Patrick Roy’s father, Michel, sent him a text on Thursday morning before Game 3 of the Islanders’ first-round series against Carolina, reminding him of an analogy that Francois Allaire — Montreal’s goalie coach when Roy played there — made years ago.
“Brian Hayward, who was my partner at the time, he said he was a Cadillac,” Patrick Roy said. “It was comfortable. And then I was the Ferrari. Could be a little more bumpy and all this.”
Ilya Sorokin? He’s the Islanders’ Ferrari.
“So today, we’re going with the Ferrari,” Roy said. “We had the Cadillac the first two games. We’re going with the Ferrari.”
Roy’s decision to hand the net back over to Sorokin, a Vezina Trophy finalist just a year ago, was front and center ahead of a must-win Game 3, with the Islanders trying to avoid going down a 3-0 hole to the Hurricanes.
Varlamov, in starting the first two games, hadn’t done much to lose the net, per se.
His .905 save percentage through the two losses was just fine, and if anything undersells how good he was when the Islanders were spending inordinate time in their defensive zone during Game 2.
But even though Varlamov supplanted Sorokin as the No. 1 about a month ago, and even though Sorokin had a tough-by-his-standards regular season, the Islanders’ ceiling is much higher with Sorokin in the net.
And now is the time to take a swing.
“We trust both goalies equally,” Brock Nelson said. “I don’t think there’s one over the other. Ilya tonight, he’ll give us a chance to win every night. We want to play hard in front of him and limit their opportunities.”
When Sorokin was at his best a year ago, the Islanders were depending on him to do more than just give them a chance; they were depending on him to outright steal games for them on a near-nightly basis.
And, as much as they would like to play well enough in front of him that stealing a victory isn’t necessary, they came into Game 3 needing Sorokin to return to that ascendant form.
Not necessarily because they would be asking him to hold up the sky, but because it’s a lot easier to play with some confidence if your superstar is holding up his end of the bargain.
The Islanders’ chances in this series were widely written off before it started, and losing the first two games — including a blown 3-0 lead in Game 2 — did not help the perception that they are simply overmatched by Carolina.
Much as two days between games can help them get over that blown lead, they came into Thursday night in dire need of something to remind them they can compete with the Hurricanes.
Not just empty words about facing adversity or having played well in Game 1, but something they — and the Hurricanes — could see and feel in real time.
Sorokin was the ace up Roy’s sleeve, the Ferrari in his garage. And the time to worry about whether it would be Michael Schumacher or Luca Badoer driving was long in the past.
The best chance to turn the series was to go with the baddest, fastest car.
“Varly and Ilya have such a good relationship and they help each other. I think Ilya understood what was going on because Varly was playing so well and I think it was just normal,” Roy said. “I just feel that he’s coming in the perfect scenario. We’re down 2-0 in the series, now he’s going in.
“All he can do is go and enjoy the ride.”
