If the Islanders go down 2-0 to the Bruins in this second-round series that picks up in Boston on Monday night, chances are they wouldn’t want to do so with their No. 1 goaltender on the bench.
And so there is a strong possibility that Semyon Varlamov will replace Ilya Sorokin in nets for Game 2, with head coach Barry Trotz admitting on Sunday that he would “mull over it.”
“The great thing about our goaltending is that you can put anyone in and you can be successful with either one of them,” Trotz said in the early afternoon. “Last series, Ilya started feeling it against Pittsburgh and so we stuck with him.
“He’s playing good [but] I don’t know where I’m going as of yet. I have a couple of more hours to mull over it and Ill let which goalie know who’s playing.”
Sorokin was not the most serious issue in Saturday’s opening 5-2 empty-net abetted defeat but despite Boston’s 40-22 advantage in shots and 58-30 edge in five-on-five attempts, the 25-year-old netminder was not at his best.
In addition to having trouble finding pucks in his skates with Bruins routinely crashing the net, Sorokin allowed a pair of rebound goals to David Pastrnak after kicking initial shots directly into the left circle, where No. 88 was hovering.
Sorokin went 4-0 in the first round with a .943 save percentage and 1.95 GAA in place of Varlamov, who lost both of his starts in Games 2 and 3 while allowing seven goals on 72 shots (.903, 3.61). But the titular No. 1 was coming off a lower-body injury that prevented him from dressing for Game 1.
Presumably healthy and sharp following a stretch of practices, the 33-year-old Varlamov went 5-1 against the Bruins during the regular season with a .943 save percentage and 1.93 GAA. He was the team’s go-to guy throughout a 19-11-4, .929, 2.04, seven-shutout regular season that might earn him a nomination for the Vezina.
As well, Varlamov started 19 of the Islanders’ 22 postseason matches last year in going 11-7 with a .921 save percentage and 2.14 GAA.
Trotz said that the Islanders would go with “the same group,” so that rules out the possibility of Oliver Wahlstrom returning to the lineup for this one. The winger has missed the last two games in the aftermath of sustaining a lower-body injury during the third period of Game 5 of the first round.
Boston second-line winger Craig Smith, who left Saturday’s contest one shift into the third period after having been nailed on a check by Cal Clutterbuck midway through the second, will attempt to participate in the morning skate, “if he’s able to,” according to Boston coach Bruce Cassidy.
Game 3 is set for the Coliseum on Thursday at 7:30, with Game 4 scheduled for Saturday at 7:15. And as for the if-necessaries, Game 5 would be in Boston on June 7, Game 6 on the Island on June 9 and Game 7 in Boston on June 11, with the times TBD.