Islanders 5, Maple Leafs 3: Got the easy one
He's here, he's there, he's every-####ing-where Matthew Schaefer. | Getty Images With their playoff lives on the line, a new coach to impress in his debut and a lame-duck opponent coming in on a traveling back-to-back, it would’ve been inexcusable for the New York Islanders to waste their chance at two points on Thursday night vs. the Maple Leafs.
They delivered the performance they needed, getting a regulation win without too much concern, other than a brief stretch where Toronto ignored a 26-6 shot deficit to tie the score at 2-2 early in the second period. Thankfully the Islanders answered — Matthew Schaefer, tying another record, of course — to put the Isles up 3-2 at the midway point, then they converted on two power plays to give them the breathing room they needed on the way to a 5-3 win. It’s hard to read much from Pete DeBoer’s debut or rather his impact, when the players were all firing with energy and DeBoer was consulting his staff often throughout the night.
The fourth line and the third pair were used about how you’d hope given what they bring to the table, so there’s that. Max Shabanov had a few decent plays getting a rare consecutive game for him. They outplayed a bad team, as they should given the stakes even if my dog was behind the bench.
[ NHL Gamecenter | Game Summary | Event Summary | Natural Stat Trick ] The result doesn’t move the Isles back into playoff position, not even briefly, but it kept pace with the Atlantic’s Red Wings and Senators — Saturday’s opponent — as they also won tonight, and pulled them back within a point of the Flyers (whom the Wings beat tonight) for third in the Metro. The Isles got on the board early with two goals in the first five minutes, and blitzed the Leafs with a 24-3 first-period shot disparity. But Leafs rookie Artur Akhtyamov, making his first NHL start and hinting that Toronto might have something, was very athletic and energetic in keeping the game close.
The Leafs got a bad-angle goal on Ilya Sorokin just 16 seconds after J-G Pageau had made it 2-0, so seeing the Isles go the rest of the period without cashing in on their myriad shots got the nerves up. When Easton Cowan tied it on a power play two minutes into the second, those nerves ratcheted up. Even the boos of John Tavares sounded half-hearted or nervous.