Islanders' goaltending, defense pave the way for playoff push

Strong defense has always been at the heart of any Lou Lamoriello-run team that is playing well and the Islanders president/general manager has always preached building from the net on out. That’s easy to preach when, for so long, he had Devils’ Hall of Fame netminder Martin Brodeur in his employ.

Which is why this run of 11 wins in 14 games is so encouraging for the Islanders, who face a tough road back-to-back against the NHL-leading Jets and Wild on Friday and Saturday,  before the two-week break for the 4-Nations Face-off tournament.

Goalie Ilya Sorokin is playing his best hockey of the season but it’s gone hand in hand with structurally sound defense in front, even as Tony DeAngelo, Scott Perunovich and Adam Boqvist had to be hastily acquired and inserted into the lineup with Noah Dobson, Ryan Pulock and Scott Mayfield all injured.

“I can see the pucks because they don’t stand in my vision,” said Sorokin after making 33 saves in Tuesday night’s 2-1 win over Vegas at UBS Arena. “It’s very good.”

Sorokin, named the NHL’s first star of the week on Monday for the first time in his career, has a personal seven-game winning streak and has allowed two or fewer goals in six straight starts and in nine of his last 11 starts.

He’s made the spectacular save when necessary. But he’s limited the need to do so by playing aggressively in his crease — his positioning was the reason coach Patrick Roy won two crucial goalie interference challenges — and not giving up second chances.

“The defense corps and Sorokin were great tonight,” Anders Lee said after beating Vegas. “There were no rebounds tonight. He ate them all up.”

But the ability to keep opponents to the outside — “protecting the house,” Roy repeatedly said — is just as big a component in the Islanders’ defensive improvement.

The Islanders’ goal differential was minus-20 on Jan. 5. A month later, the Islanders are at minus-6. Only two of the 16 teams holding a playoff position before the start of Wednesday’s play had allowed more goals than they had scored. So the Islanders must continue this upward trend in their play.

The way DeAngelo, Perunovich and Boqvist have helped since they joined the lineup has been impressive and Lamoriello deserves credit for quickly identifying players to plug into the lineup.

Roy was asked after Tuesday’s match whether the trio’s quick integration signals that they’ve learned the Islanders’ defensive system quickly or they’re playing on instincts.

“Instincts,” Roy said. “It’s not a complicated system that we have.”

One of Roy’s first changes when he became coach midway through last season was to switch to a man-to-man scheme.

“Boqvist was playing man-on-man in Florida,” Roy said. “Tony was playing man-on-man in Carolina. Maybe it was different for Scott [with St. Louis] but he’s a smart player. I asked him after a couple of games and he said it was an easy adjustment for him.”

Which is good since the defense and goaltending must lead the way for the Islanders.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

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.