Just as Igor Shesterkin broke away from the pack in the hunt for the Vezina Trophy, he showed he was human by allowing four goals in each of his last two outings at St. Louis and Dallas.
New York Rangers coach Gerard Gallant wasn’t particularly proud of his players Thursday at St. Louis, a 6-2 loss, accusing them of letting down their star goaltender. At least the Blue Shirts scored seven goals on Saturday in Dallas to win 7-4.
Regardless, Shesterkin’s save percentage went from .942 to .938 and his goals-against average went from 1.95 to 2.07 in two games. He still tops our standings with 10,574 points, but is only 52 points ahead of Jacob Markström (Calgary), in second place. Last week, Shesterkin was 125 points ahead of Juuse Saros (Nashville), who has just slipped to third place.
Shesterkin is the only goalie in the top 30 with a .930 save percentage, but he’s now trailing Frederik Andersen (Carolina) and Jeremy Swayman (Boston) in goals-against average at 2.06 apiece. Shesterkin and Markström share the third rung just behind, at 2.07.
Little margin of error
To demonstrate how difficult it is to maintain an save percentage above .940, Shesterkin slipped from .942 to .939 in just over one period. fourth time on 17 shots at 2:15 in the second period that he received the hook from Gallant.
Shesterkin remains the favorite for the Vezina, but there is a whole field chasing behind him. If you take a look at the top 10 in our table, seven goalkeepers have between 28 and 31 wins, including six with save rates in the .920s: Markström (.928), Saros (.923), Tristan Jarry (.922, Pittsburgh), Andersen (.929), Ilya Sorokin (.925, NY Islanders) and Darcy Kuemper (.922, Colorado).
Markström dominates in shutouts (9), compared to only three for Shesterkin, and if he crosses the 10 mark, a psychological threshold, it will certainly bring him votes from the general managers for the Vézina.
Saros leads in quality starts (games of .900 or more) with 35, but Shesterkin (30) is the most consistent with 79% of his starts being above .900.
Goals saved
God knows how important GMs will place detailed stats, but according to Clear Sight Analytics (CSA), Shesterkin leads in total goals saved (vs. average based on how dangerous the shots faced are) with 32.72 goals saved since the start. start of the season.
He is followed by Saros (24.61), Ville Husso (21.49, St. Louis), Markström (20.66), Andrei Vasilevskiy (20.07, Tampa Bay), Thatcher Demko (19.32, Vancouver) and Anderson (19.16).
Note that the level of dangerousness of each shot assessed by CSA experts is much more complex than just the place from which a shot is released.
In short, Shesterkin is still favorite for the Vézina, but it’s not in the pocket. There’s still a lot of hockey to play and the mid-season leader, Jack Campbell, slipped to 12th. Injured, the Maple Leafs goaltender should be back in action in two weeks with possibly increased morale.
His supporters are not asking him for the Vézina, only to win at least one round in the playoffs, which is far from certain.
