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Good Morning, Islanders Country.
In Monday’s newsletter, we passed some blame around for the Islanders being mediocre at the midpoint of the season.
One area that wasn’t mentioned was the team’s goaltending - and for good reason. The tandem of Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov has lived up to lofty off-season expectations and shown why GM Lou Lamoriello was so reluctant to trade Valarmov and risk weakening the clear strength of the team.
They’ve been the team’s best player on many nights and, as we’ll soon explain, have had to be. The Islanders wittingly sacrificed defense in an effort to spark their forward group to modest success. After 41 games, it’s fair to say the team defense has regressed more than the offense has excelled.
My podcast co-host, Andy Francess, recently quipped that at their worse, the Islander system is Barry Trotz’s offense with Doug Weight’s defense. There have been too many periods (and nights) where that has been true, leaving Sorokin and Varlamov susceptible to high-danger shots, which is a contributing factor to them leading the league in Goals Saved Above Expected this season.
Entering tonight, the Islanders have allowed 406 High Danger Scoring Chances (HDCA) against, the fifth most in the NHL according to Natural Stat Trick.
These are the only teams allowing more high dangers chances are:
Anaheim Ducks: 533
St. Louis Blues: 428
Vancouver Canucks: 418
Montreal Canadiens: 412
None of these teams are in playoff position - and neither are the Islanders.
Their stat lines are solid. Sorokin has the best GAA and Save % in the Metropolitan Division and will be in the Vezina finalist conversation. He has the third-best Wins Above Replacement (WAR) amongst goalies, according to MoneyPuck, at 3.19. Varlamov, the clear backup for the first time in his career, is 8-4-1 with a 2.75 GAA.
