Igor Shesterkin laments Rangers’ inability to bounce back

At the MSG Training Center on Monday, the Rangers reflected on the past two seasons and tried to make sense of what led to the dismissal of their head coach and associate coach.

They discussed what went wrong before heading into a playoff-less summer.

“In my mind, something broke during the season and went the other way,” Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin said. “We couldn’t handle it. It was our job to try to find a way to get back.”

Shesterkin, the star Russian netminder, admitted that he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what went wrong. Perhaps they lost some luck or weren’t playing with the same confidence as the previous season.

He highlighted how last season, even when they fell behind by three goals, they always believed they could come back. This season, that belief seemed to be missing.

Finishing the season with his sixth shutout in a 4-0 win over the Lightning, Shesterkin now has 21 shutouts in his career and is tied for eighth place on the franchise’s all-time list with Lorne Chabot.

The 29-year-old ended the season with a 27-29-5 record, a career-high goals-against average of 2.89, and a career-low save percentage of .905.

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