Islanders Beat Coyotes 1-0 New York Islanders [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-islanders/game-day/new-york-islanders-overtime-2-for-2-out-of-the-gate] goaltender Ilya Sorokin [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-islanders/game-recaps/new-york-islanders-stan-fischler-arizona-coyotes] earned his first shutout of the season Tuesday night, stopping all 14 shots that came his way in a 1-0 win over the Arizona Coyotes. As a goaltender, you want to feel the puck early and get into a rhythm, but when only seven shots come your way through two periods, it's rather tough to stay engaged and sharp. But Sorokin had no issues. "I think he's got to stay sharp, and that's part of a goaltender's makeup, is to keep yourself sharp, regardless of what kind of workload you're getting," Islanders head coach Lane Lambert said. "On any given night -- and he's very good at that -- he's very focused." Sorokin shutting out the Coyotes is nothing new, with three in five career starts against them. He shut the desert dogs out twice during his sophomore season, 2021-22. The talk is that Mathew Barza [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-islanders/features/mathew-barzal-new-york-islanders-bo-horvat-center-wing-production]l and Bo Horvat [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-islanders/features/bo-horvat-new-york-islanders-vancouver-canucks-trade-lamoriello#:%7e:text=%22I%20mean%2C%20I'm,a%20lot%20out%20of%20myself.] make up the Islanders' strongest dynamic duo, but Sorokin and shutouts may be up there. Sorokin, who led the NHL with six shutouts in 2022-23, now has 17 for his career, moving him ahead of Rick DiPietro for third all-time in franchise history. Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjAxNTgwMDAxMjQ0NDg5MDg5/screenshot-2023-10-18-at-73300-am.png] What makes the feat more impressive is that he's done it in only 135 career games, a pace of one shutout about every eight games. That pace has put him among the likes of two top goalies in Islanders history, including Glenn "Chico" Resch and Billy Smith. Resch holds the top spot on the list with 25 clean sheets, while Smith boasts 22. However, when evaluating the average for appearances between shutouts, Sorokin's pace tops them both. Resch averaged over 11 games between shutouts over his 282 appearances with the Islanders, while Smith averaged over 30 games between clean sheets. New Jersey Devils Hall of Fame netminder Martin Brodeur holds the records for most shutouts by a goalie, with 125. He averaged a shutout every 10 games. Sorokin has a ways to go before matching Smith's franchise record of 674 games between the pipes, but he'll likely record five more shutouts well before that number. If Sorokin maintains his pace and reaches Resch's 282 games, his projected shutout total will be 35, shattering the franchise record in the same amount of games. Wins are the most important thing for a hockey team, and shutouts are a guaranteed way to get two points regardless of their offensive output (unless the opposing goaltender also records a shutout. Then things get awkward in overtime). Sorokin now has 72 wins, which is good for eighth all-time in team history, and makes up a .533 winning percentage. However, his pacing there clears his company on the rankings. Sorokin handily clears Glenn Healy's .375 winning percentage and didn't miss Rolan Melanson's pace by much. Melanson recorded 77 wins in 136 games during the team's dynasty era, a .566 mark. Despite not clearing Melanson, his pace clears several goalies who played more games for the team and currently sit in front of him on the list: * undefined * undefined * undefined While Sorokin's current mark doesn't quite clear the likes of Resch's .557 mark (157 wins in 282 games), his number beats Smith's .451 percentage. If you are wondering why Smith's winning percentage is below 500, that's because, for this metric, we didn't include ties. Ties shouldn't count as wins, so, because he had 104 ties, and they count as half a win, that equals 52 more wins, then making his "winning" percentage .528. These comparisons mean that if Sorokin maintains his current percentage, he'll boast more wins than most of these netminders by the time he reaches their total games played. So, how can you not call Sorokin and Shutouts a dynamic duo? Matthew Page [https://twitter.com/matthewpage24] contributed to this story.
