'Calm, cool' Ilya Sorokin looks to be getting a fair amount of time in Islanders' goal
Ilya Sorokin #30 of the New York Islanders makes a save during the second period against Matthew Tkachuk #19 of the Florida Panthers at UBS Arena on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022 in Elmont, New York. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Ilya Sorokin was in net against the Ducks on Saturday night at UBS Arena, marking a second straight start for him to open the Islanders’ season.
Given Sorokin’s emergence in his first two NHL seasons as one of the league’s best goalies, that wasn’t surprising. But it was perhaps an interesting window into how new coach Lane Lambert might deploy his two Russian netminders, Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov.
After all, Lambert’s predecessor, Barry Trotz, always seemed to prefer rotating his goalies, whether it was Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss, Greiss and Varlamov or Varlamov and Sorokin.
The Islanders next play on Tuesday, when they will continue their four-game home-stand against the Sharks, so Varlamov, who made 25 saves in a 5-2 preseason win over the Devils on Oct. 6, will have at least a lengthy 11 days between starts.
“Nothing has really changed since the previous years,” Varlamov said after Saturday’s morning skate. “We communicate with the coaching staff and then they tell us the day before the game who is playing. Just take one game at a time.”
The expectation all along was for Sorokin to play the larger chunk of games this season. That was the case last season, when he played 52 games and Varlamov played 31. But Varlamov missed training camp and the preseason a year ago as he recovered from a knee injury and didn’t make his first appearance until the 10th game.
Both goalies are healthy now.
Sorokin made 26 saves in the Islanders’ season-opening 3-1 loss to the Panthers on Thursday night.
“What you see with him is what you get,” Anders Lee said. “You get a calm, cool, collected, extremely athletic goaltender. The guy reads the plays better than most. He’s tough to put goals past in practice. He proves it in games and he’s got a phenomenal work ethic.”
Sorokin went 26-18-8 with a 2.40 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage last season as the Islanders missed the playoffs for the first time since 2018. He finished second in the NHL in save percentage and fourth in GAA, tying Chico Resch and Varlamov for the team record with seven shutouts. He even got one first-place vote in the Vezina Trophy voting for the NHL’s top goalie, won by the Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin, Sorokin’s longtime friend/on-ice rival.
Sorokin, drafted in the third round in 2014, first joined the Islanders in the playoff bubble in Toronto in 2020, though he was ineligible to play. At the time, he barely spoke English.
Now Sorokin conducts interviews without an interpreter. His personality has emerged in the dressing room as he has gotten more comfortable.
“You’re able to see more of it now than maybe before,” Josh Bailey said. “I think he’s still, at heart, a little more of a quiet guy. You can have conversations with him. You can talk to him. He’s got a sense of humor to him as well. So it’s been fun all of us getting to know him more over the last couple of years.”
Varlamov said getting past the language barrier was key.
“He’s definitely feeling more comfortable about everything, just being in the locker room and around the guys,” Varlamov said. “His English is much, much better. He can understand everything now so it’s easy to communicate with his teammates and coaching staff. And then I think he feels more comfortable about American culture. It’s not easy to come here and spend the first year without family. I went through the same thing. It wasn’t easy.
“But as you get older, you understand people around you. To understand English definitely helps a lot.”
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.
