Tim Benz: The Penguins have suddenly reduced Igor Shesterkin from bold to broken

OK. Now, this is what it looks like to break a goalie.

Penguins fans should know. They’ve seen it before.

Penguins vs. that-season Vezina winners in playoffs, past 40 yrs-

'96Rd1 WSH Jim Carey*✅
'00Rd1 WSH Olaf Kolzig✅
'01Rd2 BUF Dominik Hasek✅
'16Rd2 WSH Braden Holtby✅
'17Rd1 CBJ Segei Bobrovsky✅
'22**Rd1 NYR Igor Shesterkin❓

(*-lost job; **-presumed)https://t.co/SOmq5f3uZD

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) May 8, 2022

That’s why I chuckled when I saw Penguins fans suggesting that their team had somehow gotten in the head of Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin after Game 2 of their Eastern Conference playoff series. A game he won 5-2. A game in which he dazzled, stopping 39 of 41 shots. Going back to the triple-overtime marathon of Game 1, Shesterkin kept the puck out of his net on 118 of 124 shots, a .952 save percentage.

After those two performances, and what Shesterkin did to the Penguins in the regular season (allowing just four total goals over four games), I found myself being stunned anytime he let a puck get beyond him.

After the last two games, now I’m stunned any time he stops one.

Especially from Jake Guentzel. His fifth goal of the series was the third of the night for the Penguins en route to a 7-2 throttling of the Rangers on Monday night at PPG Paints Arena to give the Penguins a 3-1 series lead in the best-of-seven.

Since making his NHL playoff debut in 2017, Guentzel’s 31 playoff goals are tied for third in the league with Alex Ovechkin. pic.twitter.com/KFxVhvU26O

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 10, 2022

Take a look at those numbers again from the two games at Madison Square Garden. Now compare them to the 10 goals Shesterkin allowed on 45 shots in 60 total minutes of play over two games.

The “Igor, Igor, Igor” chants were so deafening from Penguins fans, even former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Johnny Cueto would’ve thought the crowd was being tough on the guy. Shesterkin never exactly dropped a puck into his own net. But if Russell Martin had been on the Penguins’ fourth line, I guarantee you he would’ve scored a goal against him, too.

“We are competing hard at the net front,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said after the win. “We are going to the front of the net. Some great tips. Sometimes they don’t always go in. Fortunately for us, they did tonight. … It’s just guys getting pucks through and guys getting to the front of the net.”

The Penguins’ sixth goal of the game was one of those redirections Crosby mentioned. It came from Jeff Carter in the final seconds of the second period. As soon as the goal horn sounded, Shesterkin’s body language illustrated how truly defeated he was.

Goals on goals on goals.

Two goals for Big Jeff Carter in Game 3 and a goal in Game 4.

BJC is coming up HUGE in Round 1. pic.twitter.com/t3Ntj44FDC

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 10, 2022

“We’re trying to make it hard on him,” Carter said. “If he can see the puck, he is probably going to save it. I think our defensemen are doing a great job of getting pucks from up top. Our forwards are battling for ice. And we got a few lucky ones.”

Shesterkin was flailing. Swimming. Fishing. Hunting for the puck. Despite the five-goal onslaught in the second, Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant left Shesterkin on the ice to take the beating until benching him after the intermission.

After pulling Shesterkin from the contest following 20 minutes in Game 3, you could tell Gallant didn’t want to do so again in Game 4 for fear of ruining his star netminder for the rest of the series.

So Gallant left him in … and may have ruined him for the rest of the series.

Yet the coach says he’s sticking by the presumptive Vezina Trophy winner for Game 5.

“He’ll be back in there and be ready to win the next game on Wednesday night. I‘ve got all the confidence in the world in him,” Gallant said. “He is the best goalie in the league, so I’m going to go with him.”

Gallant preferred to shift his anger towards the rest of the team. The Rangers coach channeled his inner Michel Therrien and called his team “soft” on numerous occasions, referred to their effort as “a total team disappointment” and scolded the squad for not being “committed to playing the right way.”

He’s not wrong. For as much as Shesterkin has been roasted by the Penguins, his Rangers teammates have done nothing to help the cause. On Monday, they allowed 41 shots at Shesterkin and his relief goaltender Alexandar Georgiev. That was after both goalies combined to see 37 on Saturday and a total of 202 over the four postseason games thus far.

The Pens totaled just 101 in the four regular-season games against the Rangers.

“If we can make it hard for him to see the puck, he might make a positional save,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “But (if the goalie) can’t control the rebound, (that) might create a next-play opportunity for us. Opportunity presents itself. It’s an important aspect of generating offense in today’s game.”

When Georgiev’s name was announced as the goalie to start the third period, the crowd at PPG Paints Arena immediately and frequently chanted, “We want Igor! We want Igor!”

A thought that seemed like lunacy just two games ago.

After the fourth game of the Penguins-Rangers regular-season series, Shesterkin mockingly waved goodbye to the Penguins after a postgame scrum that followed a 3-0 Rangers win.

Based on how the Penguins have blistered Shesterkin in the last two games of the series, they’ve put themselves in a position to wave goodbye to the whole Rangers team in Game 5 Wednesday night.

In this week’s Breakfast with Benz hockey podcast, Tim Benz and Brian Metzer discuss how the Penguins have built a 3-1 lead in their playoff series against the New York Rangers.