The Islanders’ Ferrari broke down on the start line and got put back in the garage.
Patrick Roy gave Ilya Sorokin the hook midway through the second period of Game 3 against the Hurricanes after Sorokin allowed three goals on 14 shots to put the Islanders in a 3-1 hole on Thursday night at UBS Arena.
Semyon Varlamov, who started the first two games of the series, got the net the rest of the way.
AP
Roy, before the game, had likened the Islanders’ goaltending tandem to a Cadillac and a Ferrari — an analogy once used by his own goaltending coach with the Canadiens, Francois Allaire, in relation to Brian Hayward and Roy.
“I was the Ferrari,” Roy said. “Could be a little more bumpy and all this. So today, we’re going with the Ferrari.”
After Sorokin struggled to play to his standard for much of the regular season and lost the starting job to Varlamov for the last month — with Roy calling him out in the leadup to the switch — there’s a bigger-picture conversation to be had here when the season ends.
Can Sorokin recover his 2022-23 form?
Does Roy trust him enough to make him the unquestioned starter next season?
And if the answer to either of those questions is no, then can the Islanders do anything about it with an eight-year extension kicking in on July 1?
With at least one more game left in the season, the time for those questions isn’t just yet.
But it might be coming soon.
