If you’ve been watching the New York Islanders lately, you’ve noticed the shift. It’s not just in the win column—though, sitting second in the Metropolitan Division, that’s certainly where it counts—but in the posture of the team itself. For the better part of a month, there was a tentative quality to their game, the kind of hesitation that comes when a squad isn’t quite sure if the next mistake will end up in the back of their net.
That hesitation is gone. In its place is a swagger we haven’t seen on Long Island in some time.
The reason isn’t a new system or a deadline acquisition. It’s the return of the franchise cornerstone to elite form. Ilya Sorokin isn’t just playing well; he is arguably the single most valuable asset in the National Hockey League right now. For a team built on structure and accountability, having a goaltender who can erase the inevitable breakdowns of an 82-game season isn’t just a luxury—it’s the entire business model.
The “White Whale” Returns
We talk a lot in this league about “moving the needle.” It’s a cliché, usually reserved for elite centers or puck-moving defensemen. But the reality of the modern NHL is that elite goaltending is the great equalizer. It is the only position that can unilaterally drag a team into contention.
Sorokin has spent the last two weeks proving exactly that.
He’s won five of his last six games, and it has been nothing short of a clinic in technical goaltending. We aren’t talking about scrambling, athletic desperation saves (though he has those in his bag); we are talking about a .910 save percentage and a calm efficiency that borders on arrogance.
Head coach Patrick Roy, a man who knows a thing or two about the psychological warfare of goaltending, put it best this week: Sorokin is making it “look easy.” That’s the highest compliment you can pay a netminder. When Sorokin is dialed in, he swallows rebounds. He kills plays before they start. The chaos in the crease vanishes because he doesn’t allow second opportunities. He has 12 victories, but the last five have been a statement: the Islanders are a legitimate threat in the East, and it starts from the crease out.
A Gauntlet of Giants
It is one thing to pile up wins against the league’s bottom-feeders. It is entirely another to stare down the barrel of the NHL’s heavyweights and not blink.
Sorokin’s recent stretch has been a murderers’ row of competition. Take the victory against the Colorado Avalanche. Before running into Sorokin, the Avs were essentially playing a different sport than the rest of the league—top of the table, with only one regulation loss in their first 26 games. They are an offensive juggernaut designed to overwhelm goaltenders.
Sorokin’s response? A 35-save performance in a 6-3 victory that wasn’t as close as the score suggests. He stabilized the game when Colorado surged, allowing the Islanders’ offense to find its footing.
Then there was the Tampa Bay Lightning. In a league that is increasingly becoming a series of mini-playoff matchups, the Islanders’ recent clashes with Tampa were a litmus test. Sorokin faced a staggering volume of rubber—97 shots and 64 high-danger chances across a three-game sample against the Bolts. These aren’t perimeter floaters; these are Grade-A scoring chances from a team that knows how to finish.
He gave up three goals. Total.
That is an absurdity. To face nearly 100 shots from a team like Tampa and operate at that level of efficiency is the difference between a wild-card chase and home-ice advantage. Casey Cizikas, who has seen his fair share of elite goaltending, didn’t mince words after the recent shutout, noting that without Sorokin, the two points were never happening. He made “massive save after massive save,” turning what could have been a scheduled loss into a confidence-building win.
Chasing Chico
History has a way of contextualizing greatness, and Dec. 6 marked a significant milestone for Sorokin. With his blanking of the Lightning, he recorded his 25th career shutout.
For the uninitiated, that ties him with Glenn “Chico” Resch for the most in franchise history. Resch is royalty in Long Island, a symbol of the dynastic era where goaltending was the bedrock of championships. For Sorokin to reach that number this quickly into his tenure is a testament not just to his talent, but to his consistency.
Tying a record like that does two things. First, it cements his legacy on the Island. Second, and perhaps more importantly for this season, it offers a tangible reminder to the locker room of who they have playing behind them. When you know you have a guy chasing franchise history in your net, you play differently. You clear the front of the net with a little more vigor. You block that extra shot. Success breeds buy-in.
The Numbers Behind the Eye Test
If you want to understand how good Sorokin has been, you have to look at “goals saved above expected” (GSAx).
In layman’s terms, this stat measures the difficulty of the shots a goalie faces. It calculates how many goals an average NHL goalie would have allowed given the shot quality, and compares it to the actual result.
In the shutout win against Tampa, Sorokin posted a GSAx of 4.22.
To put that in perspective: if you put a league-average goalie in the net for that game, the Islanders lose 4-2. Sorokin didn’t just stop the shots he was supposed to stop; he erased four goals that should have gone in. In another win against the Lightning, he posted a .968 save percentage and saved 3.73 goals above expected.
These aren’t marginal gains. These are game-stealing numbers. He is taking losses and turning them into wins. He is taking tight games and turning them into comfortable victories.
The Road Ahead
So, where does this leave the Islanders?
They are currently third in the Eastern Conference, a position that seemed optimistic just a month ago. While the coaching staff will preach that this is a collective effort—and it certainly is—the reality is that this run is built on the back of #30.
We are watching a goaltender at the absolute peak of his powers. He is stealing wins against teams that are superior on paper, masking defensive lapses, and giving the Islanders the one thing every contender needs: a chance to win every single night, regardless of who is on the other side of the ice.
If this form holds, we aren’t just looking at a playoff team. We are looking at a team that can play well into the spring. The structure is there, the accountability is there, but most importantly, the elite goaltending is back.
As the rest of the Metro is starting to realize, that moves the needle more than anything else.
AI tools were used to support the creation or distribution of this content, however, it has been carefully edited and fact-checked by a member of The Hockey Writers editorial team. For more information on our use of AI, please visit our Editorial Standards page.
