Igor Shesterkin Day-to-Day With Mild Groin Strain
Igor Shesterkin left Thursday’s victory with minutes remaining in the third period of an eventual 6-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils, and the Rangers’ starting netminder was visibly in significant pain as he was helped off the ice. There was considerable angst from the fanbase as they awaited a diagnosis, but it appears that things will be OK.
UPDATE: G Igor Shesterkin is day-to-day with a mild groin strain.
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) March 5, 2021
Shesterkin is day-to-day with a mild groin strain, and it should only be a matter of time until Keith Kinkaid is moved from taxi squad to serve as Alexandar Georgiev’s backup on Saturday vs. the Devils, and until Shesterkin is better.
The Wolf Pack are scheduled to take on the Bridgeport Sound Tigers at 1:00 p.m., the same time the Rangers will faceoff vs. the Devils in Newark.
Kinkaid has gone 2-0-0 with the Pack thus far, posting a GAA of 1.00, and a SV% of .962. Adam Huska, Dylan Garand, Tyler Wall each have also seen some action, with Garand and Wall posting a GAA of 3.68 and 4.49 respectively. Huska has appeared in one game thus far, allowing three goals on 31 shots.
Garand is headed back to Kamloops for the start of the WHL season, and the Wolf Pack recently added Francois Brassard back after he was previously on loan to the Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL. That would leave a trio of Huska, Wall, and Brassard in Hartford with the option of adding someone to the taxi squad in the event Shesterkin’s situation worsens.
Kinkaid has 157 games of NHL experience with a career line of 65-56-20 with a 2.95 GAA and a .905 SV%, and spent the majority of his time with the Devils. It isn’t official that he will be the guy to backup Georgiev, but it would make the most sense.
The upcoming stretch of games for the Rangers is pretty taxing, and they will need someone on the team who can step in for a game or two when needed.
Not that there's ever a good time to lose your 1A goalie to injury... but #NYR's schedule is pretty damn brutal the rest of the way. 8 games in the next 14 days alone.
— HockeyStatMiner (@HockeyStatMiner) March 5, 2021
There's only 3 times the Rangers have b2b offdays over the remaining 9 weeks.
