Igor Shesterkin's promising run of allowing just eight goals in his last five games vanished on Tuesday night, as the Rangers netminder made 21 saves and allowed six goals in an ugly 6-1 loss to the Hurricanes.
Shesterkin didn't get much help from his defense, but Rangers fans are used to seeing Shesterkin bail out his defense as one of the best goalies in the league, but this season, that hasn't been the case.
C-Mac sees that as a cause for concern.
"Quick has been a more consistent goalie for this team than Igor has," C-Mac said. "As much as he'll stand on his head some nights, when you get into a postseason series with this team, there's gonna be expectations like they haven't had in a long time…Igor is shaky, and he is scaring me. He is not the same goalie he was two years ago. He shows glimpses of that, but there are too many nights - he plays well for a stretch - and then he'll have a night like last night where he lets up six goals."
Many see the Rangers as the city's best chance at a championship in 2024, but C-Mac says, given the nature of playoff hockey, Shesterkin will have to look a lot better than he has this year to get the Blueshirts to the Cup. Right now, he would have big questions about how real the team's title chances are with this level of Shesterkin in net.
"There are just times he looks like he's not there, and this team can't have that," C-Mac said. "We know how it goes with the Rangers.
They're gonna be in a seven-game series, goals are gonna be hard to come by, Artemi Panarin is not gonna be the same player he was in the regular season, they're gonna be close, hard-fought games, and the Rangers are gonna need Igor Shesterkin to be their best player at times."
