PITTSBURGH — It’s been all about the numbers for Igor Shesterkin and the Rangers in recent days, but on Wednesday night, the only number that mattered was zero. Shesterkin and the Rangers blanked the Penguins, 6-0 , in their season opener Wednesday night at PPG Paints Arena, with the star Russian netminder making 29 saves in the first game of what has officially become a contract season for him . As expected, Shesterkin had no interest in commenting on the eight-year, $88 million deal he turned down before opening night — or anything else about his contract situation.
“I don’t want to talk about my contract,” he said. “If you want we can talk about our team. We played a really good game today.
If you have other questions, we can talk about [rookie Victor] Mancini, [Alexis Lafreniere’s] goal, anything you want.” The Rangers needed Shesterkin to stand tall through a small siege in the opening frame, during which he was forced to make 10 saves to keep the Penguins off the board. “It’s good, there’s definitely things that we can look at,” head coach Peter Laviolette said of Shesterkin’s play in the opening 20 minutes.
“There’s areas where we can improve on, but he was there. He looked like he was seeing it really well and in complete control of the game.” Mancini found out Monday afternoon from president and general manager Chris Drury that he was making the team out of training camp.
That was followed by a conversation with Laviolette, who has l.
