Jonathan Quick ready to ‘go to work’ for Rangers with Igor Shesterkin on IR

Nothing changes for Jonathan Quick in the wake of Igor Shesterkin going on IR with an upper-body injury suffered in the third period at Florida on Monday when Sam Bennett crashed into the Rangers’ franchise goaltender on a Ryan Lindgren hit.

“It doesn’t change the game plan, right? No matter who’s in the lineup, who’s out, we’re doing everything we can to prepare for the game (Thursday) night,” said Quick, who will be in net against the Bruins as the club tries to end its latest four-game losing streak at the Garden.

The Blueshirts did not provide an update on Shesterkin, who will miss a minimum of seven days, with the club having Boston and a back-to-back weekend in Washington and Chicago before the Stars come to New York on Jan. 7. this point, Shesterkin would be eligible to return for the Jan. 9 Garden game against the Devils, but that’s certainly no guarantee.

Quick hasn’t started back-to-back games since 12-13. April 2022, where he played for the Kings. Louis Domingue, recalled from the Wolf Pack, will surely get one of the fights of the weekend.

Domingue, who was 4-9-1 with a 3.64 GAA and .888 save percentage with AHL Hartford, has a 1-0 record with the Rangers after beating Minnesota 4-1 with 25 saves on Nov. 9, 2023, when both Shesterkin and Quick were unavailable. The Blueshirts promoted the 32-year-old on Tuesday in place of 22-year-old Dylan Garand, who is 9-4-2 with a 2.25 GAA and .926 save percentage with the Wolf Pack.

But back to our story.

“It’s a season where, no matter what the situation is, you go one game at a time,” Quick said. “It’s the focus of the whole group, one match at a time and preparation for a really good team in Boston.”

Quick’s numbers have taken a beating during the team’s 4-15 freefall into the NHL’s nether regions. After starting the season 4-0 with two consecutive shutouts, a 0.90 GAA and .970 save percentage, the No. 32 1-4 since Nov. 23 with a 4.00 GAA and .855 save percentage.

“You never want to overcomplicate anything,” said the three-time Cup winner, who celebrates his 39th birthday on January 21. “So no matter how the season goes, the last five games, the last 10 games, whatever the situation is, it’s an 82-game season.

“If you start looking at games in the past or the future, you lose sight of the moment. I’ve always felt that the best approach is to stay in the moment, one game at a time. Personally and as a group, it’s, ‘ what can I do today to get better and what can we do as a group to get better?'” he said. “We have to be better today as a group.”

The Rangers held a hard-working, lively practice, going with the same forward and defensive combinations as in Monday’s 4-3 loss to the Panthers, which represented the club’s seventh regulation loss in the last eight games.

Blueshirts, who dropped five in a row from 21-29. November, has not endured two losing streaks of at least five in a row in regulation in the same season since 1988-89.

They enter Thursday seven points out of a seven-team playoff spot to avoid becoming the third defending Presidents’ Trophy winner to miss the postseason since the award was inaugurated in 1985-86. 1992-93 Rangers were the first of these clubs.

“We’re not sitting here saying it’s OK,” Laviolette said. “Nothing is right right now.

“The beginning has to be on point. The discipline has to be on point, the special teams has to be on point, five-on-five. Those are things we’ve talked about all along, where we have to get better, and we’re working towards that.

“We have to put the throttle down and have to realize that these points have to start coming our way now.”