{"id":32052,"date":"2022-06-01T13:49:10","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T13:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/igor-shesterkin-will-meet-his-match-in-andrei-vasilevskiy\/"},"modified":"2022-06-01T13:49:10","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T13:49:10","slug":"igor-shesterkin-will-meet-his-match-in-andrei-vasilevskiy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/igor-shesterkin-will-meet-his-match-in-andrei-vasilevskiy\/","title":{"rendered":"Igor Shesterkin will meet his match in Andrei Vasilevskiy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Igor Shesterkin has played on the same team as Andrei Vasilevskiy through various iterations of the Russian national squad.  But the Rangers goaltender wouldn&#8217;t quite say he has played with his Lightning counterpart.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot play,\u201d Shesterkin said without a translator following the Rangers&#8217; win over Carolina in Game 7 of the second-round playoff series.  &#8220;I was on the bench.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Though Shesterkin is expected to run away with the Vezina Trophy this season, Vasilevskiy is the standard to which he (and every other NHL goaltender) aspires.  Vasilevskiy, 27, has a trophy cabinet that includes the 2019 Vezina, the 2021 Conn Smythe and two Stanley Cup rings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is the best goalie in the world right now,\u201d Shesterkin said.<\/p>\n<p>Over the first two playoff rounds, the Rangers have carried a massive advantage in net, thanks to Shesterkin.  Most of their run has come against backup goaltenders because of injuries suffered by Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith of the Penguins and Frederik Andersen of the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n<p>If they&#8217;ve had it easy over the last month, though, that is about to end.  Vasilevskiy and Shesterkin will be the through line of the Eastern Conference final.  They are widely considered the best two players at their position in the world, and it seems likely whichever of them comes out on top will be moving on to the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><figcaption>Andrei Vasilevskiy<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI feel like sometimes you guys like to oversimplify the game of hockey and make it about individual players against individual players,\u201d Chris Kreider said Tuesday.  \u201cIn reality, it&#8217;s 20 guys versus 20 guys.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At the same time,&#8221; he continued, &#8220;I think the best two goalies are playing against each other.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it&#8217;s pretty unanimous, they&#8217;re the best two goalies in the league,\u201d said Rangers winger Barclay Goodrow, who has played with both.  &#8220;I don&#8217;t think anyone could put up an argument for that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Rangers are not planning to change what has worked for them offensively.  There&#8217;s no secret sauce to beating Vasilevskiy.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/rangersigor.jpg?resize=617%2C404&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Igor Shesterkin\" class=\"wp-image-22483187\" width=\"617\" height=\"404\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/rangersigor.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1213 1234w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/rangersigor.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=909 925w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/rangersigor.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=606 617w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/rangersigor.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=303 308w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/rangersigor.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 617px) 100vw, 617px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><figcaption>Igor Shesterkin<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cIf Vasilevskiy can see pucks, he&#8217;s gonna save them,\u201d Goodrow said.  \u201cSo we gotta get in the blue paint, we gotta take away his eyes of him.  We have to make life extremely hard for him.  Create second-chance shots and be around in the crease.  Just making his job difficult.  And obviously we know his track record of him in the playoffs, what he can do, but it&#8217;s on us to make his job harder than it needs to be. &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s not too different than what you&#8217;d hear a hockey player say about beating pretty much any goalie.  Vasilevskiy is simply better than the rest of them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He can do full-on splits in an eye-blink,&#8221; Brian Engblom, the Lightning TV analyst for Bally Sports, told The Post.  \u201cI still think he&#8217;s got the fastest legs of any goalie in the National Hockey League.  And because of that, he can contort himself to ridiculous positions and still shoot those legs out and it never seems to bother him at all. &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>Vasilevskiy can keep the Lightning in games they don&#8217;t deserve to be in.  He has stepped his game up in the postseason with regularity.  He is likely the only player in the league against whom the Rangers do not have an automatic edge with Shesterkin.<\/p>\n<p>Although, the same would be true if the names were reversed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don&#8217;t think their game plan&#8217;s gonna be entirely different from ours,\u201d Kreider said.  \u201cGotta make it hard on the opposing goalie.  Both goalies are so incredible on first shots.  Are so mobile, so good side to side.  So good with their desperation.  Obviously very good at playing the puck.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the focus is gonna be on trying to get to the inside, like it has been.  Trying to establish shots.  Try to create traffic and try to make it difficult for them to see shots. &#8220;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>    .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Igor Shesterkin has played on the same team as Andrei Vasilevskiy through various iterations of the Russian national squad. But the Rangers goaltender wouldn&#8217;t quite say he has played with his Lightning counterpart. \u201cNot play,\u201d Shesterkin said without a translator following the Rangers&#8217; win over Carolina in Game 7 of the second-round playoff series. &#8220;I &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/igor-shesterkin-will-meet-his-match-in-andrei-vasilevskiy\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Igor Shesterkin will meet his match in Andrei Vasilevskiy<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[11],"tags":[2726,15662,1524,1526,2729,2730,295,5293,3437],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/lightningvasilevskiy.1.jpg?ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/lightningvasilevskiy.1.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32052"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}