Alberts Smits, the 18-year-old from Latvia, has told the New York Rangers that injuries are part of sport and that the club has to keep going after franchise goaltender Igor Shesterkin was lost for the season.
Smits, selected fifth in the draft, made the team out of camp. He said he wished Shesterkin the best and a recovery as fast as possible, but added that the Rangers cannot stop when something like that happens.
The Rangers’ first week-plus after an opening-night blip had felt like a party at Madison Square Garden and beyond. Home problems from a year ago seemed distant, Shesterkin scored into an empty net, and the start looked like a dream. It turned last Friday in Washington, when Shesterkin went down with a season-ending injury.
New York then lost that game and was beaten 7-1 on the road by New Jersey on Thursday night in Newark. Those results are speed bumps for a team that has won six of its first nine games. Coach Mike Sullivan, captain J.T. Miller and the Rangers say they still have a way to succeed after losing their most important player at hockey’s most important position.
Sullivan said the club is trying to build an identity and a style of play in which every player has a role. He called the Devils game a failure of that standard. Miller was strong for the first 19 minutes of the first period, but a turnover just before intermission started a collapse. Dylan Garand, Shesterkin’s unlikely successor, was pulled after allowing four goals on 13 shots.
Garand, 24, finished training camp third on the organizational depth chart and remained with the Rangers because none of the NHL’s other 31 teams claimed him off waivers before opening night. In his first three appearances before New Jersey he had a league-best 1.15 goals-against average and a .951 save percentage. He is expected to stay the choice in net until he shows he cannot handle it.
No. 1 defenseman Adam Fox said Garand knows the team will need him often, called him mentally tough, and said he can bounce back. The aim is a return to the playoffs after missing the past two years, following a trip to the 2024 Eastern Conference final. Sullivan called Shesterkin’s absence a tough blow that makes the climb steeper, while saying the daily goal has not changed and that the leadership group kept the morale dip from lasting.
Alexis Lafrenière has seven goals, Fox nine assists and Mika Zibanejad eight points. Miller said the larger reason players believe the run can continue is defending and keeping the puck out of their own net, with a commitment over the full length of the rink.