Igor Shesterkin battling through worst stretch of his career

Igor Shesterkin has never quite encountered a stretch like this in his NHL career.

He has allowed three or more goals in the last six games. The last three starts, including Monday night’s loss to the Jets, have featured four goals sneaking past the Rangers’ 27-year-old goalie. His save percentage has dipped to .912, which would mark the lowest of his career if it holds when the season ends. He led the league in goals saved above expected (34.1) last season, according to MoneyPuck.com, and this season, Shesterkin sits in seventh at 14.0.

Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant insisted he thought Shesterkin “was fine” in their latest loss. He reiterated that those games with such a large shot discrepancy — the Blueshirts tallying 51 compared to Winnipeg’s 21 — are difficult for a goalie to navigate.

“I mean, seriously, the goals that he let in, I don’t see many issues with them,” Gallant said Monday night.

But troubling signs have emerged — and kept emerging — for the 2021-22 Vezina Trophy winner, who declined to speak with reporters following the Rangers’ latest loss.

The trend dates to Jan. 25, a few days before the Blueshirts’ All-Star break began, when Shesterkin allowed three goals in an overtime loss to the Maple Leafs. Just 19 seconds into the extra frame, Toronto star Mitch Marner tore toward the net from the left side, deked around Shesterkin as the goalie fell to the ice, and flipped the puck around him.

Shesterkin’s struggles continued after the All-Star break, culminating Friday against the Oilers when he allowed four goals in the first period. Gallant chose to keep Shesterkin in, though, and it paid off when he anchored the Rangers’ comeback victory. But according to Sportsnet Stats, it was the first time Shesterkin had allowed four first-period goals in his NHL career.

His performance against the Jets was troubling, too, because Shesterkin entered with a .983 career save percentage against Winnipeg, which was the best against any opponent among active goalies with a minimum of three games played against that team, per OptaSTATS.

These are issues that Shesterkin — in his fourth year with the Rangers after he signed his entry-level contract in 2019 — never quite dealt with prior to reaching the NHL, when he was a budding star in the KHL or a brief member of AHL Hartford. In the 2019-20 AHL season, he allowed three or more goals in three consecutive games once. That was it, with the five other instances never stringing together.

This season, though, he had a stretch of five consecutive games — from Nov. 22 through Dec. 5 — when he allowed three-plus goals. That run tied with last year’s postseason for the longest span in his career, as in the Rangers’ seven-game series against the Penguins, Shesterkin allowed three or more goals in the final five.

He only allowed three goals just three additional times over the rest of the postseason, and he prevented a streak like that again until mid-November.

“The goalie played a s–t game again,” Shesterkin said following a loss to the Devils during that earlier slump this season. “I’m ashamed.”

Then, everything appeared to return to normal. He only allowed one goal over four of his next five starts following that stretch, and that coincided with a strong run of wins from the Rangers, too. But the goals started trickling into the net again, with Monday night the latest concerning example.

On one goal, Shesterkin was screened. On another, a rebound dribbled away from his left pad and was deposited into the net. He misplayed a wrist shot and then he was beaten by a lengthy backhand attempt to seal the game late in the third period.

Still, Gallant didn’t appear to be worried about Shesterkin’s performance, or at least he didn’t admit any concern Monday night. But the end of the streak will prevent any hesitation from brewing further.

“Their guy [Connor Hellebuyck] had a lot of puck luck,” Gallant said. “Our guy didn’t tonight.”