The Rangers finally got Joonas Korpisalo into game action, but his first start of the season didn’t exactly clear anything up.
Korpisalo opened a conditioning stint with the Hartford Wolf Pack on Wednesday night against the Hershey Bears, a move that came after he’d been skating with the Rangers in recent days. It was a necessary next step after he’d been sidelined since the start of the season by a foot infection, leaving New York to lean heavily on Dylan Garand while waiting for help in goal.
The first look was busy. Korpisalo faced 37 shots and stopped 34 of them, but Hartford still fell 4-1. The Wolf Pack gave him little margin for error, generating just 15 shots of their own, so the night turned into more of a survival test than a true measuring stick.
That’s been part of the issue in Hartford all season. The Wolf Pack have been a work in progress, and the shot totals have reflected that.
More often than not this year, they’ve been giving up 30 shots on goal a game. Last season’s struggles pushed the Rangers to try to strengthen their prospect pipeline, and the hiring of Jay Leach as head coach was part of that effort.
He’s known as a developer, but this group is still very much being built.
Korpisalo’s outing did at least show that he could handle volume. What it didn’t show was how he’d look in a tighter, more controlled game, because Hartford never really gave him that kind of environment.
Now the Rangers have a decision to make. Garand is expected to make his 12th consecutive appearance entering Thursday night, and at some point he’s going to need a breather. New York already tried to give James Reimer a start, only to pull the plug after one period when he gave up three goals to the Los Angeles Kings.
So the Rangers can either bring Korpisalo back up quickly and give Garand a rest, or let the conditioning stint run a little longer and get more meaningful reps out of it. That second path could matter more in the long run, especially with New York banking on Korpisalo as part of the answer to its depth problem in net. His performance may help determine whether the Rangers need to give up assets to chase another goalie, something they’ve been linked to since Shesterkin’s injury.
Head coach Mike Sullivan said, via The Athletic’s Vince Mercogliano, that the team has a certain number of games in mind before Korpisalo’s conditioning stint ends, though he didn’t reveal the total. Sullivan did say he expects Korpisalo back either on the road trip or after it.
Hartford is back in action Friday night against the Rochester Americans, then turns around quickly for a Saturday matchup with the Syracuse Crunch. With no update from the Rangers, Korpisalo would seem likely to start one of those games.
As for the Rangers, their road trip begins Saturday against the Seattle Kraken before games against the Edmonton Oilers on Nov. 9, the Calgary Flames on Nov. 11, and the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 13.
If the conditioning stint goes smoothly, Korpisalo could be in line to play in one of those games. The club could also wait until it returns home and faces the Montreal Canadiens on Nov.
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