EXCLUSIVE: The Importance Of Patrick Roy's Post-Practice Ice Session With Ilya Sorokin
After a challenging start to the season, Patrick Roy stayed on the ice with Ilya Sorokin to help rebuild trust and confidence. Sorokin spoke with Stefen Rosner about the lesson and how he's feeling.
EAST MEADOW, N.Y. — Goaltending is a position of high risk and high reward. A big save in a critical moment has you on cloud nine. But the reverse can be catastrophic.
You can be the most talented goalie on the planet, but if you don’t have the mental fortitude to move on when things don’t go your way, you stand no chance. The ones who truly live in the moment achieve greatness.
New York Islanders head coach — and Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender — Patrick Roy knows a thing or two because he’s seen a thing or two.
He understands, through his own experience, how navigating the mental side of the game can be tricky, even for the greatest of netminders.
“My career was not a Cinderella story,” Roy loves to say.
That experience is what he’s now trying to pass on to Ilya Sorokin, whose start to the 2025-26 season has been less than stellar.
“When I met with him before the season, I said I wanted him to feel my trust,” Roy said. “I thought [Thursday] was the moment. I want him to know that I trust him, I’ll be there for him, and I’ll support him. We’re using the word compassion. That’s an example. You want to be there for your players. Ilya deserves that. Ilya is one of the best goalies in the league, and he needs to have fun being on the ice and feel good about himself.”
Why was Thursday the right time for Roy to stay on and offer words of encouragement?
“Well, shame on me. I should have done it before,” Roy said. “But I always felt, hey, let the goalies do their thing. I think I have things I could share with him. I’m not gonna help him on the technique side of the game, but I think I can help him on the mental side because my career was not just a Cinderella story. I had good games, but I also had some bad ones. So I feel like sometimes being able to share that with your goalies is something that hopefully could go a long way.”
Roy made one thing clear: he won’t step in on the technical side — and that’s by design.
Since Roy’s retirement after the 2002-03 season, the goaltending position has evolved dramatically. Even for someone with his pedigree, he admits he’s no longer qualified to teach the finer details of modern technique.
Instead, he defers to goaltending coach Piero Greco, with whom he has immense respect. Greco, in fact, is the one who decides which goaltender starts on any given night — and Roy fully supports that process.
Roy’s focus is on something far more fundamental: helping Sorokin rediscover the joy and calm that once made him one of the NHL’s most consistent goaltenders.
As Sorokin prepares to return to the crease against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon, he’s finding that reassurance matters.