Player Discussion Igor Shesterkin

[SnowblindNYR]

It would be nice to get him a win Wednesday, and then just play well on the road Friday, doesn’t have to be a win.

The amount of odd man rushes tonight was comical, Pitt should have had like 8 goals after the 2nd.

"Get him a win". He's the Vezina winner this year. How about he gets his team a win or at least a chance.

 

[17futurecap]

"Get him a win". He's the Vezina winner this year. How about he gets his team a win or at least a chance.

I don’t think he was good in either game in Pitt, but the entire team was an embarrassment tonight, they had 1 high danger scoring chance tonight at five on five, put whatever all time goalie in net tonight and he would of had no shot.

 

[bbny]

Igor had a rough one in game 3. I felt there were a couple of goals there that shouldn't have gone in. Not tonight. Igor was far, far from the issue tonight. You know the issue? This:



Utter embarrassment.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Igor was not the issue tonight if you were watching the game. Most of the goals were deflections, one or two were slam dunks with no D coverage. It was f***ing embarrassing watching the Pens offense run around the offensive zone getting grade A scoring chances in that 2nd period. Out of the 7 i would call one he should have had, but by then the team in front of him had already clearly given up so I guess that takes a toll on you mentally.

Glad GG basically laughed at the reporter who asked if he was going back with Igor for game 5. "Of course he will be in net, he's the best goalie in the league and I have all the faith in him" As he should.

 

[LokiDog]

Lundqvist didn't have one high in that series, but his lows weren't as low as Shesterkin's. His play has been a disgrace, no two ways to put it. Either he's hurt and then shouldn't be playing, or he's a bum. You don't overcome mental weakness. I doubt he's someone you can win a cup with. Shutting out Winnipeg, he's your man however.

So, remember when Patrick Roy wasn’t hurt and gave up 9 goals that time? I guess that made him a mentally weak bum? Or since we know after the fact that he wasn’t, do we play revisionist history and alter your logic. History - the entirety of NHL history, in fact - shows without fail that every goalie, no matter how elite will have atrocious games and chunks of games. Every one. The mental juggernauts and clutch playoff legends included.

I’m sorry brother, I really am, but you’re onslaught of toxic, putridly bad hot takes when it comes to goaltending and everything being black and white - you’re either a god or a bum - only points to one person being mentally weak, and it’s the one who can’t control their outbursts or take a measured approach to discussing the team/players. Life is nuanced. So is the game of hockey. Only a fool actively tries to ignore those nuances in favor of categorizing everything they see as one black and white extreme or the other.

 

[leetch99]

Soft team....not Igor's fault....out coached. He must be hurt . Pick your poison .

 

[SnowblindNYR]

So, remember when Patrick Roy wasn’t hurt and gave up 9 goals that time? I guess that made him a mentally weak bum? Or since we know after the fact that he wasn’t, do we play revisionist history and alter your logic. History - the entirety of NHL history, in fact - shows without fail that every goalie, no matter how elite will have atrocious games and chunks of games. Every one. The mental juggernauts and clutch playoff legends included.

I’m sorry brother, I really am, but you’re onslaught of toxic, putridly bad hot takes when it comes to goaltending and everything being black and white - you’re either a god or a bum - only points to one person being mentally weak, and it’s the one who can’t control their outbursts or take a measured approach to discussing the team/players. Life is nuanced. So is the game of hockey. Only a fool actively tries to ignore those nuances in favor of categorizing everything they see as one black and white extreme or the other.

Patrick Roy actually had a track record.

 

[Dr. Ogrodnick]

You guys are a joke. His first ever playoff game is a triple OT 80 save performance, 3 days later he’s “just not a playoff performer”.

I know we all thought it was nothing and he was acting, but I think it’s certainly MORE LIKELY that Igor tweaked something or is masking a head injury after the Carter collision than it is that he’s this weak mentally after all we’ve seen from him so far. Far more likely. Players have been more injured from hits that looked like less. Yes, to me it looked like a flop and embellishment at the time as well, but it certainly lines up coincidentally with him being off ever since.

The team in front hasn’t given him ANY help but he still stops half of these normally. Something is off, and I’m more inclined to believe he tweaked something but didn’t want to get pulled from the lineup than I am to believe that opposing chants shattered his confidence.

