Islanders looking to keep to rest plan for Ilya Sorokin…
Again and again over the last few seasons, the Islanders fell into the same cycle by which Ilya Sorokin’s brilliance turned a double-edged sword, the seeming want to start him in every game down the stretch main to overuse.
This 12 months, with two further games on the schedule, coach Pete DeBoer is already making an attempt to be certain he doesn’t fall into the same entice.
The Islanders could be in a good race again, and so there could come a point in the season the place it will get laborious to rest Sorokin. So his best wager is to rotate more closely early on, with the aim being at the very least 30 games out of backup Semyon Varlamov.
Ilya Sorokin makes one among his 37 saves in the Islanders’ 6-0 win over the Devils on Oct. 3, 2026 at UBS Arena. Robert Sabo for New York Post
“If we end up in that spot again, I have to make sure I set the table now that he’s capable of doing that without being worn out,” DeBoer said. “That’s exactly why we have to manage early in the season. You have to assume we’re gonna be in a battle right to the wire and if we need to run him a bunch of games in a row down the stretch, he has to have enough gas in the tank to do that.”
Case in point, Sorokin took Saturday’s morning skate off before beginning against the Devils in the house opener, during which he recorded 37 saves in a 6-0 shutout at UBS Arena.
The introduction of a full-time emergency backup goaltender will permit for more cases like that for each Sorokin and Varlamov.
Over the summer season, Sorokin also told Russian outlet Sport Express that a lot of his focus during the offseason was on his physique and recovery, realizing that he could be playing quite a bit.
He clarified to The Post on Friday that didn’t essentially imply altering his routine.
“It was system work. It’s not really a big difference, what I do [now as opposed to] before,” Sorokin said Friday. “It’s work. Hard work. And every player in the summer does it, so it’s nothing special.”
The Islanders pushed again the timeline for Mat Barzal (left kneecap) to start skating for a second time, saying Saturday that he’ll take to the ice both Thursday or Friday while including that he continues to progress properly.
Originally, the plan was for him to take two weeks off from skating, which might have had him again on the ice the same day as the season opener. On Wednesday in Toronto, normal supervisor Mathieu Darche said Barzal would doubtless skate over the weekend or early this week.
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