A coaching change ignited Ilya Sorokin's stellar play, now propelling the Islanders' critical road trip with game-saving heroics.
The New York Islanders won another game on Monday night, snapping the New Jersey Devils' seven-game home win streak with a 3-2 overtime victory, sparked mainly by incredible play from Ilya Sorokin.
After a shaky start to the season, Sorokin's play became highly scrutinized, and on Oct. 22, iit cost Islanders' goalie coach Piero Greco his job.
Islanders' general manager Mathieu Darche promoted Sorokin's former goalie coach in Russia and then-Bridgeport's goalie coach, Sergei Naumovs, to the NHL job.
A little under a month later, and the change has done wonders for Sorokin. There's no reason to believe that Naumovs' ways and tips are drastically different from what Greco was sharing. That's per Sorokin himself. But what's clear is that the move to elevate Naumovs either reset Sorokin or woke him up. Regardless, the results have been tremendous for the franchise.
Since the goalie coach change, Sorokin is 3-1-2 with a 2.11 GAA and a .921 SV%.
It's his peak form, and it's helping the Islanders realize they need to play to their ceiling, whether it's clobbering the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden or stymying a lethal team like the Devils.
The 5-0 shutout of the Rangers moved Sorokin to second place in the franchise's all-time shutout list, by the way, passing Billy Smith.
Still, with New Jersey's speed and talent, they controlled large portions of last night's game. Without Sorokin back to elite form, they could've been blown out.
Instead, Sorokin came ready to play. Moneypuck.com had Sorokin making 3.33 goals saved above expected, a supremely high number that demonstrates just how well he played.
“Please, tell all [the] bad words about me,” Sorokin said following Monday's win. “After this, I play better.”
When Sorokin's at his best, there's no ceiling high enough for this team. The team has its best forward group in a very long time, with this recent run of form coming without the highly skilled Maxim Shabanov in the mix to boot.
While Sorokin is making more saves in big moments as of late, you will also notice that he is playing the puck a lot more.
"He was playing the puck tonight, which is great to see him still trying to get better," Mathew Barzal said. "He's one of the best goalies in the world. So he's a competitor, and he's our backbone."
Anders Lee added: "He just looks tall and strong and confident, even going out and playing the puck, stuff like that. His game feels complete. His rebound control… he’s kicking pucks into the corners. He’s been on as of late.”
Leaky defense can be mitigated when you have Sorokin playing at an elite level, and that's something so valuable to the Islanders.
This road trip only gets harder from here, with some of the most potent offenses in the league ready to pounce. For the Islanders to not just survive, but thrive on this road trip, Sorokin will need to keep rolling.