went down 4-2 to the Capitals<\/a> in their home opener, but they got Schaefer\u2019s coming out party in lieu of two points, and it was something to behold.<\/p>\n\u201cHe\u2019s so good,\u201d Roy said afterward of the 18-year-old who is brimming with possibility. \u201cHe was our best player out there tonight. \u2026 If I\u2019m a fan, I\u2019ll pay to watch him play. There\u2019s no doubt about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here was what Schaefer gave the 17,255 at UBS Arena for their money on Saturday: 25:36 time on ice, eight shots on goal, 14 total shot attempts, a blocked shot and his first career goal \u2014 which came after Schaefer dove head-on into a goal-mouth scramble 4:28 into the third period to push a loose puck past Logan Thompson.<\/p>\n
He popped up like a kid who had just gone into a snowbank, all smiles. The UBS faithful began chanting his name. There was an interminable wait for the Capitals to decide whether to challenge, and then for a hand-pass review. The goal was confirmed. Schaefer grinned.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love these fans,\u201d he would say after the 4-2 loss. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy. Getting your name chanted out there. It\u2019s awesome. It feels like home, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was asked about his mother, Jennifer, who died of cancer when he was 16, and what she would make of all this.<\/p>\n
Matthew Schaefer (48) takes a shot during the second period of the Islanders\u2019 loss to the Capitals. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
\u201cI think she\u2019s up there with the hockey gods,\u201d Schaefer said. \u201cMaybe slipped them a 20 to get that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were not many positives for the Islanders from this game. But Schaefer looking this good, this soon, is beyond their wildest expectations for someone who played just 17 games last season in the Ontario Hockey League.<\/p>\n
Schaefer didn\u2019t just lead the Islanders in time on ice in his second-ever NHL game. He became the youngest player in history to record over 25 minutes in a game, beating a record set by Sidney Crosby on Dec. 3, 2005.<\/p>\n
Matthew Schaefer (48) celebrates with Mathew Barzal after scoring his first NHL goal late in the third period of the Islanders\u2019 loss to the Capitals. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
And, when given the opportunity to pump the breaks, Roy only stepped on the gas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not balancing anything right now the way he\u2019s playing,\u201d the head coach said, regarding Schaefer\u2019s workload. \u201cHe forced me to play him. He forced us to play him. So we\u2019re gonna give it to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without Jonathan Drouin (suspension), Marc Gatcomb came into the lineup, taking a spot on the fourth line while Anthony Duclair moved into Drouin\u2019s spot on the second line.<\/p>\n
Calum Ritchie (lower body) participated in morning skate, his first time skating with the team since getting hurt in the preseason finale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Islanders exercised plenty of caution with Matthew Schaefer throughout the preseason. They threw it to the wind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,5791,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-206962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-new-york-islanders","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}