St. Paul, Minn. — It didn't turn out the way the islanders had hoped, but Ilya Sorokin can finally rest.
That was the result of coach Lane Lambert's relentless pull in the final 20 minutes of Monday night's 5-0 loss to the Wild.
Sorokin, who stopped 29 of 32 shots, will have to play during that 20-minute break if he is asked to start Tuesday in Winnipeg, as expected.
“He showed plenty of ability,” Lambert said of Sorokin, who played in 11 consecutive games.
Ken Appleby played in his first NHL game since January 25, 2018 as a reliever and repelled 6 of 8 shots.
“I was very excited,” Appleby said. “I think it's always exciting to be in the NHL. Of course I would have liked to have gone in there and made the saves that were needed to give them a chance to come back. But tonight I didn't. It wasn't. I hope that whenever they need me again, I'll be ready again.”
This will be the Islanders' last back-to-back games until mid-March, so they hope Semyon Varlamov (lower body) can return to the team in some time before such a need arises. There will be.
Sorokin, who has started both games three times in a row, appears poised to start again against the Jets, a must-win game for the Islanders to erase the stain of an embarrassing game. Monday.
Matthew Barzal and Beau Horvat's breakup was a short-lived experiment.
The dynamic duo returned to the top line Monday night as Lambert returned to something resembling the team's normal makeup following Saturday night's 3-1 blowout loss in Nashville.
The Islanders, without Casey Cizikas (lower body), had to settle for a repeat of their usual line, but the top six is back to normal with Horvat centering Barzal and Lee, Brock Nelson and Pierre Envall. and Kyle Palmieri.
Julien Gauthier pulled him back to the third line, and again Jean-Gabriel Pageau was in the center.
With Cizikas unable to play on the fourth line, the Islanders placed Hudson Fassing at center and Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck on either side.
The defensive pairing was also juggled, with Sebastian Aho playing on the right side of Adam Pelech and Scott Mayfield moved down to the third pairing with Mike Riley.
Wild netminder Marc-Andre Fleury won his 552nd career game, passing Patrick Roy and becoming second on the all-time list behind Martin Brodeur.
The Islanders are winless in their last six games against the Wild.
