DeBoer puts Islanders focus on ‘playoff habits’ in late-season takeover

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Pete DeBoer spent his first three full days as the New York Islanders coach stressing what he calls playoff habits.

From Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday, each day the Islanders were on the ice practicing with DeBoer holding the whistle, having taken over for Patrick Roy as their new coach on Sunday.

Each day they talked about and worked on simple things like coming back into the defensive zone and stopping instead of chasing, forwards reloading and backchecking so the defensemen can keep good gaps, clean line changes so they could get off and on in time, and forwards opening up through the middle of the ice to make for a better transition game.

"Just all the little things that matter at this time of year," DeBoer said, "and matter even more a week from now when you get into the playoffs."

The Islanders aren't there yet, but they got closer to the Stanley Cup Playoffs by putting those playoff habits to work in a 5-3 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at UBS Arena on Thursday, giving DeBoer a win in his debut with the sixth NHL team since he got to the League in 2008.

New York is one point behind the Philadelphia Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division, each with three games remaining.

The Islanders are also three points behind the Ottawa Senators for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

They play the Senators at UBS Arena on Saturday. The Montreal Canadiens are here Sunday, and the Islanders host the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday to close out the regular season.

"There's nothing that sells a coach's message more than success, having success and feeling that success within what you're doing," DeBoer said. "We got some of that tonight. A lot of work to do, but we took care of our business tonight, which was to win a game and stay relevant here in the playoff hunt. We've got to do it again Saturday."

DeBoer is behind the Islanders' bench because the team was scuffling under Roy, who couldn't survive a four-game losing streak last week in which the team looked listless.

The Islanders were outscored 20-10 and outshot 126-89 in losses to the Pittsburgh Penguins (8-3), Buffalo Sabres (4-3), Flyers (4-1) and Carolina Hurricanes (4-3) leading to Roy's surprising ouster and DeBoer's entrance with four games remaining in the regular season.

They were technically in a playoff position when they made the announcement that DeBoer was taking over for Roy on Sunday afternoon. By that night they were out, and on Monday the players each reacted by shouldering the blame for Roy losing his job.

DeBoer said he had an engaged group in practice all week as a result.

"Probably the most impressive thing this week with me getting in was the dressing room and their willingness to buy in, but where it came from," DeBoer said. "I think it came from a place of they were disappointed a coach got fired. They looked in the mirror and they owned their part of that, and I think to their credit. When you have character and you feel that way it's how you respond to that. I had a group all week that was really embracing and ready for a response because they felt bad about what happened."

Proving themselves to the new guy was part of the motivation.

"We really wanted to show him how great of a team we are and what a great group we've got in here," rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer said. "That was a big thing."

They started fast with Brayden Schenn scoring in a 6-on-5 situation because of a delayed penalty at 2:08 of the first period. Jean-Gabriel Pageau made it 2-0 at 4:55, giving the Islanders an 8-0 advantage in shots on goal.

"We were all looking for a bit of redemption from the last few weeks," forward Emil Heineman said.

When the Maple Leafs made it a game, evening the score 2-2 on Easton Cowan's power-play goal at 1:57 of the second period, the Islanders quickly got their structure back, kept the pressure on, and got back to playing with the playoff habits DeBoer stresses.

They dominated the rest of the way and ended up outshooting the Maple Leafs 44-16.

"We played fast and we were relentless," DeBoer said. "There was no indecision in our game. That was my biggest fear coming in with three days of practice and trying to tweak some things, that it would slow us down. To our group's credit, that never happened."

It's easy to look at it all and discount the win a little because the Islanders were playing a Maple Leafs team that is already eliminated from playoff contention and playing out the string without some key players, including Auston Matthews.

But doing that would be both ignoring that the Islanders won a game they absolutely had to win, and how they won it.

"We've been talking all week about playoff habits," DeBoer said. "You have to have them at this time of the year to give yourself a chance to get in the playoffs. I thought they delivered on that. It wasn't a perfect game, but I loved how fast we played, I loved some of the playoff habits we played with. We got contributions from everybody. It was a really solid start."