Igor Shesterkin opens contract season in impressive fashion: ‘complete control of the game’

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 lauded the 22-year-old’s body of work this preseason.

Bing, bang, boom — and Mancini was taking his rookie lap on the PPG Paints Arena ice before making his NHL debut in the Rangers lineup Wednesday night.

“I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face,” Mancini said of when he found out he had made the team. “Obviously, this is something that you’ve been working for since you were a little kid. Super pumped to be here, but you know this is only the beginning. You want this just to be the beginning.”

Ryan Lindgren, who was placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, participated in the morning skate on Wednesday in a green non-contact jersey and a full face shield.

“It’s opening night, if somebody is able to practice with us then we want them practicing with us instead of staying behind,” Laviolette said. “It’s great to have him out there. It gets him back in the feel of practice. That’s the start of the process of the journey back.”

Despite being on long-term injured reserve, Jimmy Vesey also accompanied the Rangers to Pittsburgh.

There were no surprises regarding the Opening Night power-play units.

The first group featured Adam Fox, Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck, while the second was composed of K’Andre Miller, Reilly Smith, Kaapo Kakko, Alexis Lafreniere and Filip Chytil.

While the power play went 0-for-2 Wednesday night, the Rangers penalty kill fended off all three of Pittsburgh’s man-advantage opportunities.