Shesty’s back

After a strong start to the season for Igor Shesterkin in the New York Rangers’ net, things fell apart for him partway through the year.

Through the months of December and January, he appeared in 19 games, posting a 10-8-1 record and a measly.887 save percentage, nowhere near the numbers fans are used to seeing from the Russian.

But February has been different for Shesterkin, looking more than refreshed since the All-Star break. He’s posted a 4-0 record this month with a .937 save percentage, including a shutout of the Calgary Flames.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli talked about Shesterkin’s play:

Tyler Yaremchuk: Out in the Eastern Conference, once team that’s been winning a lot is the Rangers. Eight wins in a row, the epic comeback victory in the Stadium Series, and of those eight, four of them have come with Igor Shesterkin in the crease. When you look at the game logs, you see a handful of starts with .900 or better save percentages. On Tuesday, he stopped 41 of 42 shots against the Dallas Stars. It feels like Shesterkin is back for the Rangers.

Frank Seravalli: He is back. In what’s been a weird season for him, you look at his numbers and when he has a .900 SV% or better, the Rangers haven’t lost. But he’s had a number of games where he’s been under .800. A couple weeks ago, we talked about a “goalie controversy” in New York, saying that this is how Peter Laviolette handles his goalies.

But no: Shesterkin was always going to be the guy, and the extra time he’s spent with Rangers’ goaltending coach Benoit Allaire has paid dividends. He’s not the first goalie to take some time away to prepare and take a reset. The numbers speak for themselves: he’s 4-0-0 with a .937 SV%, it appears that he’s back at that level that he was at previously.