1) He's A Hart & Vezina Trophy Candidate For A Reason
In Game 2 Friday night in Raleigh the two teams combined for 43 total shots on goal. This afternoon Carolina alone published that amount, plus one more.
Shesterkin was dialed in from the get-go though, turning away chance after chance from the Canes. Including a diving poke check stop on Jesperi Kotkaniemi during the first period, the Russian netminder was every bit as good as advertised. Prior to the end of the second period Shesterkin had already seen 35 shots.
Despite denying 20 Grade A-chances over the course of 60 minutes, the only shot that got through him on the day was a routine looking backhander from Nino Niederreiter.
2) Special Teams Execution
Carolina went 0-for-3 on the power play in the effort, keeping their struggles on the man advantage at the forefront of discussion.
Rod Brind'Amour said post-game that he liked what the units were able to produce, citing a couple hit posts as chances that he liked, just didn't go in.
What highlighted Carolina's lack of execution on the power play further was that New York scored on their first man advantage of the afternoon, forcing Carolina to play from behind early on.
3) Another Strong Day From Rants
New York's third goal on the afternoon was an empty net marker, meaning just two out of 32 shots got by Antti Raanta.
It was another strong performance for the Carolina goaltender, who denied several two-on-ones and odd-man rushes by the Rangers. Per
NaturalStatTrick.com
the home team had 11 high-danger chances.
By the end of the day, he had faced at least 10 shots in all three periods.
