caps. There’s a back-to-back next weekend, Saturday in Pittsburgh followed by the Feb. 27 Garden match against Vancouver and, oh, J.T. Miller.
Georgiev’s last start was on Jan. 27. I would expect him to play against the Senators this Sunday. It will be difficult enough for No. 40 after this type of layoff but adding another week by waiting for the back-to-back seems like a bridge too far.
Any one of Georgiev’s upcoming starts might be his last as a Ranger. Given that the club will not be able to qualify him this summer when his contract expires, he is on track to become a free agent. The upcoming Mar. 21 deadline represents the Rangers’ last opportunity to get something in return for the NHL’s first Bulgarian-born player.
The Blueshirts would have to obtain a backup to replace Georgiev, with either Thomas Greiss — who played so well for the Red Wings in their 3-2 shootout victory at the Garden on Thursday — or Jaro Halak — currently on IR for the Canucks — as potential targets.
But the Rangers’ relationship with Georgiev, who has felt suppressed in his role, is probably coming to an end as the lone casualty of the handoff from Lundqvist to Shesterkin.
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