This is what desperation looks like.
It took being pushed to the brink, it took a coaching change and it didn’t hurt that they played a Maple Leafs roster that resembled an AHL side.
Whatever caveats you want to throw at this, though, the Islanders finally played like a team with their backs against the wall, which is just what they are.
That helped bring them a 5-3 win over Toronto in Pete DeBoer’s debut behind the bench, the first of four wins that are absolute necessities over the last four games of this season for the Islanders to make the playoffs.
Since the Islanders tarted 15 minutes prior to their playoff opposition on Thursday, the picture had yet to become clear when their game ended.
Suffice to say, though, that Saturday’s match at home against the Senators — the club that started the 3-7-0 tailspin that got Patrick Roy fired and the club the Islanders are chasing for the second wild-card spot — is do-or-die.
If the Islanders can carry their effort from Thursday into the weekend, you have to like their chances.
They threw pucks on net early and often, holding a Carolina-esque 24-3 edge in shots on net after just 20 minutes.
They broke out quickly and decisively. They played with a speed and purpose and, yes, an urgency that had been lacking for far too long.
Brayden Schenn and JG Pageau both scored within five minutes, and when the Leafs fought back to tie, the Islanders had no panic at all.
They stuck to their game, kept tilting the ice and by the second intermission, held a two-goal lead again.
Schaefer’s goal that made it 3-2 at 9:39 of the second marked his 23rd of the season, tying Brian Leetch’s rookie record for defensemen, and was also Schaefer’s first goal in seven games.
This was not a night where Schaefer, Ilya Sorokin or anyone else put the Islanders on their backs though.
Just like Saturday’s match in Carolina was on all 20 skaters, so too was the dominance with which the Islanders operated on Thursday.
Ondrej Palat had his best game in the uniform despite a brief third period absence after blocking a shot from Troy Stecher. Max Shabanov was consistently noticeable on a relentless third line with JG Pageau and Emil Heineman.
Mat Barzal’s move back to center was seamless; Simon Holmstrom looked like he’d played the whole season on the top line.
Tony DeAngelo returned after missing six games with a lower-body injury and you could not help but attribute some of the ease with which the Islanders got the puck up the ice to No. 77.
The power play produced a goal when Barzal fed Heineman in the slot to make it 4-2 at 18:55 of the second.
Cal Ritchie, at his best when making plays in the tight space in front of the net, did just that to produce the Islanders’ opening goal on a feed to Brayden Schenn, then did it again for a five-on-three goal that extended the lead to 5-2 in the third.
The shot-first mentality, something the Islanders have so often failed to come with against inexperienced goaltenders over the years, proved too much for Artur Akhtyamov to handle in his first career start.
Given the terrible play of the Leafs in front of him, the rookie was passable, but, plainly, overwhelmed.
Ironically, the only Islander below par was the one who has so often kept his team in the fight this year. Ilya Sorokin needed Schaefer — who was just as good defensively on Thursday as he was offensively — to clear a puck off the line early in the match when Easton Cowan’s shot went through him, then let up a goal on the first official shot on net he saw, with Steven Lorentz scoring from below the left-hand dot.
It was the first of two shaky goals he let up on the night, the second credited to Morgan Rielly off Barzal’s stick in front. That cut it to 5-3 late in the third, but never did the Leafs seem truly in it.
It was as good of a 60 minutes as the Islanders have put together in some time, and they did it just in time.