Hurricanes caught trying to screw over Patrick Roy and the Islanders

Patrick Roy surprised everyone by choosing Semyon Varlamov over star goalie Ilya Sorokin to stand in goal yesterday against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Varlamov performed well, but Sorokin still made headlines, albeit involuntarily, as he became the center of a viral video.

The Hurricanes did not provide a chair for Ilya Sorokin, who had to spend the majority of the game standing in his full gear

I believe this is the first time in my life I've seen this, at least it was unprecedented for the TV commentators, but it seems all tactics are fair game to distract the opponent and gain small advantages during the playoffs.


Ilya Sorokin didn't even have a chair to sit on. See the images:



Eventually, probably because the video went viral and it sparked a lot of discussion online, someone brought a chair for Sorokin towards the end of the game.


It really wouldn't have been ideal if Sorokin had to be thrown into the fray, say in the second period, but that didn't happen, so we can file this under amusing incidents.

Speaking of the Islanders' goalies, this gives me a great opportunity to ask you a question.

Do you think Patrick Roy will send Varlamov or Sorokin into the fray for game number two? And what would you do?

It will be really interesting to see which one of the two will be sitting (hopefully) on the bench during the next game.

Varlamov, 35 years old, has a record of 14-8-4 this season, with a goals against average of 2.60 and a save percentage of 0.918.

Last night, he saved 23 of the 25 pucks shot at him.

Sorokin, 28 years old, has a record of 25-19-12 this season, with a goals against average of 2.98 and a save percentage of 0.910. Last year in the playoffs, he was spectacular in the Islanders' net (0.930 save percentage).

Sorokin is considered by many to be one of the top five goalies in the world, imagine. He played 56 games this season, compared to 28 for Varlamov.