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.
“I don’t read news,” Sorokin said after the loss, asked about the comment. “So I try to do my best. I try every day. Come to practice and try to do my best.”
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.
“I start moving and puck go in through my legs,” Sorokin said. “S–t moments. It is what it is.”
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.
“We lost. No good,” Sorokin said. “It’s all I can say.”
And the Islanders, for the next 40 minutes, didn’t do nearly enough 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 switched midgame to a new combination of forward lines to no avail.
Even as Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” played over the public address system 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.
“We gotta come with some positive feelings in here,” captain Anders Lee said. “We’re feeling it. It’s not going our way. To end it, we’ve gotta find a way to have each other’s backs, to play together, to have that energy. Let’s go try to start a game with the lead, go from there.
“We got a lot of hockey left. It’s obviously dwindling, but the race is tight. We’re in that race. We’re right there.”
The thing is, Sorokin is usually the Islanders’ trump card in these situations.
Which is what makes this loss more alarming than all the others.
Sorokin did finish with 30 saves and didn’t let a goal in after the first period — and Roy made sure to praise his recovery from the opening 20 minutes. But the damage was done.
“I thought after the third goal, he came back strong in that second and third period,” Roy said. “That I was very pleased to see, absolutely.”
Tuesday, though, was the first time 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 — and the picture got worse Tuesday with the Red Wings and Flyers both winning to put the Islanders three points back of a playoff spot — getting there again this year feels like a near-impossibility if Sorokin can’t find his game.
