Again and again over the last few seasons, the Islanders fell into the same cycle in which Ilya Sorokin’s brilliance became a double-edged sword, the seeming need to start him in every game down the stretch leading to overuse.
This year, with two extra games on the schedule, coach Pete DeBoer is already trying to make sure he doesn’t fall into the same trap.
The Islanders might be in a tight race again, and so there may come a point in the season where it gets hard to rest Sorokin. So his best bet is to rotate more heavily early on, with the goal being at least 30 games out of backup Semyon Varlamov.
“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 starting against the Devils in the home opener, during which he recorded 37 saves in a 6-0 shutout at UBS Arena.
The advent of a full-time emergency backup goaltender will allow for more instances like that for both Sorokin and Varlamov.
Over the summer, Sorokin also told Russian outlet Sport Express that much of his focus during the offseason was on his body and recovery, knowing that he would be playing a lot.
He clarified to The Post on Friday that didn’t necessarily mean changing 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 back the timeline for Mat Barzal (left kneecap) to begin skating for a second time, saying Saturday that he will take to the ice either Thursday or Friday while adding that he continues to progress well.
Originally, the plan was for him to take two weeks off from skating, which would have had him back on the ice the same day as the season opener. On Wednesday in Toronto, general manager Mathieu Darche said Barzal would likely skate over the weekend or early this week.
