The White Whale of the Islands entered the NHL on Saturday night.
After Semyon Varlamov got his puck in the throat during the warm-up, Ilya Sorokin made his NHL debut in the Islanders’ 5-0 loss to Madison Square Garden 2,934 days after the organization ranked him 78th in 2014.
Head coach Barry Trotz did not have an immediate update from Varlamov, who posted a game against Rangers in Thursday’s season opener. Cory Schneider served as a backup just one day after officially signing his one-year deal with the islanders.
While the Islanders waited patiently for the 25-year-old Sorokin to be ready for the NHL, Trotz made it clear that Sorokin’s debut was not what they had hoped for.
“I hung him to dry,” Trotz said in a Zoom call after the loss.
Trotz also noted that “it is not acceptable” that Varlamov was injured during the warm-up, adding that it is unfair to Sorokin.
In the first period, Sorokin, 25 years old, allowed two goals to his teammate Pavel Buchnevich and Artemi Panarin in the first 10 shots he faced. He finished the night with 27 saves on 32 shots.
“Know [him] quite a bit, ”Alexandar Georgiev said of Sorokin last week. “We worked together on the national team a few years ago. Wonderful goal a great guy. I have good things to say about him, obviously. I think he’s a great goalkeeper. ”
Tony DeAngelo was a healthy scratch for the Rangers in Saturday’s rematch against the islands.
Rangers defender skated with the taxi crew on Friday after being called up for unsportsmanlike conduct at one minute and five seconds in the third period of Thursday’s 4-0 loss to the Isles. DeAngelo, who was already a healthy scratch under David Quinn for what the Rangers head coach described as “maturity issues”, slammed the penalty box door and opened his mouth to the referees after committing a penalty.
“Listen, there’s just a lot of stuff we’ll keep in the house, and this is one of them,” Quinn said before Saturday’s contest at Madison Square Garden. “Tony and I talked about it. There is clarity about what happened here. That was the thing to do and he will be back in line soon. ”
Asked if he would scratch any other player in the lineup if he behaved the way DeAngelo did on Thursday, Quinn said he would and that it had nothing to do with the fact that he was a repeat offender in DeAngelo.
“This would have happened to any player, it has nothing to do with Tony,” he said.
After slow starts in their first NHL game on Thursday, debutants K’Andre Miller and Alexis Lafreniere seemed to be settling into the professional level in Saturday’s victory.
“They both played a much better game of hockey, they played with the fanfare, that is, they were not intimidated,” said Rangers coach David Quinn. “It’s a difficult team to play, we played for them. It’s a men’s game every time you play Islanders and for the two guys to step forward and not be intimidated and play with the passion and bragging they played with is a great sign for us. ”
Buchnevich equaled his career maximum in a single game with two goals and three points in victory. He also led all the skaters with five shots at goal and recorded a plus-two.