For the Islanders to win seven of their past nine games, finally beginning to turn their season in the right direction, a lot of things had to start going right all at once.
One of the more underrated factors: The emergence of Marcus Hogberg as a solid backup goalie.
Not only has Hogberg played well in his own right, with an excellent .946 save percentage over four starts in the month of January, he has allowed the Islanders to give Ilya Sorokin some much-needed nights off every now and then.
The impact on Sorokin’s game after he started all but one game for the entire month of December — a product of Semyon Varlamov being hurt and Hogberg not yet having the trust of coach Patrick Roy — has been enormous.
- Sorokin in December: 5-6-1, .873 save percentage, 3.45 GAA, minus-8.16 goals saved above expected, per Evolving Hockey.
- Sorokin in January: 5-2-0, .930 save percentage, 2.00 GAA, 5.67 goals saved above expected, per Evolving Hockey.
That does not appear to be merely coincidental, particularly after the way Sorokin broke down at the end of last season — which looked like a product of a workload induced, in large part, by Varlamov getting hurt for a spell in January.
So if the upper-body injury that knocked Hogberg out of Saturday’s win over the Hurricanes before overtime ends up being serious, the ramifications could go beyond merely the backup goalie.
The Islanders did not hold practice Sunday following back-to-back games, so there was no update on Hogberg’s status.
With Sorokin having been rested on Saturday, at least until the 2:03-long overtime period, it figures that he would be in line to start against the Avalanche Tuesday — and likely in Philadelphia on Thursday — anyway.
If Hogberg does need to miss time, though, Sorokin’s workload could get bloated quickly. The Islanders’ in-house options to replace Hogberg are less than ideal.
Jakub Skarek and Henrik Tikkanen, who have been the goalie tandem for AHL Bridgeport since Hogberg was called up, have save percentages of .898 and .845, respectively.
Hunter Miska, who was recently signed from Dynamo Moscow as another AHL option, had a .908 save percentage in the KHL this season and has played two games in the minors so far, allowing eight goals on 58 shots.
Skarek has gotten the emergency call in the past, but it’s unknown whether that would still be the plan. Regardless, it’s hard to picture any of those three getting an NHL start over Sorokin unless a dramatic circumstance arises.
Sorokin has played on back-to-back days before, so that could be a possibility for next weekend’s pair of games in Florida.
It’s obvious, though, that Sorokin’s game suffers with that sort of workload.
Varlamov, who has yet to practice with the team, does not look likely to return in the near future.
That leaves the Islanders hoping that either this is an injury from which Hogberg can recover quickly or that mere days after conjuring Tony DeAngelo from nowhere, Lou Lamoriello can pull another rabbit out of his hat to address the Islanders’ situation in the crease.
