ESPN legend picks Mike Richter as Rangers ultimate Game 7 goalie: ‘Gotta go with guy that’s got it done’
Linda Cohn knows her New York Rangers goalies. Eddie Giacomin was her favorite growing up. And she’s covered the likes of Mike Richter, Henrik Lundqvist and Igor Shesterkin over the course of her career with ESPN, and also as a Rangers studio host.
“I love them all,” the unabashed Rangers fan said on the Rink Rap podcast presented by Forever Blueshirts this week.
But when asked which goalie at the height of his powers she’d want between the pipes in an imaginary Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, Cohn didn’t hem and haw.
“I gotta go with the guy that’s got it done. Mike Richter,” Cohn stated. “I love everybody else but you gotta go to a go-to that’s gotten it done. He did it twice (Game 7 wins in the 1994 Eastern Conference Final and 1994 Stanley Cup Final). It was unthinkable, improbable, unbelievable. So, it’s definitely Mike Richter, all day, for me.”
Richter, of course, is the only Rangers goalie to backstop a Stanley Cup championship in the past 84 years. Along the way, he led the Rangers to an epic 2-1 double-overtime win in Game 7 of the conference final against the New Jersey Devils — can anyone say Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!?
He also stood tall in the 3-2 Game 7 win in the Cup Final against the Vancouver Canucks.
So, yes. Been there, done that.
Lundqvist owns a share of the NHL record for most Game 7 playoff wins in NHL history. He, Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy each had six. Each is in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Lundqvist had the best Game 7 record of those three legends (6-2-0) and owns the NHL record by winning his first six Game 7s.
Shesterkin is 2-1 in three Game 7s. He helped the Rangers win a pair of Game Sevens in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs, in the first round against the Pittsburgh Penguins and second round against the Carolina Hurricanes. In 2023, he and the Rangers dropped Game 7 in the first round to the Devils.
Related: Rangers 1994 Stanley Cup champion recalls his one appearance in epic playoff run
Linda Cohn explains why she’s ‘forgiven’ Rangers goalie Jonathan Quick
Of course, there’s another current Rangers goalie Cohn believes should be considered in this debate. That is Jonathan Quick.
“You could throw in the backup, Jonathan Quick,” she said with a laugh. “I mean technically (he’s never played a Game 7 for the Rangers), but he’s playing out of his mind.”
This is true. Quick is 4-0-0 this season with a microscopic 0.91 goals-against average and surreal .970 save percentage with two shutouts in five games (four starts).
Shesterkin’s backup won four Game 7s when he was the No. 1 with the Los Angeles Kings. That includes three straight in the first three rounds of the 2014 playoffs — against the San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks — before Quick and the Kings knocked off Lundqvist and the Rangers in five games during the Stanley Cup Final.
Quick is 4-1 in playoff Game 7s in his career.
“I have obviously forgiven him for beating the Rangers,” Cohn said.
The passionate member of the Blueshirts Faithful sounded like she was having trouble getting past some uneven performances by Shesterkin recently, when he allowed five goals in each of consecutive starts against the Buffalo Sabres and Winnipeg Jets on Nov. 7 and 12.
“You can get all the money you want, and you should probably get the $12 million per year, but you can’t have any back-to-back five-goal games, Igor,” Cohn explained. “Because Rangers fans aren’t going to take this kind of stuff. Not when the backup, the guy that’s about to turn 39, is shutting teams out.”
Cohn was not shy about sharing her Rangers opinions throughout the podcast, and also offered up several personal stories, including being the on-air “therapist” after the Rangers lost Game 7 of the 2014 Stanley Cup Final in Los Angeles.
There it is. Game 7 again.
Tune in and listen to Jim Cerny and Linda Cohn talk Rangers hockey here OR watch the entire interview on the Forever Blueshirts official YouTube page.
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