Igor Shesterkin Already Has More Goals This Year Than Sidney Crosby, Auston Matthews, And Macklin Celebrini Combined
Bruce Bennett. Getty Images.The New York Rangers are an Original 6 franchise. They have been around for 100 years at this point. It's definitely not like Montreal where it's been a factory for producing some of the best goaltenders of all time. But the Rangers have had their fair share of greatness between the pipes over the last 30-40 years. Mike Richter led them to glory between the pipes by winning the 1994 Stanley Cup. Henrik Lundqvist is widely considered the best goalie to never win a Cup.
But over the course of the 100 years the Rangers have existed, not one goaltender has ever managed to put the puck in the back of the opposing net. Until last night.
What a shot. There was never a doubt about that one. It was good the moment that it left his stick.
Since coming into the league, Auston Matthews has been the best goal scorer in hockey. He's won the Rocket Richard 3x, finished 3rd place in his rookie season, and finished 2nd another time. So far this season he has 0 goals scored.
Sidney Crosby is one of the greatest hockey players to ever live. He's won multiple Stanley Cups, multiple Hart Trophies, multiple Rocket Richard trophies. So far this season he has 0 goals scored.
Macklin Celebrini is next up on the list of greats. This is a kid who just signed a 5-year, $94M contract extension. What does $94 million get you in today's NHL? Fewer goals than a goalie, because so far this season he has 0 goals scored.
Take all of those guys combined. You have one of the biggest legends of the game, you have the best current goal scorer in hockey, and the next great one. You still won't find their names anywhere near Igor Shesterkin when you're looking at the stats page on NHL.com when it's filtered by goals. (Technically you won't see Shesterkin's name anyway since they don't put goalies and skaters on the same list, but whatever).
Pretty decent run for Shesterkin lately. He got into his first career fight late in the season last year against Markstrom. Now he has his first career goal in game 2 of this season. Gloves off for the fight? Check. Arms up in the air for the goal? Check. I supposed the only thing left to do for him is both at the same time after winning a Cup. Here's to hoping it never happens for him while he's still wearing a Rangers sweater.
Sidenote: The list of goalies who have scored a goal AND gotten into a fight is pretty crazy. I guess you have to be a little crazy to do both. Patrick Roy, Chris Osgood, Ron Hextall, Mike Smith. Alex Nedeljkovic joined the list last season, and now you can add Igor in there as well.