Who is the Rangers’ Starting Goalie for the Qualifying Round?

The New York Rangers have an important decision to make about its starting goaltender for the Qualifying Round of the National Hockey League postseason. The teams can carry as many goalies as they would like to the hub cities, but only two can be on the bench when the games start. It is good to have some options in case one of the goaltenders gets hurt or starts to crack under the pressure. 

The competition should be good for the three goalies since it will get the competitive juices flowing. The three goaltenders battling it out are Alexandar Georgiev, Igor Shesterkin, and Henrik Lundqvist. Yes, two young kids and a wily vet. One would think that the veteran has the inside edge to getting the crease, but that isn’t necessarily true in this case. There are pros and cons of letting each goaltender get the starter’s net in Toronto against the Carolina Hurricanes in the Qualifying Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

The Arguments For and Against Alexandar Georgiev

The 24-year-old helped the Rangers to grab some wins early in the season when Lundqvist was struggling. He posted two shutouts in the regular season, and was 6-0-0 when allowing one or zero goals. It seemed as though the team scored some goals for him while he was in the starter’s crease. Georgiev surely helped the team to keep its head above water in the early months when they needed it.

The young goaltender doesn’t have much experience in the regular season, yet alone in postseason play. Georgiev allowed four or more goals in 10 games that he started in the regular season. If the Rangers have any chance of beating the Hurricanes in the Qualifying Round then the goals against needs to come down drastically. The youngster gives up too many rebound chances and goes into his butterfly too quick, which makes the 6’1” tender look even smaller in net. In the four games against the Hurricanes this season, Georgiev wasn’t the starting goaltender for any of them, while Lundqvist started three of the four games.

Henrik Lundqvist’s Case

The 38-year-old veteran goalie managed to play great in his three starts against the Hurricanes this season. In three games played, he was 3-0-0 with a .947 save percentage and 2.33 goals against average. Lundqvist only allowed seven goals against in those three games. The veteran has played in high stakes games and has plenty of postseason experience, which is something that the other two goalies lack. 

Lundqvist’s play was not great overall in the regular season. The goalie had some bad luck with pucks deflecting off his own players and into his net, but his play declined overall. When looking at some of the goals against in the regular season, I noticed that a lot were either glove side or five-hole. It just seemed like he didn’t have great rebound control this season, and teams were getting easy goals because of it. He’ll need to be sharper all around and use training camp as a restart to have any shot at even having a seat on the Rangers’ bench come playoff time.

The Reasons For and Against Igor Shesterkin

The 24-year-old goalie may have only 12 games of experience under his belt, but he was the Rangers’ most consistent goaltender on the season. Yes, 12 games is a small sample, but he only allowed four or more goals in one of those twelve games. Shesterkin also played well in his one start against the Hurricanes this season, only allowed two goals against. The young goalie has also gotten some goal support from the team in front of him.  

When moving or scrambling around, he didn’t seem to be able to recover in a timely manner, and looked like a fish out of water, at times. As with all young goalies, he has some things that he needs to work on including getting better on his glove side. The kid will allow some soft goals in games, but what goalie doesn’t allow that soft goal? He will also let in some low shots.

Shesterkin Starts Game 1 for Rangers

Yes, you read that right, I’m predicting that Shesterkin impresses enough in training camp 2.0 that he gets the call to be the starting goalie for Game 1 of the Qualifying Round. He has zero postseason experience and has only played 12 games in the NHL, but the kid was solid coming down the stretch. Shesterkin seemed to keep his cool while under pressure. He may have gotten the lighter load, but he still had to come in and make the saves to get the wins.