Patrick Roy to go with Semyon Varlamov in goal Tuesday vs. Rangers

Patrick Roy is, by nature, an experimenter.

The need and desire to tinker is part of the reason why he is on the short list of greatest goaltenders in NHL history and has a plaque permanently residing in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

But there are times when pragmatism overrules the predominant inclination to tweak. Such as when a team is in a desperate playoff push with five games and a week-and-a-half remaining in the regular season.

This is why Roy announced after practice Monday morning at Northwell Health Ice Center that Semyon Varlamov will start Tuesday night’s game against the NHL-leading Rangers at UBS Arena.

“It’s hard to go against [Varlamov] right now,” Roy said. “He’s been playing so well.”

Varlamov is 4-1-0 in his last five starts dating to March 23 and has a .938 save percentage, 2.20 goals-against average and a shutout. He has allowed only 11 goals in that span on 178 shots faced.

“I’m not surprised,” Roy said. “If I have a Jack Adams [won as NHL coach of the year after the 2013-14 season] it’s because of him. I know how good he is and I [knew] what he could do when he gets in that zone.”

Essentially, both Varlamov’s recent performances and his history with Roy contributed to the coach’s decision to start him over Ilya Sorokin.

And that may be for the best, as Sorokin was struck by a puck on his blocker hand and dropped to the ice for a moment during Monday’s practice. Sorokin took off the blocker and flexed his hand. Later he went to the bench to get his wrist taped.

When asked directly if he had an update on Sorokin, Roy said he did not know that the 28-year-old had been shaken up.

So Roy is riding the hot hand and a relatively hot team — the Islanders have won four straight — into the third of four games against the Rangers this season.

And it may be a preview of a first- or second-round Stanley Cup playoff series.

The Islanders (35-27-15, 85 points) are third in the Metropolitan Division, one point ahead of Pittsburgh (which lost, 3-2, in overtime to the Maple Leafs on Monday night) and two points ahead of Washington and Philadelphia. The Islanders have a game in hand on Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and have played the same number of games as Washington.

If the Rangers finish the season as the top seed in the Eastern Conference, they will play the second wild-card team in the first round. As such, the rivals could meet in the playoffs for the first time since 1993-94 in the first round if the Islanders are the second wild card. Or they could meet in the second round if the Islanders upset Carolina in the first round and the Rangers defeat either Pittsburgh or Detroit.

But the potential playoff machinations do not matter if the Islanders are unable to beat the Rangers, who have won the first two regular-season matchups.

“There was a point in those games where it could have gone either way,” Mathew Barzal said. “It’ll be a good test for us.”