NEW YORK — The mood in the New York Rangers room was different.
Even if they’d won by five or lost — it was the latter in a 3-2 overtime defeat at the hands of the Utah Mammoth at Madison Square Garden on Monday night — you wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.
Igor Shesterkin, considered to be one of the game’s best goaltenders, and arguably the face of the franchise for the Blueshirts, was forced to leave the game in the first period with what appeared to be a serious injury to his left leg following a mild collision with Mammoth forward JJ Peterka.
The 30-year-old Russian-born netminder, who had just backstopped his team to a win at the Winter Classic on Friday night, could put no weight on that leg as he had to be helped off the ice and down the tunnel to the locker room after the injury.
Most players didn’t want to speak too much on it — Artemi Panarin among them who couldn’t offer much not knowing the severity of the injury — but there was no getting around the potential long-term loss of their most reliable player.
“Yeah, it’s brutal,” said Rangers alternate captain Vincent Trocheck. “You never want to see anyone go down like that, especially when it’s a goaltender who’s world-class. It always sucks seeing guys go down like that.”
Head coach Mike Sullivan offered the expected update after a lengthy wait for his post-game press conference following the loss, saying that Shesterkin was being evaluated for a lower-body injury and that he had no news regarding the potential nature of it prior to the completion of further testing.
He did, however, entertain a question on just how big of a blow it might be if the worst-case scenario was to play out.
“We don’t want him to get hurt, he’s an important part of this team, and hopefully it’s not too serious,” Sullivan said. “There are certain guys that drive your team, and he’s one of them for us. He’s an elite player at his position, I think he’s one of the very best in the game. When you lose a player like that for any length of time, those types of players are difficult to replace.”
Veteran backup Jonathan Quick stepped in admirably for Shesterkin, playing the duration of the game and stopping 14 of the 17 shots he faced; he ultimately picked up the loss after Sean Durzi’s game-winner just 66 seconds into overtime.
Angry with likely some combination of the result, a blown third-period lead and the Mammoth crashing the net on multiple occasions, Quick’s postgame comments were brief and gruff. Panarin, meanwhile, was able to at least speak on his team walking away with a much-needed point in the standings despite a difficult ending to the night.
“We should have given ourselves a better chance on three-on-three in overtime, we need points right now,” he said. “It’s just frustrating, this game.”