The New York Rangers had high hopes of doing a real push for the Cup this year. But now, five games into the first-round series against the New Jersey Devils, they’re on the brink of elimination. The Rangers were up 2-0 after two games but have now lost three straight games, and Thursday’s game was a real beating, as the Rangers were blown out 4-0.
Star players like Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider now have two straight games with a goal. During Thursday’s showing, Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko looked like shadows of what they displayed early in the series. Goalie Igor Shesterkin had a busy night and finished the game with 36 saves.
During the game, to get something going for the Rangers, he even took the puck in front of his net and launched the puck down the ice for a shot on goal. With that, the goalie had the same amount of shots on goal as Patrick Kane, Chris Kreider, and Artemi Panarin.
Shesterkin almost seemed desperate to get his team going. With three minutes left of the second period, he pulled off an amazing save to deny the Devils a fourth goal. Immediately after the whistle blew, he skated off his goal to the Rangers bench and started screaming at his teammates.
According to amateur lipreaders on Twitter, Shesterkin screamed, ”Better f*cking do your jobs” to his teammates. It’s not often you see goalies react so much during games, and especially leaving their goals mid-game to get his teammates going.
But desperate times call for desperate measures. Unfortunately for Igor, the Rangers didn’t find a way back, and now, they need two wins to save the season.
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