Playoffs are a long grind. I expect my probable vezina winning goaltended to have the stamina to last more than 2 games, even if 1 goes into triple OT. Next postseason is going to be huge for Igor. This happens again and it will be his reputation.

 

[Brief Candle]

Soft team....not Igor's fault....out coached. He must be hurt . Pick your poison .

Soft team, yes. Out coached? I dunno. During some of the darker points in the season, you could really see that Turk was trying to get things to work with what he had. When you've got soft players who refuse to buy in to the style of play that actually wins cups, there's not much to be done.

As for Igor, with the exception of a goal or two, almost everything has been a tap in or a lucky bounce. He's only let in a few stinkers. SO much of what we're seeing is a result of the team being literally awful in front of him. Imagine if he was starting for a team like Calgary or the Avs. They'd be almost unbeatable.

 

[Dr. Ogrodnick]

Igor was not the issue tonight if you were watching the game. Most of the goals were deflections, one or two were slam dunks with no D coverage. It was f***ing embarrassing watching the Pens offense run around the offensive zone getting grade A scoring chances in that 2nd period. Out of the 7 i would call one he should have had, but by then the team in front of him had already clearly given up so I guess that takes a toll on you mentally.

Glad GG basically laughed at the reporter who asked if he was going back with Igor for game 5. "Of course he will be in net, he's the best goalie in the league and I have all the faith in him" As he should.

Did Igor give up a bad goal last night? Maybe 1. Do I expect the generously compensated probable Vezina winner to make a big save or two when the team needs it? Absolutely. I'm willing to write off this playoffs somewhat. But shesty is going to need to show that he can be a consistent big game goaltender next playoffs, or the Rangers hsve a problem.

 

[GlasgowNewYorkRanger]

The Igor chat has seriously boggled my mind in this series. Guy runs in a record setting performance in Game 1 (second league wide all-time) and then proceeds to take flak for not winning a game we were shafted in.

Fast forward to Game 3 & 4, the worst goal we actually gave up was Georgiev's in Game 3.

In Game 4, I have rarely seen a more embarrassing effort from a Ranger team in the Playoffs. We could have had prime Hank, Hasek and Roy each take a period and the score wouldn't have been much different. What is the guy supposed to do when cross crease passes find a player wide open, or pucks are tipped in from right in front?

This narrative is growing legs and it is nonsense. If Igor doesn't play like prime Dominic Hasek then he is a bad goaltender? No! He is an excellent goaltender who just happens to maybe not be playing like the best goaltender of all time - who even himself couldn't always play to that standard every single game - whilst backing up a couple of defensive efforts (particularly last night) that would have seen us have our asses handed to us by Montreal, Ottawa, or probably quite a few AHL teams instead of those weasels.

I mean, people have watched the Rangers for years, no? Some cases decades? Can we not spot the worryingly familiar pattern of blame and complete reliance on a HoF goalie to bail us out when we decide / are seemingly incapable of putting forth any kind of 60 minute effort.

Yes, the offense is better (for the most part) than when Hank was here, however, if we are going to play D like these last two games then we are going to have to score 7 if you score 6 and become hockeys version of the Busby Babes.

 

[romba]

He hasn’t been the same since he hit that cold patch a couple of months back. When the team plays grade A D sure he still looks good, so does Geo for the most part, but that peak Igor Toronto game from earlier in the year when we were defensive sieves and it didn’t phase him sure seems like a loooong way off rn. Gallant resting him a ton the end of the season made no difference it seems. Will it be a 50/50 split next year to try to ‘conserve’ Igor?

 

[LokiDog]

Playoffs are a long grind. I expect my probable vezina winning goaltended to have the stamina to last more than 2 games, even if 1 goes into triple OT. Next postseason is going to be huge for Igor. This happens again and it will be his reputation.

I don’t think stamina is the issue? I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I personally believe he’s banged up because there is a clear pre-Carter hit and post-Carter hit difference in performance. But the Rangers also just laid the collective two worst games in front of any goalie I’ve seen in years. Combine the two and somehow I don’t think it’s a lack of stamina.

 

[LokiDog]

Patrick Roy actually had a track record.

