Putting an exclamation point on an explosive opening period for the Panthers, Patric Hornqvist then upped the lead to 4-0 when he skated along the goal line before sniping the puck through the smallest of holes between Sorokin's mask and the post to send the red light flashing again.
Although he would finish out the period, Semyon Varlamov replaced Sorokin to start the second.
"We knew that was a desperate team coming in at the end of a 13-game road trip," Brunette said of the Islanders, who saw their record fall to 5-6-2 as their losing streak reached four games. "They lost the night before and wanted to get a win to head back with. We knew they'd be desperate early. They're a good first-period team. I thought we took control of the game."
Unfortunately, the Cats didn't escape the evening unscathed.
Less than two minutes into the second period, Barkov exited the game after absorbing a knee-on-knee hit from Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield, who was assessed a major penalty and a game misconduct for the incident. Unable to get to his feet for several minutes after the play, the Panthers captain and leading scorer was eventually helped to the locker room by a trainer.
While Verhaeghe said he was encouraged to see Barkov walking around the locker room after the game, Brunette made it clear that no updates will be available on his status until tomorrow.
"It's a test," Brunette said of overcoming the injury. "We've had a lot of tests this year, and this is another one. You hate to lose Barky. He means so much to this franchise. Hopefully he's OK. For the rest of the group, we've been pulling each other up all year. We'll just keep doing it."
That's also exactly what they did tonight.
Pressing forward despite losing one of their stars, the Panthers continued to pile it on against the Islanders when Aaron Ekblad collected a cross-ice pass from MacKenzie Weegar and fired a rocket of a shot from around the center of the right circle into the net to make it 5-0 at 13:41.
Getting one back for the Islanders and spoiling a shutout bid for Sergei Bobrovsky, who had another great showing with 27 saves on 28 shots, Kyle Palmieri found the back of the net not long after Ekblad's goal to cut Florida's lead to 5-1 at the 15-minute mark of the middle frame.
Putting a bow on the win, Frank Vatrano then scored with 3:24 left in regulation to make it 6-1.