the Rangers\u2019 home\u00a0finale<\/a> at Madison Square Garden \u2014\u00a0Igor Shesterkin got the start \u2014\u00a0isn\u2019t complaining.<\/p>\n\u201cWhether I get to play or not is out of my control, so I don’t want to focus on any of that,\u2019\u2019 Garand told Newsday on Tuesday. \u201cI’m just trying to be here and get better and learn every day, and just get valuable experience. In my point of development, being here is important . . . I do know that I will play in the NHL again at some point, whether it’s this year or not. I’m not too worried about that.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
For now, Sullivan said, the Rangers believe even if Garand isn\u2019t playing, it\u2019s good for him to be practicing with the big club, and to be hanging around and learning from Shesterkin and future Hall of Famer Jonathan Quick, who sit on either side of him in the practice locker room. Garand is totally on board with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like, for me, where I’m at in my development, NHL practices are really important,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cYou know, the guys shoot different here. Plays develop differently. All sorts of things are a little different. So it’s an adjustment to make. So, the longer I’m here, the more adjusted I can get to that.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
He pointed out that the NHL and AHL schedules are different, in that AHL teams practice all week and play mostly on the weekends, where NHL teams play games on the weekends and in midweek, and don\u2019t practice as often. So as a goalie, he said, he has to figure out how to get the amount of work he needs to stay sharp, whether that means going on the ice a half-hour before practice, or staying on a half-hour afterward to work with the goalie coach.<\/p>\n
Still, the Rangers have just three games remaining after Wednesday. They close the season with a road trip to Dallas Saturday, Florida Monday and Tampa next Wednesday. So, will Garand get to play in one of those?<\/p>\n
Sullivan wouldn\u2019t answer that. But he did say there is a game plan for how the team will handle the goaltending in the final stretch and that Shesterkin, the unquestioned No. 1, will play, because he wants to. Quick, 40, is in the final year of his contract, and \u2014\u00a0though Sullivan wouldn\u2019t say so \u2014\u00a0may not be back next season. It would be a sign of appreciation to get him one last start.<\/p>\n
As for getting one more look at Garand, Sullivan said, \u201cAt the end of the day, is that going to influence where we stand as far as assessing his overall game? Probably not.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Hartford, which is last in the Atlantic Division and likely won\u2019t make the AHL playoffs, has six games remaining: Friday at home, Saturday and Sunday away, then games Wednesday, Friday and Saturday next week.<\/p>\n
If Garand is to play again this season, he may have to go down to Hartford and play there, and he said he\u2019d be OK with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor sure,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cThose are my guys, my teammates, my brothers down there.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at same time, I feel like I’m getting a lot of valuable experience here. And . . . I think this is the next step for me in my development is being here, being around the guys, and practicing. Practicing is so important. You arguably get more out of practice here than you do a game down there. So we’ll see.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a patient approach, but for young goalies, sometimes, patience is a must.<\/p>\n
![\"Colin](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775677456_579_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
\n\tColin 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Life is just different when you\u2019re a goalie. And when you\u2019re a young goalie trying to break in,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5111],"tags":[5,3328,35,5190,5193,4,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-547926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-rangers","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkrangers","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-rangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116370806094197014","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}