If you are handing out blame for the Islanders’ current malaise, Ilya Sorokin’s name might be at the bottom of the list.
And despite having lost five of his last six starts, including three in a row, the star goaltender is not at all worried about his performances.
“I feel good,” Sorokin told The Post after the Islanders’ 5-2 loss in Boston on Thursday night. “But it wasn’t a good score. Last couple games felt good and I’m good.”
Even so, Sorokin’s numbers indicate a slight but noticeable downturn from his otherworldly 2022-23.
His save percentage has dropped from .924 to .907, his goals allowed average is up from 2.34 to 3.24 and, according to Evolving Hockey, his goals saved above expected is barely above water at 0.24 after blowing the league out of the water last year.
In other words, Sorokin has gone from superhuman to solid, at least through his first eight starts.
That does, however, come with the context that he is seeing over 35 shots against per 60 minutes, well up from last season as the Islanders’ defense has badly struggled.
Even David Pastrnak’s power play goal Thursday — a wrist shot from the left circle that got through Sorokin’s pads, the kind he normally saves with ease — was one Sorokin said he didn’t see.
“I’m not frustrated,” he said.
Big picture, the Islanders don’t have anything to worry about in nets right now.
When a goalie is still turning aside over 90 percent of shots and routinely keeping the team in games during a down stretch, it means the goalie in question is pretty good.
And it helps that Semyon Varlamov has been impeccable as Sorokin’s backup, with a .950 save percentage through four games.
The situation does, however, point to a flaw that was evident well before this season started.
The Islanders are depending heavily on Sorokin to win games for them and that means anything less than his best will be hard to weather.
Average, or even slightly above-average, goaltending isn’t going to be good enough.
“Just working,” Sorokin said when asked how the team could turn things around. “Control what you can control and just working. I don’t know a different way.”
Noah Dobson is the first Islanders defenseman since Alexei Zhitnik in 2005-06 with at least 12 points in the team’s first 12 games.
The Isles didn’t practice Friday after returning from Boston.
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