Islanders News: Concerned, but not apologizing after Sorokin theft

The issues facing the New York Islanders since at least the trade deadline remained unsolved last night, but this time they had Ilya Sorokin and his Jedi mastery of the Philadelphia Flyers to save the day and provide two points.

Not goals were scored on direct shots of any kind, but thankfully Brian Elliott tried to anticipate and pokecheck Nick Leddy’s overtime pass for Jordan Eberle, which opened up Elliott’s legs just enough to accept the gift of Travis Sanheim’s own interception.

That was enough to earn the Isles the second point after each team was awarded one in regulation.

(And that, friends and pedantic warriors, is why the NHL’s preferred nomenclature of “winless” streak is one I rather appreciate: I like knowing, in a word, whether a team is on a true losing streak or the kind of streak where they’ve made it to OT and just had all coin-flips, bounces and dekes go against them in extra time.)

Islanders News

About last night: Barry Trotz tested most of us by serving notice to the kids, scratching Noah Dobson and hinting that Oliver Wahlstrom’s scratch is coming, and subjecting us to a Braydon Coburn-Andy Greene (on his off side) pairing.

• Ilya steals it again. [LHH | Newsday]
• “We weren’t as sharp as we needed to be,” Trotz said. [Isles | AP]
• Coburn debuts. [Newsday]
• Sorokin is the first rookie in NHL history to record five wins over the Flyers. [Skinny]
• Played well, didn’t matter? A familiar feeling for Flyers fans this season. [BSH]

Now things get super interesting with six games all against either the Capitals or Rangers, starting Tuesday night against the Smurfs at the Coliseum.

Elsewhere

Yesterday’s other NHL scores included quite a collection, including the Bruins beating the Capitals for their fourth in a row, the Rangers completing a four-game sweep over the Devils, the Sabres beating the Penguins (thanks!), and the Canucks returning from their Covid nightmare to beat the Leafs in OT.

• Also, Patrick Marleau tied Gordie Howe’s games played record, and all the opposing Wild players saluted him. [TSN]
• Zach Hyman left that Leafs game after suffering a knee-on-knee hit that got Alex Edler ejected. [Sportsnet]
• Zach Werenski will miss the rest of the season as he undergoes sports hernia surgery. [NHL]
• With 17 team relying on LTIR right now, the league is making that two fingers-to-eyes-to-pointing-at-you-all gesture. [Sportsnet]