The New York Rangers season could have gone off the rails when star goalie Igor Shesterkin suffered a lower-body injury that the team quickly deemed season-ending.

He was the most important player on the team, capable of putting the team on his back and carrying them to success. Without Shesterkin in net, the Rangers’ ceiling dropped considerably. However, the bottom has not fallen out on the season.

Rookie Dylan Garand stepped up, making an appearance in 12 consecutive games, 10 of which he started. That is a massive workload for any goaltender, let alone one who entered the season with three NHL games under his belt and was waived after training camp.

Luckily, no franchise claimed him, because New York’s season would look a lot different without him. It is hard to envision the team being 11-8-1 at this point, after the team defeated the Calgary Flames with Joonas Korpisalo in net for his second start of the season.

Rangers goaltending tandem stepping up for team

Having the veteran back after he suffered a foot infection and missed more than a month to start the season will help stabilize the team. And head coach Mike Sullivan now has multiple options in net that he is comfortable turning to.

“Both of these guys are giving us a chance to win right now,” Sullivan said, via Vincent Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic (subscription required). “It gives us the ability to share the workload. And I think the benefit of sharing the workload is potentially getting the best version of both guys, because they’re both going to see action, but they’re both going to have the ability to recover. They’ll get some quality reps with our goalie coach (Jeff Malcolm) that keeps their game sharp on the off days. I think it could be a real good tandem for us.”

Giving the Rangers a chance to win is all they are asking for from their new goalie tandem. As long as they can play league-average in the crease, New York has the talent to hang with and beat a large portion of the teams in the league.

That was the case against the Flames, with Mika Zibanejad scoring twice in a 3-1 victory. The Rangers will have another chance to pick up a victory against a team near the bottom of the standings when they face the Vancouver Canucks in the final game of their four-game road trip.

It would not be a surprise to see Garand back in net for that contest. As Sullivan noted, there are benefits to evenly splitting the workload, getting the best version of each goalie. If one of them picks up momentum and earns an extended look, they will ride the hot hand accordingly.

Losing Shesterkin is far from an ideal situation, but the team is in a good spot with Garand and Korpisalo in net for them.