Islanders' Ilya Sorokin receives a confidence-boosting pep talk from coach Patrick Roy

The extras remained on the ice after the Islanders’ morning skate, Ilya Sorokin included, and so did Patrick Roy. Though most coaches depart the ice as soon as the regulars do, Roy made an exception to put in some one-on-one time with his struggling No. 1 goalie.

“When I met with him before the season, I said I want him to feel my trust,” Roy said. “I thought today was the moment.”

David Rittich made his first start for the Islanders as they concluded a three-game homestand on Thursday night against the Oilers hoping to avoid losing their opening four games in regulation for the first time in team history.

Sorokin, in the second season of an eight-year, $66 million deal, has struggled with his rebound control while compiling a bloated 4.18 goals-against average and substandard .854 save percentage through the first three games. Roy already has said Sorokin will start Saturday’s game in Ottawa.

Sorokin made 21 saves in Monday’s 5-2 loss to the Jets, allowing defenseman Logan Stanley’s soft goal from the left circle 14 seconds after Jean-Gabriel Pageau brought the Islanders within 2-1 at 2:05 of the second period.

That elicited a postgame question to Sorokin about his confidence level.

“It’s OK,” Sorokin said. “It’s good. But I should help the team. Not like this.”

That likely prompted Roy, who usually leaves all goalie interactions to goalie coach Piero Greco, to intervene.

“I want him to know that I trust him, I’ll be there for him and I’ll support him,” said Roy, a Hall of Fame goalie who won two Stanley Cups with the Canadiens and two more with the Avalanche. “We’re using the word ‘compassion,’ and that’s an example. You want to be there for your players, and Ilya deserved that. Ilya is one of the best goalies in the league and he needs to have fun being on the ice and he needs to feel good about himself.”

Roy talked to Sorokin on the ice about handling rebounds and later, through the media, chastised himself for not doing it sooner.

“Well, shame on me,” he said. “I should have done it before. But I always felt, ‘Hey, let the goalie do their thing.’ I think I have things I could share with him.

“I’m not going to help him on the technique side of the game, but I could help on the mental side of the game because my career was not just a Cinderella story. I had good games, but I also had some bad ones. Sometimes, being able to share that with your goalies, it’s something that hopefully could go a long way.”

Roy’s playing success popularized the butterfly style that is now the standard in the NHL, but he believes that when a goalie is in a rut, it’s not the technique that needs to be tweaked.

“I think it’s confidence,” Roy said. “Most of it is confidence. I didn’t do any technique with him. It’s feel big in the net. Denis Savard always said to me, ‘You’re big like a bus in front of your net.’ Sometimes just wording like this goes a long way. So it brings confidence, and that’s all I care [about].

“I want Ilya to know he’s not alone and we’re there with him. We support him and we trust him and we know how good he is.”

The Islanders signed Rittich, in his 10th NHL season with his sixth team, to a one-year, $1 million deal after he went 16-14-2 with a 2.84 GAA and .886 save percentage with the Kings last season.

It was a sign the Islanders could not count on Semyon Varlamov’s availability as he continues to recover from knee surgery 10 months ago. Varlamov continues to skate on his own with no timetable for being able to rejoin his teammates for practice.

“I like [Rittich],” Roy said. “He’s got energy. He talks with the players. He chirps. That’s the joy we’re talking about. He’s got so much joy in him.”

And that’s exactly what Roy wants Sorokin to recapture.

Notes & quotes: Casey Cizikas played in his 901st NHL game, tying Brock Nelson for the fourth-most in Islanders history . . . Max Tsyplakov, Marc Gatcomb and defenseman Adam Boqvist werethe healthy scratches.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.