The thing about all goalie goals is that they’re great. There are approximately 175 feet and six proud skaters between the promised land and any goalkeeper bold enough to attempt to reach it. There have only been 21 goals scored by 18 different goalies in the entire history of the NHL. The problem with Thursday night’s goalie goal, in particular, is that no goalie since Ron Hextall has clearly wanted to score it more than Igor Shesterkin.
He is also extremely deserving. He finds himself in the classic New York Rangers situation of being one of the league’s elite guards, stuck on a team that doesn’t seem capable of building a roster commensurate with him. He’s probably thinking about how Henrik Lundqvist retired without a Cup. He should probably get a little treat every now and then, something just for Igor. Often, and especially often, this search for treats feels like throwing a puck across the ice toward an empty net.
He does it so often that the home crowd begins to anticipate the attempt as soon as the opposing goalkeeper moves towards the bench. He does it so often that Kenny Albert predicted it 10 minutes before it happened last night. And he came so close. “I feel like I’ve probably been on the bench a dozen times thinking, ‘OK, this one goes in,’ and he barely misses,” Mika Zibanejad said. Shesterkin said he scored one in junior and has been chasing that high ever since. But he never found land to pay for until last night.
Macklin Celebrini has no goals this year. Tage Thompson? No goal in sight. Jason Robertson? He didn’t even play a match, the lazy guy, and therefore zero goals. But do you know who has a goal? Igor Shesterkin scored a goal, after scoring to score in the Rangers’ 5-1 win over Tampa. Tied for 15th in the league in goals! Very good! Oh, and he saved 24 of 25 shots that night.
Shesterkin couldn’t see his goal; he was obscured by the skaters, he said, but he heard the crowd roar and “then everyone started jumping on me.” He made sure after the game to poke fun at his close friend, Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin, who was credited with a goalie goal a few years ago that was more of an own goal variety. “This one counts,” Shesterkin insisted. It was the first goal by a goalie in Rangers franchise history, and as a fan who once left a Rangers victory feeling disappointed because Igor missed a shot attempt by just a few yards, I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. Not so much that the guy still dwells on the moment Eddie Giacomin hit a post, but still long enough.
It was a source of inspiration for the masked fraternity. In Nashville, a referee went to Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt to ask him if he knew about Shesterkin’s goal. “No, I had no idea. Obviously I was playing the game,” Wallstedt told him. And then he took his own shot.
Anyway, go read this link. This is a brief but informative history of goaltending in the NHL, and it is only two years out of date. I worked really hard on it so I wouldn’t have to retype it all when I needed to provide historical context. It’s more interesting than this blog.
Shesterkin’s goal capped a night of unexpectedly good vibes in New York’s home opener. They’ve been pretty putrid at home lately, and on the road as well, but it was nice for a day, in the first major event in this building since OG Anunoby was denounced, and with Mike Brown in attendance, for the Rangers to hear cheers instead of boos. “They deserve better,” captain JT Miller said of the fans, and whether or not the Rangers are able to provide that for them this year – probably not – they got to see some magic.
But that’s not enough for Shesterkin. “I will continue to try to score,” he promised.
Gn sports
