Igor Shesterkin has looked more than worthy of his impending status as the highest-paid goalie in the NHL so far this season, but no netminder could’ve bailed the Rangers out of what was an uninspiring performance against the Sabres on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
Head coach Peter Laviolette was forced to pull his star goalie after he gave up five goals on 12 shots through 33:11 of play, which dropped his save percentage 14 points from .933 to .919.
“It was a bad day,” said Shesterkin, who fell to 6-3-1 on the season. “We need to turn this page and be ready for the next game.
The 28-year-old did not get off to a strong start after giving up the first goal of the game just 26 seconds in.
A puck that is usually a routine save for Shesterkin made its way between his legs to give the Sabres an early lead.
The breakdowns in front of him only piled up as the Rangers fell behind, 5-0, by the 13:51 mark of the middle frame, which is when Laviolette called for Shesterkin to retreat to the bench.
A goal from Sam Lafferty in transition — the Sabres’ second of the period off the rush — proved to be the final straw for Laviolette.
“That’s totally on us,” Adam Fox said. “It wasn’t necessarily a quantity thing, it’s a quality thing. No goalie is saving those chances they got. It sucks. He’s been there for us every game when we’ve been at our best and this certainly was not our best. We just kind of let him out to dry there.”
Alexis Lafreniere, Kaapo Kakko and Filip Chytil were benched for a large portion of the third period.
All three skaters didn’t see the ice for the first 6:58 of the final frame, with Lafreniere and Chytil receiving just three shifts and Kakko taking four throughout the last 20 minutes of the game.
“I thought guys were off the mark tonight with some of the things they were doing,” Laviolette said. “I tried to get a couple of the guys back out there and move them around. I didn’t think we were very good. The guys that seemed to have a little bit more pop to me were the guys who I was trying to put back out on the ice.”
The Rangers were 0-for-4 on the power play while managing to kill three of Buffalo’s four man-advantage opportunities. Zach Benson scored the Sabres’ lone power-play goal in the third period.
