Colin Stephenson: Sunday was the easy part for the Rangers' Dylan Garand. Now it gets tougher.
New York Rangers goaltender Dylan Garand against the Vancouver Canucks at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 11, 2026. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Rangers have vowed to not let the loss of Igor Shesterkin destroy their season. They have promised they will fight on, and rally around young goalie Dylan Garand. And indeed, they did win their first game without Shesterkin, 6-2 over the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday at the Garden, upping their record to 5-2. They are 4-0 at home, their best start at home to a season in 17 years.
But the Canucks (2-5) are not a good team. They had, by far, the worst record in the league last season. They are without their second-line center, former Ranger Filip Chytil, who is out on a week-to-week basis with a shoulder injury suffered in the preseason. And they were playing the second game of a back-to-back, having played Saturday in New Jersey.
The Rangers did what they had to do Sunday. But things are about to get tougher.
The Blueshirts’ opponent Tuesday at the Garden is the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Rangers had their way with Tampa Bay in their home opener at the Garden Oct. 1, but the Lightning were playing their first game of the season that night and clearly didn’t have it together. They’ve won four straight games since.
So this figures to be a better test of how good the Rangers can be without Shesterkin.
“Obviously, we got dealt tough news with [the season-ending injury to] Shesty, and everybody feels that without a doubt,” coach Mike Sullivan said after the win over Vancouver. “That's a tough blow to the group. But… you can only control the things that are within your power, and our players are well aware of that. We had that discussion.
“The expectations don't change,’’ he said. “It's next man up mentality. It's going to provide opportunities for others. Take advantage of it.”
Tough, pragmatic talk. We’ll see how well the Rangers hold up as the season goes. Garand looked fine Sunday, making 19 saves on 21 shots. He wasn’t asked to be superhuman, but he was fine. And they won, which was the bottom line.
“I thought I played good,’’ he said. “I think I could have executed a little better. I thought I was fighting it a little bit at times, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. I thought I played fine, made some good saves. Obviously, the guys played unreal tonight, and made my job easy. It's almost like a carbon copy of that game in Detroit [a 2-0 win Oct. 2 that was his first shutout].”
The Rangers shut down Vancouver in the third period, allowing just four shots on goal, and scoring three times to turn a 3-2 game into a rout. The win improved Garand to 2-1, with a 1.20 goals-against average and .945 save percentage this season, and to 4-1-1, with a 1.43 GAA and .947 save percentage for his six-game NHL career.
The numbers are amazing.
But the sample size is small. Really small.
Garand's he goals-against average is going to go up, and the save percentage will come down in the coming weeks as the opposition gets better and the workload increases for Garand. The Rangers have pledged to help the 24-year-old, and they’re going to need to make good on that.
But the Rangers are going to need Garand to up his level, too. And it’s only going to get tougher from here.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
