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 Tuesday night against the Sabres at KeyBank Center just as the Islanders likely will have to ride their No. 1 goalie through these last seven 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.
It remains to be seen how damaging that loss, which allowed the Penguins to leapfrog them for second place in the Metropolitan Division, will prove to the Islanders’ playoff chances. But Roy and the coaching staff knew this, too: If they couldn’t afford Monday’s loss, they absolutely could not afford to lose two in a row.
“Just forget this game tomorrow,” Sorokin said after Monday’s defeat. “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 re-insert 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 Rittch (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.
“Last time he played Montreal and came back against Columbus and played a strong game,” Roy said. “Sergei wanted him to be in tonight. I think we owe him this after the way we played in front of him [on Monday]. It’s a great opportunity for everyone to play a good game.”
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. Right now, the urgency is to play game by game. Basically that’s what I said to Ilya. Don’t worry about tomorrow, worry about today. The mind is a lot weaker than the body. The body can take a lot more than you think. It’s the mind that you need to convince.”
Rittich started the first two games against the Sabres, losing both. He played very well in a 3-2 five-round shootout defeat in Buffalo on Dec. 20 and angrily questioned why Tage Thompson’s goal to give the Sabres a 2-0 lead in the second period counted since the Islanders never saw the puck go over the goal line. He also was in net for a 5-0 loss to the Sabres at UBS Arena on Jan. 24, which, at the time, seemed a curious decision with the Islanders having three days between games after returning from a 3-3-1 road trip.
There was nothing curious about Roy’s decision on Tuesday.
Really, it was the only one to 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.
