New York Islanders netminder Ilya Sorokin was electric during the 2022-23 season but hasn't been the same goaltender here in 2023-24.
New York Islanders netminder Ilya Sorokin was electric during the 2022-23 season but hasn't been the same goaltender here in 2023-24.
New York Islanders netminder Ilya Sorokin was electric during the 2022-23 season.
Sporting a 2.34 GAA, a .924 SV%, and a league-leading six shutouts in 62 games, Sorokin was the Islanders' MVP and the prime reason they snuck into a playoff spot.
However, this season has gone much different.
In 49 games this season, Sorokin has a 3.03 GAA, a .908 SV%, and two shutouts, which are career worsts.
Yes, he's faced the most shots in the NHL (1,604).
He's under siege most nights and hasn't been provided with much support, leaving the balance or results in his hand.
But that was the case last season, and he found a way to weather the storm.
You can dive into every advanced statistic that you want to try and prove that he's been good and just "hung out to dry", but they'll clearly show that he hasn't been as sharp this season.
And this is not to say that he's been a below-average goaltender and that the Islanders are sitting a point out of a playoff spot with 15 games to go because of him.
That's not the case at all. But everyone has a part to play in the failures.
We saw last season just how good Sorokin can be when he's on top of his game, and this season, there have been too many games where he hasn't been the player he's proven to be:
One area in which Sorokin has really struggled this season is on the penalty kill. This is a by-product of the Islanders' penalty kill being a league-worst 71.8 percent and the lack of structure, which puts Sorokin at a significant disadvantage.
But he's been a part of the penalty kill woes:
But let's forget the advanced statistics.
Just watch the games.
If you have tuned in for Islanders games this season, there's no debating he hasn't been the machine he was a season ago. There's goals that are going in this season that Sorokin has proven he is more than capable of stopping, regardless of how difficult.
Sorokin's rebound control and puck tracking haven't been as sharp, and he's often found himself deep in his crease, which increases the chance of straight shots and deflections beating him.
To be fair to Sorokin, the amount of pressure on his shoulders is immeasurable and likely...well...unfair.
The effort in front of him has been consistently poor.
It's not on him when the defense fails to box out in front of a goal, or a forward fails to pick up their man on the backcheck.
As of late, a lack of support in the goal column leaves little room for error, but there's been more than a handful of games where the Islanders have scored what should have been enough goals to win the game, and they came away without two points.
At this point of the season, stats don't matter to anyone. What happened the game before doesn't matter.
All that matters is what players do with 15 games to go.
If the Islanders are going to qualify for the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, they need Sorokin to be the Sorokin they just signed to an eight-year extension worth $8.25 million annually, or they're in trouble.
That's the situation and risk for any team that builds from the goaltender on out.