Dylan Garand will have to wait some more for his NHL debut.
The Rangers opted to recall Spencer Martin from AHL Hartford Tuesday in the wake of Igor Shesterkin’s lower-body injury.
Jonathan Quick, who replaced Shesterkin between the pipes in Monday’s loss to Utah at Madison Square Garden, figures to get plenty of action with Shesterkin on IR, but he’ll turn 40 next month and the Rangers have to decide how much to rely on the veteran.
Garand, 23, was selected in the fourth round by the Rangers in the 2020 draft and is in his fourth full season with Wolf Pack. He has a 2.67 goals against average in 17 games this season, but evidently the organization doesn’t believe he’s ready yet.
He was called up to back up Shesterkin earlier in the season when Quick was on injured reserve, but didn’t appear in any of the four games when he was on the roster.
By going with Martin, the Rangers are opting for experience, as the 30-year-old has played for four NHL teams over five seasons, most recently appearing in nine games with Carolina last year, putting up a 3.89 goals against average and a save percentage of .846.
He was called up for a pair of games in Quick’s absence earlier in the year, but like Garand, didn’t see any ice time.
Additionally, the team announced Tuesday that Brett Berard was assigned to Hartford, with Miller approaching his return from an upper-body injury.
Even with a healthy Shesterkin, the Rangers have struggled — due in large part to their inability to score goals.
It’s been an issue for much of the season and more recently, they’ve notched more than three goals just once in their past five games.
Not surprisingly, that was the one game of the five they won, as they slip in the Eastern Conference standings.
And they haven’t closed out games, as was the case against the Mammoth on Monday, when they took a one-goal lead into the third period, only to let Utah tie it early in the period and win it in overtime.
Coach Mike Sullivan said the Rangers didn’t play with the “level of intensity we needed” in the first half of the third period.
“Our challenge is to find a way to bring that consistency,’’ he said.
It’s part of the reason why the Rangers haven’t won a game in regulation at the Garden since Nov. 24.
“When we’ve got a lead, we’ve got to do a better job making sure we bear down,” Braden Schneider said. “We have to push the pace and make sure we play in their end.”
If they’re without Shesterkin for any length of time, that will be even harder.
Coming off another home defeat, the Rangers have three of their next four games at home.
Despite their poor results, they remain in the hunt for the postseason.
Following the four-game stretch, which begins Thursday against a hot Buffalo team, the Rangers then visit Philadelphia before a three-game West Coast road trip.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