So if you don’t have a track record, we should quit on you? How would you ever get one? It doesn’t matter how elite the goalie is. Or the player. Ovie looked toasted 10 years ago and returned to a consistent 50 goal scorer. No one is immune. The team in front of Shesterkin is playing SHAMEFUL hockey aside from game 3 second period AND there is no reason to look at the Carter collision and actively CHOOSE to say I’d rather believe Shesterkin is a mentally weak bum than to say it looks like he probably tweaked something and his game has been off since. Why don’t we wait and see?

 

[bleedblue94]

It isn't about shot totals against, it is about the game. EVERY shot from the pens has traffic, screens, deflections, or is in some manner a prime shot AND the pens are constantly crashing the net for rebounds. The pens aren't lobbing soft shots at him so they can get faceoffs and then try to run the same faceoff play every time. Basically the pens are playing completely different from the rangers and it is pretty obvious which way works. This constant E W shit isn't effective in the playoffs if you are unwilling to mix in the N S meat and potatoes hockey.

 

[FultonReed]

officially nominated for the Vezina.



and he's gonna win it, too

 

[CTRanger]

Igor hasn’t been great. But the team has been atrocious. Completely uncompetitive at 5v5. Unable to contain anyone in the D zone and completely unable to make 2 consecutive passes to exit the D zone. Unwilling to shoot, too much fancy regular season crap, unwilling to go hard to the net, unwilling to regularly finish checks all over the ice. It’s the f***ing playoffs, you have to finish every check and you have to get pucks to the net with traffic!

And our special teams have totally shit the bed.

Team has looked like they have no idea how to compete in the playoffs

Green

 

[Oscar Lindberg]

It’s a shame Igor is going to win the Vezina with a historically great season and all people will focus on is a string of bad games where his team is broken and young

 

[TominNC]

For what it's worth Hank's first playoff series looked like this - 0-3 4.40 GAA, .835 Sv%

He recovered.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

So if you don’t have a track record, we should quit on you? How would you ever get one? It doesn’t matter how elite the goalie is. Or the player. Ovie looked toasted 10 years ago and returned to a consistent 50 goal scorer. No one is immune. The team in front of Shesterkin is playing SHAMEFUL hockey aside from game 3 second period AND there is no reason to look at the Carter collision and actively CHOOSE to say I’d rather believe Shesterkin is a mentally weak bum than to say it looks like he probably tweaked something and his game has been off since. Why don’t we wait and see?

We could wait and see but Shesterkin towards the end of the season was getting some disastrous starts like St. Louis and NJD.

 

[Fitzy]

It’s a shame Igor is going to win the Vezina with a historically great season and all people will focus on is a string of bad games where his team is broken and young

In 15 years it'll be the Vezina that's remembered.

 

[Irishguy42]

Igor hasn't been up to his usual standards. But it's a 4 game sample size and he's had...uh...how to put this....incredibly odorous defense in front of him in those games.

He'll be fine.

 

[LokiDog]

Igor hasn't been up to his usual standards. But it's a 4 game sample size and he's had...uh...how to put this....incredibly odorous defense in front of him in those games.

He'll be fine.

It’s a 2 game sample size. He had 118 saves and a .952 sv% after two games. Why is a 2 game sample of games 1/2 irrelevant and a 2 game sample of games 3/4 now the defining metric of Shesterkin being a bum?

 

[LokiDog]

We could wait and see but Shesterkin towards the end of the season was getting some disastrous starts like St. Louis and NJD.

Shesterkin had a couple of starts that weren’t up to his standard but nothing even in the vicinity of what has happened the past two games. He has never, ever looked like he has looked in these past two games. Forgetting that he has been left out to dry in ways that even Hasek would be getting lit up on, I still don’t believe he’s been at 100% since the Carter collision. We’re so used to players selling things for a call that we always assume it’s embellishment but given the stark contrast in play before the hit and play after the hit, I’m going to take Shesterkin’s reaction to the hit at face value and say that he was in discomfort and has been off since.

 

[Irishguy42]

It’s a 2 game sample size. He had 118 saves and a .952 sv% after two games. Why is a 2 game sample of games 1/2 irrelevant and a 2 game sample of games 3/4 now the defining metric of Shesterkin being a bum?

Even more of a reason to not look too deeply into his performance.

It's the play in front of him that should be the focus.