TORONTO — OK, maybe there’s something here.
If this is what the Islanders can do with a healthy forward group, if this is the sort of physicality and effort they can bring on a nightly basis, if they can roll four lines the way they did Saturday in Toronto, then the five-point gap to the playoffs the Islanders started the day staring at is going to be nothing.
Easier said than done, as anyone with even a passing familiarity of these Islanders is well aware.
Still, this 6-3 victory over the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on the night of Anthony Duclair’s return to the lineup marked one of the best 60-minute efforts the Islanders have put forth in recent memory.
“Might’ve been our best game of the season — at least that I’ve played in,” Mat Barzal said after his empty-netter sealed the win.
This, surely, was what Lou Lamoriello and Patrick Roy envisioned during training camp — a lineup that suddenly looked deep, physical and offensively skilled throughout, that finished checks and controlled the game on the road against a high-end opponent.
Yes, the Leafs had played the night before and were without Auston Matthews, but after two months of misery for the Islanders, forgive them for not caring so much about those caveats.
“We know we’re a good team,” Duclair said. “We obviously had a couple injuries, never really had a full lineup since the beginning of the season. Lot of adversity, boys stepped up while the injuries were happening. But I think now that we’re all healthy and ready to go, we’re trying to find our team chemistry as a whole.”
After the Leafs recovered from the best opening punches the Islanders have thrown in weeks, pulling a 3-1 game back to 3-2 on William Nylander’s second goal of the night at 5:43 of the second, getting back across the border with two points would require the Islanders to hang onto the lead.
That they did as Isaiah George, who grew up a Leafs fan 35 minutes down the road in Oakville, scored his first NHL goal on a shot from the left point, getting hugs from all four other Islanders on the ice in the immediate aftermath.
The goal, which made it 4-2, also marked Duclair’s first point, as he got the primary assist.
But this moment was reserved for the young defenseman, who came back into the lineup Saturday after a pair of healthy scratches and has impressed everyone in the organization since being called up in early November.
“I grew up coming to this rink to watch Leafs games, concerts, all that sort of stuff,” George said. “To have family, friends, people that helped me get here to all be here watching the game, too, is special.”
Noah Dobson further extended the lead shortly thereafter with a shot through traffic to make it 5-2.
That ended up preemptively fending off a late push from Toronto, which saw Bobby McMann score to cut the lead to two before Barzal’s empty-netter.
The Islanders have been searching for a 60-minute effort.
This is what it looked like, with Bo Horvat and Max Tsyplakov trading off consecutive goals inside the game’s first five minutes, forcing Toronto coach Craig Berube to burn his timeout early.
It was the first time in nine games the Isles had scored first.
Then they went and followed it up, with Jean-Gabriel Pageau adding another before the end of the period after Nylander had cut it to 2-1.
“I think the win was huge,” Barzal said. “But the actual quality of it was more important. … I think you saw every line have a good game. Bo’s line, obviously, was dangerous, and they scored a bunch. I thought [Casey Cizikas’] line did what they did. My line and [Brock Nelson’s] line pushed the pace all night. It seemed like it was a complete effort. We were obviously excited to have everybody back.”
Beating the Sabres at home Monday still is necessary to get to NHL-.500 by the holiday break, and that even being a milestone tells you that putting Saturday’s performance into the big picture requires a healthy dose of skepticism.
But the Islanders are finally healthy, and they finally have something to build on. It’s been a while since those were both true.
