Ilya Sorokin injury an apt final blow to a cursed Islanders season

In a sardonic way, it’s fitting that Ilya Sorokin would get hurt with five games left in the Islanders’ season. Health-wise, Sorokin staying intact after offseason back surgery was one of the few positive notes for the Islanders all year.So why not pull the rug out from under them right at the end, when the games are, for all intents and purposes, academic? The Islanders have suffered plenty, so why not add one more for the road? “We’ve grinded this one out,” Anders Lee told The Post on Thursday, right before coach Patrick Roy said Sorokin was dealing with a lower-body injury unrelated to his back, a change in diagnosis from immediately after Tuesday’s game when it was called an upper-body issue.

“There’s no doubt about it.Guys have been in tough spots with injuries, doing their best to come back and feeling good.

Every team goes through it.That’s not rolling off our tongue around here.

It’s something you have to overcome as a team. “I think for periods when we were lighter, we kept the boat afloat.Earlier in the season, we lost some guys on the back end, gave ourselves an opportunity to stay in it.

This thing could’ve gone south a lot sooner or maybe worse than where we’re at.” It’s not an excuse for where the Islanders sit, on the cusp of elimination prior to Thursday’s home match against the Rangers. It is, however, a matter of fact that this Islanders season has been badly affected by injuries, including but not limited to Mat Barzal, Anthony Duclair, Semyon Varlamov and all six of their opening-night defenseman, each of whom has missed time at one point or another. According to data compiled by NHL Injury Viz, the Islanders lost 288 man games due to injury through April 4, with the combined cap hit of their injured players leading the Eastern Conference. The defensive injuries, which mostly came prior to the 4 Nations break in February, proved relatively navigable, with the Islanders staying on the edge of the playoff ...