Daily Links

NYHN Daily: Islanders Sorokin Shows Growth in Year 1 & More

Published

3 years ago

July 1, 2021

With the offseason now the focus, we look back at the play of rookie netminder Ilya Sorokin, after his first season in North America with the Islanders. After two seasons were negatively impacted by COVID-19, the Islanders and the rest of the NHL are getting set for a normal, 82-game, regular season. These stories and more in today’s daily links!

The New York Islanders have been longing for a franchise-caliber netminder to make his way to Long Island since the Rick DiPietro days. This past regular season, it became abundantly clear that 25-year old rookie netminder Ilya Sorokin has what it takes to fill that role for this Islanders team. After 22 regular-season appearances and another seven starts in the playoffs, it’s clear to see how far Sorokin had come in his first NHL season. (NYI Hockey Now)

The Islanders navigated two COVID-19-impacted seasons, playing in postseason bubbles after a lengthy layoff, then playing at Nassau Coliseum, first without fans but then with attendance steadily increasing. There was daily testing and strict guidelines on social interactions both at home and on the road. Now, the Islanders get set for a normal regular season. (Newsday)

The changes won’t just be coming with the NHL roster for the Boston Bruins as there will reportedly be imminent coaching staff changes as well. Longtime Boston Bruins assistant coach Jay Pandolfo, who worked well with the forward group and with B’s head coach Bruce Cassidy on the power play, will be leaving the Bruins for an associate head coach position with his alma mater Boston University, per a New England Hockey Journal report. (Boston Hockey Now)

For teams looking to make a splash in the defensemen market this offseason, there are only a select group of players available. The Philadelphia Flyers are one of those teams and they’ve already been linked to several defensemen in the early stages of the offseason. While Seth Jones has been the name circling the Flyers, it is Dougie Hamilton who they should be going after. (Philly Hockey Now)

The Washington Capitals still face questions between the pipes, but they could have a solution in Henrik Lundqvist. Despite not playing a game for the Capitals this past season due to open-heart surgery, it may make sense to bring him back for another season. (Washington Hockey Now)

While Tom Callahan of VegasHockeyNow has pointed out how vital it would be for the Vegas Golden Knights to get the name of defenseman Alec Martinez on a new contract, the grist of the rumor mill continues to churn out a concoction that connects the 33-year-old impending unrestricted free agent to the Detroit Red Wings. (Detroit Hockey Now)

The Vegas Golden Knights face quite the conundrum with Marc-Andre Fleury. He’s been the face of the franchise since he arrived and is no doubt one of the most popular players I’ve ever seen on any team. Fans love him, teammates love him, broadcasters love him. He’s just one of those guys you want to talk to because he’s always smiling. Fleury has also expressed his desire to stay in Vegas and finish out his career. Reading between the lines, it almost sounds like he is thinking about retiring after his current contract is up, or if he does decide to play on, doing it on a far more team-friendly deal. (Vegas Hockey Now)

Alex Tanguay, a member of the Detroit Red Wings organization. If you’d said that out loud in any year from roughly 1999-2004, you might have been committed to a Colorado mental institution for blasphemy. In the year 2021? It’s a reality. (Colorado Hockey Now)

The conventional wisdom is that drafting goalies in the first round is a dangerous thing. For the San Jose Sharks, this is especially relevant. The Sharks have suffered from below-average goaltending for the last three seasons, they have the seventh pick of the 2021 NHL Draft, and top netminding prospect Jesper Wallstedt could be available to them at No. 7. Is Wallstedt worth the risk for San Jose? (San Jose Hockey Now)

Blake Coleman broke a tie with 1.1 seconds left in the second period, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 42 saves for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 3-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final at Amalie Arena on Wednesday. (NHL)

The goal will go down as one of the greatest in Tampa Bay Lightning history, for its timing, importance, degree of difficulty and oh-wow-did-you-see-that magic for the 17,166 fans at Amalie Arena on Wednesday, especially if the Lightning win the Stanley Cup. When Blake Coleman dove and batted in a pass from Barclay Goodrow at 19:58 of the second period, it turned Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final and stood up as the winner in a 3-1 victory for the Lightning against the Montreal Canadiens. (NHL)

Jonathan Toews said he plans to play for the Chicago Blackhawks next season after missing this season because of what he called chronic immune response syndrome. “I’m excited to get back to the United Center and play and just go out there and have fun,” the 33-year-old forward said in a video posted to his Twitter account Wednesday. “I think my best is going to come through and I’m excited to get back in front of the fans.” (NHL)

The Montreal Canadiens looked at the positives following what could’ve been a disheartening 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final at Amalie Arena in Tampa on Wednesday. After vowing they would play much better than in their 5-1 loss in Game 1 on Monday, the Canadiens did exactly that. But despite controlling play for much of the game, particularly in a second period when they outshot the Lightning 16-7 but were outscored 2-1, the Canadiens couldn’t put more than one shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy and made enough mistakes to lose. (NHL)

Frederik Andersen and the Toronto Maple Leafs have a mutual interest in the pending free agent goalie re-signing, his agent told The Athletic on Tuesday. The 31-year-old can be an unrestricted free agent July 28, but he told the Maple Leafs through agent Claude Lemieux he would be comfortable sharing playing time with Jack Campbell. Lemieux told the website the Maple Leafs reached out to Andersen to gauge his interest in returning. (NHL)