SUNRISE, Fla. — No player who has donned a Blueshirt jersey was more deserving of a Game 7 at the Garden than Igor Shesterkin.
No one deserves another chance to reach the Stanley Cup Final more than the Rangers goaltender, who had a great game in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Panthers but didn’t translate into wins.
But after falling to the Panthers, 2-1, in Game 6 at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday night and coming within two wins of reaching the Stanley Cup Final, Shesterkin and the Rangers are no longer up for grabs.
There will be no Game 7 at the Garden, which means no justice will be served to Shesterkin, who deserved better.
“He’s been our best player since he’s put on a Rangers uniform,” Chris Kreider said. “Without him, we wouldn’t be here.”
The 28-year-old Russian may not show much of his personality in public, he doesn’t say much, but strip away the uniform and pads and you’ll undoubtedly find the scars on Shesterkin’s back from the saddle he used to carry teammates through 16 postseason games this season.
Without Shesterkin, the Rangers would be playing golf on Saturday instead of Game 6 against the Panthers, who are two wins away from the Cup final.
Shesterkin was the Rangers’ best player of the postseason… and a distant second in that race.
“I thought Igor Shesterkin was just fantastic,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “He’s been outstanding this series.”
“He gives us a chance to win every game, and that was evident in this series, how close it was,” Mika Zibanejed said.
“We wouldn’t be in this position without him, and I think everybody in this room agrees,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said. “He’s been the best player on our team this whole series and all year.”
Shesterkin stopped 32 of 34 shots for the Panthers on Saturday night, but in the end none of those saves mattered as it wasn’t enough to save the Rangers’ season.
Late in the second period, Matthew Tkachuk got behind the Rangers defense and attempted to launch a backhanded shot over his left pad, but his foot stopped it in what turned out to be his best save of the night, making the score 1-0 for the Panthers with 4:30 left in the second period.
Then two minutes into the third period, Shesterkin made another save that was even better than Tkachuk’s breakaway save, acrobatic stop on a rebound from Vladimir Tarasenko, who was sprawled on the ice.
In the end, it didn’t matter, as Tarasenko scored on a centering pass from Anton Lundell to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead with 10:52 to go.
“We were up 1-0 and he had to make a couple of really big saves to keep it at one and keep us going,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “Igor was great. He’s played great all series.”
The difference Shesterkin made was especially evident in the series, where he faced 200 shots over six games (an average of 33.3 per game) and made 187 saves.
The Panthers had too many players behind Rangers defenders, leaving Shesterkin to clean up the mess on his own. In the end, there was just too much mess for him to handle.
During the third period of the Rangers’ season-ending loss. Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post
And now, that special season of hope is over and the Presidents Trophy is gone.
To be clear, the Rangers’ offense has also played a big part in letting their goalie down, allowing just 12 goals in the six-game series.
The three one-point games the Rangers lost in this series would have looked even worse in the box score if Shesterkin hadn’t been outstanding when it was needed most.
“Igor was unbelievable,” Barclay Goodrow said. “He got stop after stop. It’s unbelievable what he’s done for our team.”
Looking at it from a broader perspective, the Rangers players around Shesterkin have played in a strikingly similar pattern to the players who played in front of him 15 seasons ago, when Henrik Lundqvist was a great Blueshirt goaltender.
Lundqvist’s No. 35 jersey hangs from the beams at the Garden as a testament to his illustrious career, but one thing he never got to do was swig a Stanley Cup trophy as a champion.
While Shesterkin still has many years left in his playing career if he stays healthy, it would be just as disappointing if his career ended without winning a Stanley Cup, just like Lundqvist’s.
As the arena clock ticked down the final seconds, the home crowd erupted in jubilation, chanting “Igor, Igor, Igor!”
But I can’t help but think that Shesterkin’s play in this series drew a certain amount of praise from opposing fans.
He was that good.
