With Igor Shesterkin still day-to-day with a groin injury and Alexandar Georgiev having just made his third game of the season halfway through the day, Keith Kinkaid has been selected as the starter for the Rangers in Boston on Saturday afternoon. .
It will be Kinkaid’s second start to his tenure with the Rangers since he was called up from the taxi squad earlier this month, shortly after Shesterkin maintained what was described as a “soft” groin strain in a March 4 victory against the devils.
The fifth straight game in which Shesterkin is unavailable will be held on Saturday, adding to further speculation that his injury was not “minor.”
“It’s really an annoying situation,” head coach David Quinn of Shesterkin’s injury said Friday. “It simply came to our notice then. It’s spinning a little more than we thought. But you could wake up tomorrow and be in a good position and play sooner rather than later, so it’s really day to day. ”
Kinkaid, who signed a two-year, $ 1.65 million deal with the Rangers as a free agent in October, has made three appearances on the net so far this season, two of which are be in relief to Georgiev.
In 42:46 of ice time in the Rangers’ 5-1 loss to Pittsburgh last week, Kinkaid kept the team competitive and stopped 16 of the 18 shots he faced. He made his first outing as a ranger the next game against the Penguins, but a defensive fall resulted in a 4-2 defeat despite Kinkaid’s 23-yard performance.
Georgiev left four goals on 14 shots in the 4-0 loss to the Bruins on Thursday, prompting Quinn to deploy Kinkaid. The 31-year-old, in his eighth NHL season, missed the 13 shots he faced with relief.
In an attempt to generate any kind of offense in Thursday’s closing loss, Quinn brought together Alexis Lafreniere, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko in what he called “the children’s line.”
The trio, with an average age of 20, recorded just 5:12 ice time together and generated three shots. When asked if it was a line she planned to keep together, Quinn said there were things she liked.
“There were good signs as the game was going on and they got a little familiar,” he said. “So that’s something we’re definitely going to experience to move forward.”
The Bruins ’Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-David Pastrnak trio is described as“ The Line of Perfection ”for a reason, and showed up completely Thursday against the Rangers.
With two goals, five shots and four hits (including three assists from Marchand alone), the Bruins ’front line came out with the Rangers.
“There’s no doubt they’re one of the best lines in the league,” Ryan Strome said. “I think you only see the chemistry they have, I think sometimes they don’t seem to be creating too much, but they are growing. They have great opportunities. Without a doubt, this is a challenge for us, I think this year we have done a pretty good job against it. It will be quite difficult to stop them all together.
“I think it’s a kind of trend that they have set for the season. … I think we just need to focus a little more on the details, I think just be more aware of where they are, talk more as a group. “