Varlamov's 676-day wait ends at the Garden, his best road rink
The 38-year-old starts against the Rangers after partial replacements in both knees, with Sorokin playing .968 hockey on the other end of the bench.
Pete DeBoer didn't have to start Semyon Varlamov tonight. His starter is stopping almost everything, and the Islanders could have kept riding him. Putting the 38-year-old in net at Madison Square Garden instead says DeBoer means what he's been saying since camp: this team has two goalies, not a starter and a guy who opens the bench door.
Varlamov gets the start against the Rangers at 7:30 p.m. It's his first regular-season start since Nov. 29, 2024. That's 676 days. In between, he had partial replacements in both knees.
The Ferda number: .968. That's Ilya Sorokin's save percentage through two starts, per NHL data, and a 37-save shutout of New Jersey on Saturday is inside it. It's a small sample, but it's the bar. Sitting a goalie playing like that in a rivalry game is a statement about the backup, not the starter.
The building helps. Varlamov is 5-1-0 at the Garden for his career, with a .950 save percentage and four shutouts. If you were drawing up a soft landing for a comeback, you'd draw the rink where he's been close to unbeatable.
The room has noticed. "To see the commitment and the determination that he had in his eyes, it was fun to watch," Jean-Gabriel Pageau said. Bo Horvat called it "a phenomenal story." DeBoer kept it simple: "I really believe with what I saw in Varly that we have two very good goalies."
The Rangers won't make it easy. They're 3-1-0 and unbeaten at home, and Igor Shesterkin is at .935 through three starts by the same count. They also added Pavel Dorofeyev, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Eeli Tolvanen, Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson over the summer. This isn't the group the Islanders swept 4-0 last season, when they outscored the Rangers 14-3.
Ferda take: the result matters less than the workload. With Varlamov out all of last season, Sorokin carried the load. If Varlamov gives the Islanders 25 starts at anything close to his career .916, DeBoer gets a fresher Sorokin in March. That's worth more than any one night at the Garden, and a rough night tonight doesn't change the math.
What's next: watch whether DeBoer goes straight back to Sorokin or splits the next week. That's the real tell on whether this is a feel-good start or a job share. Our call: it's a job share, and Varlamov gets at least two of the next five.
