In an Avionic Smoke situation there is the option of entering into Emergency Electrical Configuration with the press of just one button. It is designed to shed all electrics except what's necessary to fly the aircraft manually from the LHS. The FO will have lost his screens, maybe he confused losing his side with losing all instruments?
That's the basis of a good checklist. I suppose it's always possible that they went beyond the basic checklist due to some unexplained concern.
I always felt that way about SR111 when they started shutting down engines.