Andrew Gross: Islanders need to ride IIya Sorokin in goal throughout their playoff push
The Islanders' Ilya Sorokin reacts after surrendering a goal during the second period against the Pittsburgh Penguins at UBS Arena on Monday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
BUFFALO — It was a choice. But, really, it was the only one to make.
Ilya Sorokin had to start for the second time in two nights in Tuesday’s 4-3 loss to the Sabres at KeyBank Center just as the Islanders likely will have to ride their No. 1 goalie through their last six games before the regular season ends on April 14. Their playoff push is that desperate.
Coach Patrick Roy probably tipped his hand in that direction in going back to Sorokin after he allowed a career-high seven goals in Monday night’s defensive debacle of an 8-3 defeat to the Penguins at UBS Arena.
Two of the three goals he allowed on Tuesday — the Sabres also scored an empty-netter — came on the power play and all were the result of the Islanders making repeated defensive miscues in coverage.
“It can always be better, just picking up our guys and communicating more, I think that will help,” said Matthew Schaefer, who had an assist to give him 57 points, setting the Islanders’ team record for rookie defensemen and tied with Sabres Hall of Famer Phil Housley for the most points by an 18-year-old defenseman.
“Sorokin is always at his best. We’ve got to help him on a lot of those chances, a lot of those goals,” Schaefer said. “We can’t let those pucks go through to the sweet spot down the middle. He’s not always going to be able to stand on his head for us.”
Sorokin erased plenty of his teammates’ mistakes on Tuesday. They simply have to be better for him.
“He’s an absolute gamer, a guy that steps up for us every single night and he’s playing tons of hockey for us,” said Brayden Schenn, acquired from the Blues on March 6. “When I came here, I had no idea he was this good. You’ve seen it firsthand of how special a goalie he is.”
It remains to be seen how damaging the back-to-back losses will prove to the Islanders (42-29-5). They remained in third place in the Metropolitan Division with the Blue Jackets losing to the visiting Hurricanes and got help in the wild-card race, too, with the Red Wings, Senators and Flyers also losing. The second-place Penguins are now three points ahead with a game in hand.
“Just forget this game tomorrow,” Sorokin said after Monday’s lopsided loss. “It’s a new morning. Fresh mind. I’ll try to work again.”
Sorokin surely wanted to get right back to work and Roy had to give his team the best chance to win. The only logical conclusion was to have Sorokin start back-to-back games for the second time this season and the second time in just over a week.
Honestly, Roy might have had a harder time wrestling with whether to reinsert Anthony Duclair — which he did — or try Max Shabanov again with invaluable third-liner/ penalty killer Simon Holmstrom out with an upper-body injury suffered when the Penguins’ Kris Letang checked him into the end wall.
“Last time,” Roy said succinctly when Newsday asked what spurred his decision to go back to Sorokin immediately.
Sorokin surrendered six goals before being pulled in the third period in favor of struggling backup David Rittich (14-9-3, 2.78 goals-against average, .894 save percentage) in a 7-3 loss in Montreal on March 21. He was back in net the next day to make 26 saves in a 1-0 win over the visiting Blue Jackets, tying Semyon Varlamov and Chico Resch for the team record with his seventh shutout this season.
Also, it should be noted that Roy, whenever he’s asked about choosing which goalie to start, said he goes by what goalie coach Sergei Naumovs feels is best.
Two more back-to-backs still remain — Friday night against the Flyers at UBS Arena and Saturday night in Carolina as well as home matches against the Senators and Canadiens on April 11 and 12.
Despite the condensed nature of the schedule because of the three-week Olympic break in February, the days off work in the Islanders’ and Sorokin’s favor.
In addition to two days off from games after Tuesday’s match, Sorokin can easily recover with four days off following Saturday’s match against the first-place Hurricanes. The Islanders do conclude the season with three games in four days — they host the Hurricanes on April 14 — but Sorokin may just have to power through that stretch.
“He hasn’t played a lot of volume games until now,” Roy said. “I think we’ve been managing this very well.”
In other words, it’s Sorokin’s net the rest of the season. It’s really the only choice the Islanders can make.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
