Ilya Sorokin’s first shutout of the season might well have been the easiest game of his career.
The 14 shots the Islanders allowed in their 1-0 win over the Coyotes on Tuesday night were the fewest Sorokin ever has faced when playing the entire game, and the first time they’ve allowed fewer than 15 shots on goal since Feb. 2015.
So at least in that sense, this is an odd time to extol the brilliance of the goalie.
But the stat that caught my eye after Tuesday night, courtesy of team statistician Eric Hornick, is Sorokin’s career shutout rate.
The win over Arizona was his 17th career shutout in 135 starts — 12.5 percent. That happens to be the highest in history among goalies with more than 100 starts, edging out Roman Cechmanek (12.2 percent), Ken Dryden (11.8 percent) and Dominik Hasek (11.3 percent).
This is just Sorokin’s fourth season in the league, and he has a long way to go before he can be considered in the same class as the likes of Hasek and Dryden.
But because he is on pace to be keeping that kind of company, it might be time to stop thinking about him as merely an extremely good netminder.
Consider that Sorokin is playing in a relatively high-scoring era, with the past two seasons averaging more goals per game than any since the mid-1990s.
And, despite the Islanders’ reputation, Sorokin largely has not played for great defensive teams. Over the past two seasons (2021-23), the Islanders ranked 26th in high-danger chances allowed per 60.
Last season, by Evolving Hockey’s measure of goals saved above expected, Sorokin had the best season by an individual goaltender since the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist in 2009-10 — and the second-best since 2007-08, when the stat began to be tracked.
It is impossible to call someone a historic player based on three full seasons. But this is a positively Koufax-ian run from Sorokin.
On Tuesday, he moved into third all-time on the franchise list for career shutouts, and he’s easily on pace to pass Chico Resch (25) and Billy Smith (22) within a couple of years if he stays healthy.
If you ask Sorokin about this, by the way, he will tell you in short and no uncertain terms that he does not care in the slightest.
His total and complete focus on his job is near unmatched, even among elite athletes. On Tuesday, asked about how well the defense played, Sorokin gave them deserved credit, but seemed almost a little disappointed he hadn’t seen more shots.
“It’s easier, but for goalie, it’s two sides of [a] mental [coin],” he told The Post. “When you have a lot of shots, you feel a little in control of the game.”
Be that as it may, the Islanders’ shot suppression through two games has been perhaps the most improved element of the team. They’re third in the league in shots allowed per 60 minutes and second in high-danger chances allowed.
Make of that whatever you want — a pair of games at home against Buffalo and Arizona is not worth shouting from the rooftops over. But the Islanders don’t need to be the best defensive team in the league when they have Sorokin in nets, such is the advantage he provides.
If they are merely league average in shot prevention and Sorokin continues to play at the rate he has for the first 135 games of his career, then the Islanders are going to be a very, very good hockey team.
It’s unlikely Sorokin will put together a second straight season as good as last season in terms of stopping high-danger chances. By pure save percentage, though, he was slightly better in 2021-22, with a .925 mark compared to .924 last season.
By the way, Hasek holds the all-time record in that category with a .9223 mark. Sorokin (.9238) needs to play another 115 games to qualify. If the defense in front of him is better than it was in the first 135 games, who knows what his save percentage could read by then?
Want to catch a game? The Islanders schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.
Thoughts and observations from the first two games
• When we talk about shot prevention, the biggest difference compared to last season is in the slot area.
The below chart, courtesy of HockeyViz, shows that the low slot basically has been a black hole for opposing teams. It won’t stay quite as stark, but if the Isles keep limiting chances from there, it’s a very good thing.
• The first few weeks of last season were about figuring out how to play in Lane Lambert’s system. The defensemen, in particular, look a lot more confident about getting up in the play this time around — there have been a number of times where they’ve been involved in the rush.
• Tuesday was the best game the Islanders have had on the power play since March, or maybe even February. It wasn’t just the goal, it was that they got the basics right — entering the zone without issue, moving the puck around, getting second chances. Spending two straight minutes threatening Arizona’s net was more notable than scoring directly from a faceoff in that regard.
• By the way, here are the Islanders’ faceoff records right now:
Jean-Gabriel Pageau: 21-5
Bo Horvat: 26-16
Casey Cizikas: 14-3
Brock Nelson: 11-13
• A stat that either means something or means nothing, depending on whether it’s sustainable: Noah Dobson’s defensive zone start percentage is up nearly 20 percent compared to last season.
• The third line was much better in Game 2 than in Game 1, but the Islanders so far have avoided using Pageau’s group as a matchup line. Friday’s game against the Devils, whose top line of Jesper Bratt, Jack Hughes and Tyler Toffoli will be the most dangerous the Isles have faced, will answer some questions about how they plan to handle such matchups.
• It’s probably not a good sign that Scott Mayfield, as of Tuesday morning, hadn’t skated after blocking a shot off his leg late in Saturday’s game. The Islanders still described him as day-to-day, but after the way they used that designation to describe players who were out for weeks at a time last season, it’s impossible to take that with anything less than a grain of salt. A medium-term or long-term injury on the right side of the defense would be a pretty big issue given the lack of organizational depth there.
On the farm
Ruslan Iskhakov had a quiet training camp, but bears watching after scoring five points in his first two games at AHL Bridgeport.
So, too, does Quinn Finley — the Isles’ 2022 third-round pick — who has scored twice with an assist in his first four games as a freshman at the University of Wisconsin.
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