5 Takeaways: Rangers 5, Islanders 0

After the Islanders cruised to a 4-0 win in Thursday's season opener, the Rangers returned the favor on Saturday night, shutting out the Islanders 5-0 in the rematch.
Ilya Sorokin made his NHL debut after an injury to Semyon Varlamov in warmups knocked the Islanders' goalie plans off kilter and the Rangers found their groove after a slow start the other night. Pavel Buchnevich (2G), Artemi Panarin (2G) and Kaapo Kakko scored for the Rangers while Alexandar Georgiev stopped all 23 shots for the shutout.
"This was just a really bad outing, it's not representative of how we want to play," Captain Anders Lee said. "We turned a few too many pucks over and took a few too many penalties and they played a much better game than we did."
Here are five takeaways from Saturday's loss.

1. SOROKIN PUT IN TOUGH SPOT FOR DEBUT:

Ilya Sorokin's debut may have been long anticipated, but he only had a short time to prepare for it on Saturday.
Sorokin was thrust into his first NHL start a half hour before puck drop, after Semyon Varlamov took a Cal Clutterbuck shot up high during warmups and left the ice. It wasn't necessarily the ease-in plan Head Coach Barry Trotz envisioned the Russian goaltender's NHL career to start, especially without any preseason games to ease his transition to North America.
The late change forced Sorokin into a tough spot, with an agitated Rangers team looking to avenge a season-opening shutout loss. Sorokin stopped 27-of-32 shots in his Islanders debut.
RANGERS 5, ISLANDERS 0
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"With Ilya, we hung him out to dry, I didn't think we played that well," Trotz said. "We put him in a real tough circumstance and we did it to ourselves injuring Varly in the warmup. To me it's almost unacceptable… It wasn't fair to Ilya, it wasn't fair to Varly the way guys warmed him up. It started in warmup and carried over through the whole game."
Sorokin stopped the first shot of his NHL career, but allowed the second, as Buchnevich snuck a wrister between the goalie's body and arm from a high-danger area alone in the slot. The play developed as a two-on-one, with Mika Zibanejad poking the puck past Noah Dobson in the neutral zone before feeding Buchnevich.
The 25-year-old had a few minutes to settle in, but Panarin proved a tough draw for his first NHL breakaway, with the Hart Trophy finalist beating the rookie far side.
Sorokin appeared to build some momentum after back-to-back penalty kills to start the second, but Buchnevich put his second of the night off the post and in from a sharp angle to make it 3-0. Sorokin had no chance on a Kakko one-timer off an odd-man rush to make it 4-0 at 15:24. Panarin scored his second of the night at 15:56 in the third, a power-play one-timer. His Islanders teammates gave all the necessary pad taps throughout the night to help show support and said they needed to be better in front of him in that spot.
"We have to play much better in front of Ilya, he deserves much better than that," Lee said.
Alas it was not the storybook start for Sorokin, who had dominated the KHL for six seasons prior, but the young netminder still made a handful of good saves. He stopped a Brett Howden drive from the low slot in the second period and stopped seven-of-eight in the third. Trotz reiterated how much of a tough spot the young netminder was in on Saturday.
"He made some good saves, handled a lot of the power plays, but if you asked him, he'd probably like a goal or two back," Trotz said. "That's the growing pains of coming over to North America as well."
With Varlamov out, Cory Schneider dressed as the Islanders backup. Trotz did not have an update on Varlamov after the game.

2. RANGERS RESPOND:

After a 4-0 win on Thursday, the Islanders were expecting an agitated and different-looking Rangers squad on Saturday night. They got both, with Tony DeAngelo's healthy scratch headlining the Rangers roster and line changes, and a fiery start from the Blueshirts.
The Rangers came out fast, taking a 1-0 lead 2:12 into the opening frame off Buchnevich's icebreaker. Panarin made it 2-0 at 13:46, beating Sorokin low and to the far side on a breakaway. Shots were tied 10-10 after one, but the Rangers held a 21-14 attempt advantage. The gap widened significantly in the second period, as the Rangers outshot the Islanders 14-7 in the second period and 32-23 by the final horn. Shot attempts were 65-38 for the Rangers on the evening.
"They played better, no question," Josh Bailey said. "There were some tough bounces early and we didn't find a way to respond and fight our way out of it."
After scoring four goals on Thursday, the Islanders had a hard time generating shots on goal and scoring chances on Saturday. The shot total discounted a few posts - Nick Leddy had a shot tip off the crossbar, and he and Anders Lee both found iron late in the third.
Overall, it wasn't a busy night for Georgiev - who saw 40 shots in each of his last two starts vs the Islanders - who picked up his sixth win in eight games vs the Islanders.
"We didn't get to the high-danger areas," Trotz said. "We weren't committed. You take eight penalties, it takes a lot of steam… Any momentum that we might have got to get ourselves back in the game, we shot ourselves in the foot. One of the worst managed games by our group in terms of our whole game."

3. ISLES PLAY UNDISCIPLINED, PENALTY KILL A POSITIVE:

If there was one positive Trotz took out of the game, it was the work of his penalty kill, who went seven-for-eight on an uncharacteristically undisciplined night from the Islanders.
The Islanders got themselves into penalty trouble early, taking five minors in the opening 32:19, including a pair of tripping and interference minors from Mat Barzal in a 2:31 stretch. Trotz said the constant trips to the box derailed the Islanders momentum and he lamented the five offensive-zone minors.
But with no preseason work, the shorthanded unit got plenty of live reps, which was of some value, even if the experience was gained the hard way.
"It's not ideal to take eight penalties in a game, but there are positives that you can take away from that," Casey Cizikas said. "I thought we did a good job of winning faceoffs, getting pucks down the ice. They got that late one there, but other than that I thought we did a good job of keeping them to the outside, not giving them much and being well-rounded as a kill."

4. TURNOVERS HURT ISLES:

Turnovers were one of the main culprits on Saturday night, as four-of-the-five Ranger goals came off mismanaged pucks. Zibanejad poked a puck off Dobson to create a two-on-one on Buchnevich's first, while a Scott Mayfield shot on goal was intercepted by Brendan Smith, who fed Panarin with the home run pass.
Buchnevich's second came off a whacky sequence in the second period, that included Mayfield getting tied up with a linesman while trying to retrieve a puck, but started with a turnover at the offensive blue line. A turnover at the Islanders' blue line turned into a three-on-one rush that Kakko one-timed past Sorokin.
"The four goals are all stuff that we did," Trotz said. "Turnovers, bad plays, poor execution. We were junk today."

5. IT'S JUST ONE GAME:

After a strong debut on Thursday, the Islanders were knocked off kilter on Saturday and losses are to be expected over a long, or abbreviated, season.
Down 4-0 heading into the third, Trotz jumbled his lines, getting a look at JG Pageau with Jordan Eberle and Anders Lee, Kieffer Bellows with Brock Nelson and Josh Bailey and Mat Barzal with Anthony Beauvillier and Cal Clutterbuck.
In the end, Trotz said this was one to forget and his team plans to turn the page when they reconvene. The Islanders have a mature and veteran group and know what they have to do to respond on Monday in their home opener vs Boston.
"We have a veteran group and know what we need to do to have success," Bailey said. "We were nowhere near the level we needed to be at to have success on a consistent basis. We know what we need to do. We'll get some rest, come back and make sure we're well prepared for puck drop on Monday."