Recently one of the standards-bearers in NHL goaltending, New York Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin has been uncharacteristically poor this season.
Shesterkin broke on to the scene in 2020 and began his career by posting save percentages of .932, .916, .935, and .916 again in his first four seasons.
The start to his career felt very much like a Favre-to-Rodgers level transition of franchise goaltenders after the Rangers saw longtime superstar Henrik Lundqvist retire.
There is still every reason to believe that Shesterkin is that level of franchise goalie, but his performance this season has put the Rangers in serious peril of not winning the division after a scorching hot start.
Igor Shesterkin's Nightmarish January in New York
Since the calendar flipped to 2024, it's no exaggeration to say that Shesterkin has been the worst starting goalie in the NHL.
His .863 save percentage in that time span is particularly abysmal, and according to Natural Stat Trick, he is last in the league with -9.83 goals saved above average during that time.
It's not something any team with playoff aspirations can withstand from their starting goalie, but the problem is exacerbated for the Rangers by the fact that the team is mostly built around Shesterkin's ability to put up elite numbers.
The Rangers have not been able to outscore these issues either. New York went to Ottawa and pounded the Senators on Saturday, but that only ran their January record up to 5-7-2.
The Rangers entered the year with the league's best record and a very healthy lead in the Metropolitan Division, but they are now eighth in the league in points and have seen the Carolina Hurricanes storm within two points, with a game in hand in the division.
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Can the Rangers find a fix?
As long as Shesterkin is struggling, the Rangers are going to need to find more juice offensively to get by.
That would mean more production from center Mika Zibanejad and winger Chris Kreider, who have struggled to carry the load offensively while Artemi Panarin is having arguably the best season of his career.
Zibanejad scored just one goal in all of January while Kreider largely struggled outside of big nights against bottom-feeding teams like Ottawa and Anaheim.
The team could also stand to tighten up defensively as well. It hasn't been a huge issue, as Natural Stat Trick has the Blueshirts in the middle of the pack in 5-on-5 expected goals against per 60 minutes, but a team with a number one like Adam Fox with Stanley Cup aspirations should be able to limit quality enough to crack the top 10.
Shesterkin will turn it around at some point, and fortunately for him and the club the stakes are not overly high at the moment.
The Rangers and Hurricanes are so far ahead of the rest of the Metropolitan, with the Devils, Islanders, Flyers, and Penguins mired in abject mediocrity, that a second-round showdown between New York and Carolina feels somewhat inevitable.
The stakes for now are ensuring the team doesn't fall beneath any of the other Metro rivals while attempting to maintain first in the division to get home ice for that potential matchup with the Hurricanes.
Still, letting this fester for too long could prove disastrous for morale even if the team doesn't fall below that second seed.
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