{"id":554620,"date":"2026-04-17T15:33:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554620\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T15:33:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:33:30","slug":"ny-islanders-ilya-sorokin-shuts-down-vezina-talk-after-playoff-miss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554620\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Islanders\u2019 Ilya Sorokin Shuts Down Vezina Talk After Playoff Miss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5n\">For Ilya Sorokin, any talk of the Vezina Trophy ended the moment the New York Islanders were eliminated. &#8220;No chance,&#8221; he answered when asked what it would mean for him to win the Vezina. Despite another standout individual season, Sorokin made it clear his focus was never on awards. \u201cI never think about this. I think about make playoffs\u2026 and this target not work this year,\u201d he said, dismissing any personal accolades in favor of team results. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5q\">Still, he acknowledged the broader picture. \u201cI think [we] have a good season\u2026 maybe end little bit go down,\u201d he said, pointing to a strong core that includes \u201cgood young guys and great veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5t\">The season\u2019s grind was especially evident late, when Sorokin carried a heavy workload with little time to recover or practice. \u201cIt\u2019s good experience\u2026 just games in my head,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have time to practice\u2026 just coming to rink to play hockey.\u201d <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"60\">While the pace was demanding, Sorokin refused to use it as an excuse. \u201cSometimes you need more rest\u2026 but it\u2019s not excuse,\u201d he said. \u201cTeam believe in me and I should work with this.\u201d He even found a silver lining in the schedule, noting that back-to-backs became easier over time and could help him going forward.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"63\">Through it all, Sorokin remained focused on consistency and accountability. \u201cFor me, perfect is 30 shots\u2026 but you should have to play every game. It\u2019s my job,\u201d he said. He also took time to credit former coach Patrick Roy, calling him a \u201cgreat coach\u201d and emphasizing how much he learned throughout the season.  <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"66\">The Islanders are likely to lean on Sorokin in a similar way next season, and he&#8217;ll have to learn from this experience to be ready and produce down the stretch and hopefully, into the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow eyesonisles.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=eyesonisles.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Ilya Sorokin, any talk of the Vezina Trophy ended the moment the New York Islanders were eliminated.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5110],"tags":[5,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-554620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-islanders","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-islanders","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkislanders","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116420779864468013","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}