The New York Rangers had a magical start to the 2023-2024 regular season. Their record starting the season, was 18-5 and sitting on top of the rest of the league in the standings. Suddenly, the team's performance started to plummet and so did their record. Teams in the metropolitan division like the Carolina Hurricanes and the Philadelphia Flyers were rapidly catching up to them and fans started to panic. All-star and former Vezina trophy winning goalie Igor Shesterkin wasn’t playing nearly up to his potential and the team was suddenly ice cold.

The All-Star break then came and it was nice for the team to have a week off to rest and to try and get back to their dominating ways. It seemed like a shock when head coach Peter Laviolette decided to start backup goaltender Jonathan Quick for the last 2 games. On Monday night, the first game back from break at home they played against the high-powered Colorado Avalanche. Quick and the Rangers were looking to show the league they are still a very talented team by taking down one of the league's best and that's exactly what they did.

After being down 1-0 for almost the entire game with just under 10 minutes to go, star forward Artemi Panarin got the Rangers on the board to tie the game at 1. The game remained tied until overtime when Alexis Lafrenière scored the game winning goal to send Rangers fans home happy.

The Rangers’ focus then shifted to Wednesday night when they hosted the former 2x Stanley Cup winners the Tampa Bay Lightning. It was another low scoring affair, and the Rangers once again ran away with another win against one of the league's best, by a score of 3-1. Jonathan Quick was the goalie in net and once again was able to steal the spotlight away from Igor Shesterkin.

Although there are major concerns with Igor Shesterkin, it's certainly not a bad situation to be in when the backup goalie is playing just as well if not better. With low scoring wins in both games, it seems like the Rangers are getting back to their defensive ways and being supported by good goaltending.

There’s a lot of time before the playoffs, but this is exactly how the Rangers should be playing. They needed to come out of the All-Star break showing their fans and the rest of the league that the team that started out the season is still here.