Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin showing all signs of living up to the hype
Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin celebrates with Josh Bailey, left, and Cal Clutterbuck after Bailey's winning overtime goal in Game 5 of an NHL Stanley Cup first-round playoff series against the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Monday. Credit: AP/Gene J. Puskar
Barry Trotz was a big fan of Ilya Sorokin’s 48-save performance in the Islanders’ 3-2 double-overtime victory over the Penguins on Monday night.
But the coach was very much not a fan of a series of postgame questions from reporters regarding the goaltender that got a tad too laudatory for his taste.
It was the hockey equivalent of Bill Parcells’ old line, "Let’s not put him in Canton yet, fellas."
Said Trotz: "I’ll just put it this way: You guys pump your tires a little bit. He’s played well in this series. To me, greatness is about longevity.
"Look on the other side. Sidney Crosby and [Evgeni] Malkin and those guys have been really good players and elite players for a decade. Ilya hasn’t proved it yet in the league, but it’s a good start.
"He’s had a couple of good games here. He’s had a good season for us. But you can hold on a little bit on that, because you have to do it over time, and that will be the test."
That is true, of course, and in the short term it is largely irrelevant in the thick of a first-round playoff series in which all that matters is Game 6 on Wednesday, with the Islanders having a chance to clinch at Nassau Coliseum.
But there is a longer-term subplot, too.
Semyon Varlamov is coming off one of the best regular seasons in team history, is under contract through 2022-23 and remains in Trotz’s mind the No. 1 goaltender. All good.
Sorokin, though, is no ordinary backup who simply got hot to go 3-0 in his first three NHL playoff games.
The Islanders drafted him in 2014, and their fans have been pining for him since. Usually in these situations hype outdoes reality, but that does not appear to be the case here.
What Sorokin did on Monday night made the long wait seem worth it, much more so if he keeps it up.
Sorokin, a restricted free agent to be, could be for the Islanders in the 2020s what Henrik Lundqvist was for the Rangers in the late 2000s and early-to-mid 2010s — a given in net around which everything else can be built.
And he could fashion a heck of a New York goalie rivalry with his friend and countryman Igor Shesterkin of the Rangers.
Oops, sorry, Barry. There we go again. But it can’t be helped. Sorokin looks like the real deal, with a calm game built on excellent footwork and side-to-side movements that seemingly are innate.
He also has good hockey sense, as when he poked the puck away from Jeff Carter on Monday to short-circuit a brewing danger.
"His poise and his athleticism to get across to make big saves, how quick he does it, is impressive," Jordan Eberle said. "It can’t be easy coming over from Russia with the bigger rink, the angles are a lot different. But he seems to have settled in and he’s just playing unbelievable."
Trotz and his players went out of their way after Game 5 to remind reporters there are two good goalies on the team. But we knew that. That’s a plus for any team.
And Varlamov can handle the shared spotlight. He gave Sorokin a big hug after the rookie fell a couple of minutes short of a shutout in Game 4 — after Sorokin had replaced a shaky Varlamov after Game 3.
No one is putting Sorokin in Toronto — home of the Hockey Hall of Fame — quite yet. But there also is no need to pump the brakes on this wild ride.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
