{"id":255123,"date":"2025-10-27T19:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T19:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/255123\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T19:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T19:27:10","slug":"igor-shesterkin-takes-the-blames-for-rangers-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/255123\/","title":{"rendered":"Igor Shesterkin takes the blames for Rangers’ woes"},"content":{"rendered":"

CALGARY \u2013 After allowing a total of 11 goals in consecutive games against the two worst teams in the league, Igor Shesterkin wanted to talk. The Rangers’ goaltender lingered in the locker room following a 5-1 loss Sunday to the Flames<\/a>, while grim-faced teammates gathered their things and left.<\/p>\n

But Shesterkin, put in difficult situations on many of those goals, wasn\u2019t looking to blame anyone but himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to do my job,\u2019\u2019 Shesterkin told Newsday. \u201cI need to give my team chance to win, so I need to make a stronger start, probably. We did a lot of good things for the game, but sometimes puck luck \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s not going our way right now. But all we need is just work hard. Think about next game, and [eventually the result]\u00a0will flip around.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Shesterkin\u2019s goals-against average<\/a> has jumped to 2.25, and his save percentage is down to .916 after the last two games. Before Thursday\u2019s 6-5 overtime loss to San Jose, his goals-against had been 1.17, and his save percentage .957.<\/p>\n

But he wouldn\u2019t blame a suddenly poor defense for his troubles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot say that,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cI think we still play pretty good defensively, but like I said, it’s puck luck, where you cannot score sometimes. You hit the post, skates, the goalie\u2019s stick and all that. And you lose some confidence, and you try to overplay sometimes \u2014 you try to do something more than you usually do, to try to get yourself some confidence again. But sometimes it works, sometimes not. But I think, still, we play pretty good defensively.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

His captain, J.T. Miller, didn\u2019t agree.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we have to strap our heads on a little, on defense,\u2019\u2019 Miller said Sunday night. \u201cWe protect the middle of the ice pretty well so far this season . . . We gave them the guts of the ice a couple times today. We\u2019ve just got to be more physical in our own end . . . We’ve been doing a good job of protecting the middle. [On a]\u00a0couple goals today, obviously, we didn’t.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Shesterkin was asked directly if there were any of the five goals he allowed Sunday that he blamed himself for. He said he didn\u2019t like the first goal by the Flames’ Nazem Kadri.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I have to stop that shot and [the] third one [by Yegor Sharangovich],\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

Sharangovich\u2019s goal, which made it 3-1, came on a 2-on-2 break, where Connor Zary flew up the right wing, got behind defenseman Braden Schneider, and dropped a pass to a wide-open Sharangovich in the low slot. Shesterkin got a glove on the 17-foot shot, but the puck trickled in.<\/p>\n

Kadri had a clean shot from the upper part of the right circle, and Morgan Frost was screening Shesterkin before moving out of the way at the last second. The puck beat Shesterkin over the glove. On the second goal by Kevin Bahl, Shesterkin was screened by teammate Alexis Lafreniere and never appeared to see the shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, but still, if it’s a screen, I have to try to find the puck. It’s my job,” Shesterkin said. \u201cThe fellas try to do their jobs, they try to block shots . . . They do a lot of good things. But I need to track the puck better.”<\/p>\n

\"Colin<\/p>\n

\n\tColin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALGARY \u2013 After allowing a total of 11 goals in consecutive games against the two worst teams in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4823,385,138361,99],"class_list":["post-255123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-oin","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}