So back to Igor Shesterkin for Saturday afternoon’s game in Philadelphia, which represents the best possible indication of the goalkeeper’s health after his night of 41 saves Thursday in an 8-3 win over the Flyers who went follow three weeks. absence due to groin tension.
“I thought he looked fantastic,” acting coach Kris Knoblauch said. “I thought he made some really big savings in the first period. I’m not sure what the score was at the time, it was definitely adjusted, the savings he got [Claude] Giroux “.
That one, in which the netminder exploded through the fold to deny Giroux from the clear spot, arrived at 5:18 of the period and the Rangers went up, 3-0. Compared to the 6-0, which the score became at 2:42 of the second period, or the 9-0, which was the final result among the fighters in the garden on March 17, the 3-0 could be consider “tight.”
But Shesterkin was tested and especially during the last two periods when the Blueshirts, to varying degrees, started looking for easy points once they became 6-0. Shesterkin faced 33 shots in the last 40 minutes and 44 overall, the most allowed by the Rangers this season.
“He played really well,” Knoblauch said. “I thought we had given up some good goal opportunities. At the end of the day, the goal opportunities were very even. So that says a lot about how well Igor played. “
The Blueshirts will play a game again in Washington on Sunday afternoon, so presumably Keith Kinkaid or Alexandar Georgiev will get the assignment against the capitals.
With Phillip Di Giuseppe off the COVID-19 protocol list, the Rangers bring an added advantage to the list. The lineup had not yet been defined when Knoblauch held his press session on Friday afternoon.
“We haven’t decided yet,” Knoblauch said. “I talked to him [heac coach David Quinn], obviously, and we’re still sitting on a couple of things. Everyone is healthy, but we still don’t want to commit to training. “
It’s unclear if the Rangers feel they might need some sort of additional response to training in case the Flyers completely ignore coach Alain Vigneault’s “whistle to whistle” mandate, as they did freely throughout the game. Thursday.
Sam Morin, who was apparently fined for pulling Brendan Lemieux’s hair during a fight the Flyer caused at 6:34 p.m. in the third period, tried to start a fight during almost every turn he was on the ice.
Of course, the Rangers’ best response to the nonsense is to score in the powerful game, which the Blueshirts did in each of their first three chances through the first 21:15 of the game, the last coming with Morin in the box a bit of nonsense that came after the whistle.
The lineup isn’t set, but it doesn’t sound like Vitali Kravtsov was called up from the taxi squad to make his NHL debut in that one.
“I’m not sure what the plan is for Kravvy when he comes [up]”I don’t think it will come right away,” Knoblauch said. “But things can change.”