I tried to let my frustration levels cool down overnight before writing this. It didn’t work.
I don’t even want to discuss the game the Rangers played against the Leafs last night as a whole, but it’s impossible to not touch on it to get the point I’m trying to make across. So here’s my thesis statement for today: The New York Rangers are a completely different team when Igor Shesterkin gets the start. I mean that in the worst way possible.
Right off the bat, I’d like to back this up with some numbers courtesy of Clear Sight Analytics, shout out to Steve Valiquette.
Not even taking last nights game into account, Shesterkin has faced nearly twice the amount of high danger chances that Jonathan Quick has. That’s not a shot at Quick’s play, because he’s still facing seriously dangerous chances and making incredible saves in response. What I am saying is this; The defensive zone play in front of Shesterkin is horrific. You can sit here and say Shesterkin hasn’t been playing up to his typical standard, and you’d be 100% correct. My question to you is, how do you expect him to break out of a slump when the team in front of him is allowing him to get lit up on a nightly basis since he’s returned from the undisclosed injury sustained in the early season win over Carolina.
The biggest problems to my eye test last night were defending the odd man rush, defensive zone turnovers, and just an overall lack of pushback against a Leafs team that, despite offseason additions, is not that tough.
Giving up odd man rushes is a problem in itself, but they have been defended better when Quick is in the crease. Defensive zone turnovers happen, but last night especially they happened back to back to back in rapid succession, particularly in the first and third periods, that led to those entire frames being played in the Rangers zone. Ryan Lindgren took a massive hit along the boards in the neutral zone, and Zibanejad, who realistically wouldn’t shed his mitts with a gun to his head, hardly pushed back after the hit happened right in his grill, and it still resulted in a roughing minor. The Rangers were complete pushovers on home ice against the Leafs.
In all honesty, writing this blog runs the risk of me sounding like a total whiny bitch. The team is 19-7-1. They’ve been a blast to watch up to this point. It’s mid December and the holidays and all star break are coming up. It’s an extremely long season. We all know how December drags ass up until Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The Rangers will get some rest in the next month and January will bring a refreshed energy.
There are hardly any reasons to be pessimistic about this team. It’s just worth taking serious note that over Shesterkin’s last three starts, the Rangers have conceded fifteen goals against. They are more than capable of being better than that and they need to be better than that moving forward.
Let’s shake it off and get the Garden rocking on Friday against Anaheim.
The Morning Skate 