Rangers name their starting goaltender for Game 2.

The New York Rangers have had to make tough calls in goal for both Game 1 and Game 2 of their Qualifying Round series against the Carolina Hurricanes, and their decision today has produced a mixed reaction from their fans. 

First, according to a post published on social media by the official Rangers account it appears as though Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist will once again be the man getting the start on Monday, presumably due to the fact that Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin is dealing with some type of ailment or injury. Shesterkin was expected to be named the starter for Game 1 after his outstanding performance towards the end of the regular season, however the 24 year old Russian was deemed "unfit to play" by the Rangers and it seems as though that trend will continue on Monday.

The Rangers have not come right out and officially announced their starter, however as you will see in the video below it does appear as though Lundqvist will be the clear starter. The Rangers also have Alexandar Georgiev available to them and it is somewhat surprising to see him passed over for Lundqvist given that he had moved up to second on the depth chart behind Shesterkin during the course of the regular season. Of course those games were played several months ago now so it may be that Lundqvist has shown better form than Georgiev during training camp, although there could be a number of factors over the last several months that have resulted in this change from the Rangers.

Although I certainly understand the reaction from the fans being critical of the decision, it is important to remember that Lundqvist fared pretty well during Game 1 of the series. He did give up an early goal on the first shot of the game, but he settled in nicely after that and recorded a decent 3.04 goals against average and .919 save percentage on the night overall. The other thing to keep in mind here is that Lundqvist has a wealth of experience backstopping the Rangers during the playoffs, whereas putting in a rookie like Georgiev comes with considerably more question marks and uncertainty.