MONTREAL — One piece of the weekend’s goaltending puzzle fell into place Saturday morning.
The other was kept close to Patrick Roy’s chest, a rarity for a head coach who’s normally more than willing to share his lineup plans with anyone who asks.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Roy said, when asked about how he intended to split the back-to-back set that started Saturday in Montreal. “We’re playing in Montreal tonight.”
Saturday did feature Ilya Sorokin in the Islanders’ net and — smokescreen or not — Roy’s reticence to get into his plans for Sunday implied that it is a very real option for the Russian to start at home against Columbus, as well.
They might be the two most important games of the Islanders’ season so far, both against teams they’re directly competing with for a playoff spot so late in the season.
With the Blue Jackets being another Metropolitan Division team, though, that game is slightly more important than Saturday’s.
The Islanders have plenty of trust built up in both Sorokin and David Rittich, but it will be tough to go away from the Vezina Trophy contender who has been a rock ever since he came to the organization in 2020.
“It’s just the way he plays,” Casey Cizikas told The Post. “It’s the way he competes.
“His day to day preparation and that’s just what you go off of. You see what he can do in this league where he carries this team. It’s a no-brainer when he’s in between the pipes. He’s arguably the best goalie in the world, in my opinion. That’s the belief we have in him, just the work ethic he puts in.”
Roy switched around his lines on Saturday off a fairly lifeless 3-2 loss in Ottawa two nights prior.
Anders Lee was on the top line with Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal for the first time all season.
Emil Heineman moved down to the second line with Brayden Schenn and Anthony Duclair. Simon Holmstrom was put back with Jean-Gabriel Pageau on a third line completed by Ondrej Palat, while Cal Ritchie dropped to the fourth line on Casey Cizikas’ left wing.
Marc Gatcomb drew back into the lineup on Cizikas’ right to complete the fourth line, having sat the last three games as a healthy scratch, with Kyle MacLean coming out.
“I told [Ritchie], play your game. Play the way you have to,” Cizikas said of the 21-year-old whose skill set seems a tad out of place on the fourth line. “Me and Gats, we’re gonna get in the corners, gonna grind it out. I told him if you have a chance to shoot it, you shoot it.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
