A five-day break in late October came at just the right time for the road-weary New York Islanders.
On Saturday afternoon in Nashville, they’ll find out if the early respite provided Semyon Varlamov enough time to complete his recovery from injury and make his season debut.
The Islanders resume the second-longest road trip in NHL history when they face the Predators in the first game between the teams in more than 20 months.
New York hasn’t played since Sunday, when Ilya Sorokin stopped all 42 shots he faced and became the first goalie in franchise history to post shutouts in both ends of a back-to-back in a 2-0 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Predators have been off since Tuesday, when they beat the visiting San Jose Sharks, 3-1.
The recent play by Sorokin, who has played all six games in net with Varlamov sidelined, has helped the Islanders steady themselves and avoid a disastrous start to a potentially season-defining 13-game road trip. After being outscored 11-4 in consecutive losses to open the season, New York is 3-0-1 in the last four games, a span in which Sorokin has stopped 136 of 140 shots.
Still, the return of Varlamov will be welcomed by a team that’s juggled two goalies throughout Barry Trotz’s four-year tenure. Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss earned the Jennings Trophy after New York allowed the fewest goals in the NHL in 2018-19 before Varlamov and Greiss helped spark a run to the NHL semifinals in the Edmonton bubble in the summer of 2020.
Sorokin succeeded Greiss last season, when he went 13-6-3 in the regular season before winning three straight games against the Pittsburgh Penguins to close out an Eastern Conference quarterfinal series. Varlamov started the final 12 playoff games, during which he suffered the undisclosed injury that lingered into this season.
Trotz said Thursday he wasn’t sure if Varlamov would play Saturday and that his goal was to ensure the veteran goalie was ready to handle his usual workload upon his return.
“It’s just getting the right balance,” Trotz said. “The starting point for ‘Varly,’ no matter when you put him in, will be his starting point. He’s not going to be any more rusty than he would be now. He could go in Nashville, he could go in Montreal (next Thursday) or he could go in later next week.”
The Predators have also begun bouncing back from a slow start with consecutive wins. Nashville was outscored 17-12 in opening 1-4-0 but never trailed in a 5-2 win over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday nor in Tuesday’s victory over the Sharks.
The last two wins were sparked by early power-play goals for the Predators, who scored twice with the man advantage against the Wild and took a quick lead Tuesday when Matt Duchene scored on the power play 1:20 into the first.
“I think that the guys really understand how we want to play,” Predators coach John Hynes said Tuesday night. “We’re getting good goaltending, our special teams are performing at a level that you need them to perform at to help you win. And then I think our 5-on-5 game, for the most part, is consistent.”
The Islanders and Predators haven’t played since Feb. 13, 2020, when Craig Smith collected a hat trick and goalie Juuse Saros recorded 31 saves as host Nashville cruised to a 5-0 win.
–Field Level Media
