NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Seven-hundred and twelve long, testing days later, Semyon Varlamov skated off the ice Tuesday evening with an NHL victory in hand.
The last one, all the way back on Nov. 14, 2024 in Vancouver, was under a different coach and a different general manager and with a roster that included current Islanders front office advisor Matt Martin. Varlamov got hurt at the end of that month.
Since then, he’s undergone two partial knee replacements, months of endless rehab and faced the near-universal expectation that his career was over.
So before you start unpacking the Islanders’ 4-3 win and Bo Horvat’s shootout winner to beat the Predators on Tuesday night, start with the human achievement.
Earning a win — and he did earn it on Tuesday, making 20 saves and playing the most confident, controlled game of the four he’s started so far this season — is an awesome achievement in the word’s most literal sense.
It’s been nearly two years since the Ilya Sorokin-Varlamov tandem gave the Islanders endless confidence that whoever was in net on any given net, they would have a shot at winning.
After the front office took a considerable bet on Varlamov’s ability to play at a high level again, that confidence may soon return in full force.
For the Islanders’ immediate fortunes, though, the biggest takeaway was less their goaltending and more their skaters.
After coach Pete DeBoer went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen and essentially challenged his team following a loss in Dallas he said was their first poor performance all season, the Islanders responded in kind.
They were up ice and physical, their passes crisp and their battle level high.
The best example all night came at the start of the second period, when the Islanders passed the puck around the zone for nearly a minute without pause before Matthew Schaefer’s feed across gave Bo Horvat a one-timer to rocket past Juuse Saros.
That made it 3-0, albeit early enough in the night that the Predators couldn’t be declared dead yet.
Indeed, the Islanders didn’t get out of the second before getting into trouble.
On a night that featured a whistle-happy refereeing crew, the Islanders had killed their first three penalties. On their fourth — a Brayden Schenn hook — it took Filip Forsberg just 14 seconds to finish a no-look pass from Jonathan Marchessault that made it 3-1 at 9:42 of the period.
Just over three minutes later, off a rare Schaefer turnover when the defenseman got crossed up with Ondrej Palat trying to exit the zone, Alexander Kerfoot got the Predators within 3-2.
When the Islanders’ fourth power play of the night went nowhere — just as their first three had — the Predators wasted no time in making them pay. Daemon Hunt’s initial shot trickled through Varlamov’s pads before Ryan O’Reilly stuffed it in to tie the game at 4:16 of the third.
The Islanders were on their heels late in regulation, requiring a few scrambling defensive shifts to get the game to overtime, but they would eventually earn the extra point.
After Schaefer was tripped at the start of overtime, the Islanders exhausted the Predators for a ridiculous 1:45 on a delayed call before Nashville finally got a touch.
Still, somehow, the Islanders — opting to leave Schaefer, Horvat and Simon Holmstrom out for well over four minutes of overtime — couldn’t convert on the power play itself.
Shootout goals from Kyle Palmieri and Horvat sealed it anyway, and Varlamov was enveloped in hugs.
Given Bridgestone Arena’s bogey status for the Islanders — they last won here in 2017, and the last few years have included some truly bizarre defeats — things had looked primed to break against them in the third.
That they didn’t is not only a reason for Varlamov to celebrate, but a reason for the Islanders to breathe a sigh of relief.
Their next three games — at Minnesota, then home to the Oilers and Hurricanes — are all against Stanley Cup contenders. They needed this one before what will be a series of litmus tests.
