MONTREAL — If there was a bright spot to the Rangers’ desultory 3-1 loss to the Canadiens on Thursday night, it was that goalie Alexandar Georgiev hardly looked out of place in his NHL debut.
The 22-year-old, who was born in Bulgaria — but grew up in Russia — made 38 saves, stopping 30-of-32 shots in the first 40 minutes, and did what he could to keep the Rangers in it.
“He played a good game,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “He did what a goaltender is supposed to do — he gave our team a chance. There’s no doubt that in the first two periods, he had to come up with quite a few saves, which he did.”
Georgiev was called up Feb. 10 after regular backup Ondrej Pavelec suffered a MCL sprain in his left knee, and he was supposed to make his debut Saturday in Ottawa before getting sick. He was very much looking forward to this next opportunity, and he took advantage of it.
“It was fun from the first second of warm-ups,” Georgiev said. “I was kind of nervous, of course, but no more than usual.”
Georgiev might still be behind Igor Shestyorkin in the organizational depth chart, but Shestyorkin remains under contract in the KHL. The Rangers want to see what kind of asset they have in Georgiev, who was outstanding over the past month for the Wolf Pack, putting up a 8-0-1 record, along with a 1.76 goals-against average and a .948 save percentage in his previous nine games.
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His steadiness continued against the Canadiens, beaten only by two wide-open back-door plays due to defensive breakdowns — the first scored by Tomas Plekanec at 6:59 of the first period and the next coming from Jeff Petry at 3:50 of the second.
“My first save was a bit bouncy, but after that I just played my game,” Georgiev said. “It was very fun.”
Making his Rangers debut was defenseman Rob O’Gara, who came along with a third-round pick in a trade with the Bruins in exchange for Nick Holden. O’Gara was paired with John Gilmour, and made a ghastly mistake while leaving Plekanec wide open for the Habs’ first goal.
“Him, like the rest of our team, as the game went on, he was better in the second period and he was better in the third,” Vigneault said after he gave O’Gara 13:35 of total ice time, including 3:04 on the penalty kill. “A little breakdown on the first goal because he’s not used to our system, how we come back in our zone there. But I thought for the most part, he got better as the game went on.”
With Rick Nash and the now-traded Michael Grabner being held out, Paul Carey drew into the lineup and Vinni Lettieri was called up from AHL Hartford and played. Carey was on the left side of a line with David Desharnais and Jesper Fast, while Lettieri joined Cody McLeod and Peter Holland.