Igor Shesterkin’s latest unreal night bails out flawed Rangers in narrow win

Next thing you know, Scott Boras is going to want a piece of the action representing Igor Shesterkin. 

Because the pending free-agent goaltender’s value to the Rangers has never been starker though this first 10-game segment of the season in which he has played on a different planet from nearly all of his teammates. 

The scoring chances at five-on-five through the final 40 minutes at the Garden were 19 for the Senators and four for the Rangers after a saw-off for the first 20.

Overall for the final two periods, it was 31-7 for Ottawa, per NaturalStatTrick.

The total shots were 41-18, against. 

And yet the final score was 2-1 for the Rangers after another night of a series of circus saves from Shesterkin after the Blueshirts could not sustain an energetic first-period effort in which they hounded the Senators, held an advantage in zone time and grabbed an early 1-0 lead on Artemi Panarin’s left wing drive enabled by Alexis Lafreniere’s hard takeaway from Josh Norris. 

But attention to detail collapsed over the final 40 minutes, through which they took too many penalties, gave the puck away far too often and were guilty of numerous lapses in the neutral zone and in defensive zone coverage. 

They were — and this is a recording — disconnected all over the ice and were held together by the chewing gum and bailing wire supplied by Shesterkin, who made his most remarkable save with 2:50 to go in the second period on Claude Giroux’s one-time rocket from the lower rim of the left circle, maybe 10 feet away. 

Giroux set up and had it labeled for the upper far corner until Shesterkin, prone, snatched the rubber out of the air with his glove on a stop so pristine it was not even accompanied by the Russian’s signature flourish. 

“It was a bad play by me,” the goaltender said with a straight face. “I fell down on my belly when I need to stay on my knees.” 

That was his story and that was the story he was sticking to? 

“I did the save only because I fell down on my belly,” Shesterkin insisted. “I should be more vertical so it would be more easy.” 

Lafreniere, who would score the power-play goal early in the third period off a fancy feed from Filip Chytil for a 2-0 lead and the eventual winner, saw the save a bit differently. 

“That was insane,” No. 13 told The Post after getting the sixth PPG of his career. “He made five, six, seven massive saves.” 

There were a series of jaw-droppers that either did or did not camouflage his team’s myriad deficiencies, perhaps the most notable coming on a pair of bang-bang Josh Norris rebounds in front midway through the third period with the score 2-0. 

“It’s nice to have a goaltender who can make those saves, but that’s not what we’re looking for,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “It’s great that he is on point, but we still have to do a better job.” 

The Rangers are 7-2-1, but this is reminiscent of 2015-16, when Henrik Lundqvist’s uncommon brilliance out of the gate led the club to a 16-3-2 start before the team settled into a long stretch of mediocrity that ultimately ended with a first-round, five-game rout by Pittsburgh.

The Blueshirts lack physicality.

They have not been able to create a rolling thunder off a four-line approach though Mika Zibanejad’s energy level was perhaps at its highest of the season. 

And the Blueshirts are not playing a full 60 minutes. This was better than Washington on Tuesday, but hopefully, no one will suffer a dislocated shoulder patting himself on the back after this escape.

The team loses way too many battles.

They are beaten back too often. 

Has anyone seen the 1-3-1?

This does not look like the structure the Rangers employed on their way to last season’s Presidents’ Trophy. 

“I would like us to play better. I would like us to control more of the play and more of the offense and not retreating,” Laviolette said. “There have been a few games recently where we need to turn that around. 

“We got away from it [in Washington], and I thought we came out well tonight in the right direction but that got away from us.” 

In eight months, it is Shesterkin who may get away from the Rangers.