“We play for the fans,” Shesterkin said. “I will keep trying.”
His efforts have already been phenomenal. Shesterkin has a 1.67 goals-against average and a .934 save percentage this season. He scored the goal last Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, which led to cheers for him to shoot the puck on Sunday against the Utah Mammoth. He did not get another goal in the game, but got the assists on an Eeli Tolvanen goal, which gave him a second straight game with a point.
If the netminder gets a point in his next game, he will tie the NHL record for consecutive games with a point by a goaltender, currently held by Henrik Lundqvist, Ed Belfour, and Tom Barrasso. While Shesterkin's job is to stop the puck, the cheers for him to attempt to score have brought the goaltender joy.
“It's pretty fun when I was hearing that,” Shesterkin said following practice Monday. “It's part of the game, part of the show. We spoke a little bit about it in the locker room and everyone was laughing as well.”
He is not the only one on the team enjoying the goalie's scoring ability.
“We made a joke after saying he's still in the race for league lead in points,” Rangers defenseman Sean Durzi said. “He's great.”
Shesterkin is one of the best puck-handling goalies in the league. That dates back to when he was first starting out in hockey and realized he was not meant to be a forward.
“I came to hockey at 6 years old and most of the guys were already skating pretty well so that's why I became a goalie, but I kept trying to play with a stick all the time,” Shesterkin said. “When coaches tried to show the next exercise for players, the next shooting drills, I always played with the puck, always tried to do something, always tried to shoot it in the net.”
Shesterkin has a chance to extend his point streak on Tuesday night, as the Rangers host the New York Islanders.
