For the sixth time in seven games since the Jan. 3 promotion of Igor Shesterkin from the AHL, Henrik Lundqvist will not start, instead backing up Alex Georgiev against the Islanders on Tuesday at the Garden.
It will mark the sixth time in that span that Lundqvist will have backed up, whereas Georgiev has backed up only when the Swede started in St. Louis on Jan. 11. Shesterkin has yet to assume that role.
That is not by happenstance.
“He’s a guy who carries a lot of weight in that locker room. I want him around, and I want him to be part of the game,” Rangers coach David Quinn said of Lundqvist.