A day that started with Islanders coach Patrick Roy acknowledging Ilya Sorokin could be playing better turned into a full-blown catastrophe when Sorokin let up three goals during the first period of a shambolic 4-1 loss to the Hurricanes at UBS Arena.
“Yeah, I’m not 100 percent pleased with him,” Roy said Tuesday morning. “It’s obvious. And I’m sure he’s not himself.”
While far from a full-throated rip-job, that amounted to the toughest criticism a coach has publicly levied on Sorokin in recent memory.
And because it comes from someone with Roy’s standing as a Hall of Fame goaltender, there was added weight.
Once the game against Carolina started, things got worse fast.
After the Islanders played the first few minutes on the front foot, showing energy and initiative that had been missing from Sunday’s 5-2 loss at the Garden to the Rangers, Sorokin let in a soft goal when Seth Jarvis’ slow-rolling shot from in front of the right post squeaked through his pads.
It wasn’t just one of the worst goals Sorokin has allowed this season, but it appeared to put both the Islanders and the crowd into a shell-shock.
Just 2:05 later, the Hurricanes capitalized, catching four Islanders defenders puck-watching as Jarvis scored a second goal — this one not at all the netminder’s fault — off Jake Guentzel’s feed.
Before the horn sounded, though, Sorokin did have another rough moment, letting Martin Necas beat him clean off the rush at 19:58 of the period for a power-play goal.
That sent the Islanders into the dressing room down 3-0 to the sound of boos from their home fans and made a potential comeback on the ’Canes all but impossible.
And the Islanders, for the next 40 minutes, did little to will it into existence, with Kyle Palmieri’s goal early in the third period accounting for their only scoring.
That was canceled out later in the period by Guentzel’s empty-netter
Just on Sunday, the Islanders completely failed to show the necessary desperation in a match that carried absolutely massive weight for their playoff chances.
They continued to display a lack of neutral zone structure and ability to break the puck out as Roy tried a new combination of forward lines to no avail.
Even as the public address announcer played Bob Marley’s “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” during a second period in which the Islanders allowed 10 of the first 11 shots, they finished the night on a five-game losing streak and without a readily apparent answer.
And for a long time in those situations, Sorokin has been the answer.
Which is what makes this loss more alarming than all the others.
By the end of the night, his game appeared to have recovered a little — he finished with 30 saves and didn’t let a goal in after the first period.
But the damage was done.
Roy, who clarified multiple times Tuesday morning that he still has faith in the Islanders’ goaltending tandem of Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov, said that facing fewer shots a game might be having a detrimental effect on Sorokin, who was routinely seeing 40 or more attempts when Lane Lambert was the coach.
“When you have less [shots], I guess you have more time to think about, ‘OK, I just let that one in. I know I should’ve had that one,’ ” Roy said. “Your mind is not as free. When you have a lot of shots, 40 shots, you go, ‘You know what, I gave up four goals on 40 shots.’ We’re gonna go on statistics, you go, ‘Oh, it’s not a bad game.’ But you give up four [goals] on 20 shots, one every five shots, that’s not very good. That’s how I was when I was playing.”
Tuesday, though, was the first time that Sorokin appeared truly at a loss from a confidence standpoint, and that would have a disastrous effect on the Islanders’ waning playoff hopes if it is not immediately fixed.
Whether the Islanders are giving up fewer shots or not, their goaltending is their backbone.
Sorokin has bailed them out in game after game over the last few seasons and nearly single handedly got them to the postseason last year.
Whatever the standings or the play in front of him looks like, getting there again this year feels like a near-impossibility if Sorokin can’t find his game.