Islanders nip Predators in shootout to give Semyon Varlamov first win since 2024
NASHVILLE, Tenn.— Seven-hundred and twelve long, testing days later, Semyon Varlamov skated off the ice Tuesday evening with an NHL victory in hand.The last one, all the way back on Nov.
14, 2024 in Vancouver, was under a different coach and a different general manager and with a roster that included current Islanders front office advisor Matt Martin.Varlamov got hurt at the end of that month.
Since then, he’s undergone two partial knee replacements, months of endless rehab and faced the near-universal expectation that his career was over.So before you start unpacking the Islanders’ 4-3 win and Bo Horvat’s shootout winner to beat the Predators on Tuesday night, start with the human achievement.Earning a win — and he did earn it on Tuesday, making 20 saves and playing the most confident, controlled game of the four he’s started so far this season — is an awesome achievement in the word’s most literal sense.It’s been nearly two years since the Ilya Sorokin-Varlamov tandem gave the Islanders endless confidence that whoever was in net on any given net, they would have a shot at winning.
After the front office took a considerable bet on Varlamov’s ability to play at a high level again, that confidence may soon return in full force.For the Islanders’ immediate fortunes, though, the biggest takeaway was less their goaltending and more their skaters.After coach Pete DeBoer went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen and essentially challenged his team following a loss in Dallas he said was their first poor performance all season, the Islanders responded in kind.They were up ice and physical, their passes crisp and their battle level high.The best example all night came at the start of the second period, when the Islanders passed the puck around the zone for nearly a minute without pause before Matthew Schaefer’s feed across gave Bo Horvat a one-timer to rocket past Juuse Saros.That made it 3-0, albeit early enough in the night that the Predators c...