{"id":264133,"date":"2025-11-05T10:59:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T10:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/264133\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T10:59:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T10:59:20","slug":"islanders-get-into-heated-scuffle-with-bruins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/264133\/","title":{"rendered":"Islanders get into heated scuffle with Bruins"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Islanders want to put the rest of the league on notice:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do. Not. Touch. The. Kid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov learned that lesson during the second period of Tuesday\u2019s 4-3 Islanders shootout loss<\/a> to Boston at UBS Arena, when he knocked down Matthew Schaefer behind Boston\u2019s goal. He was promptly greeted by Anders Lee, Anthony Duclair and Jean-Gabriel Pageau, all of whom attempted to tackle him at once.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re family in here,\u201d Schaefer said. \u201cI love these guys. I know they always have my back and I\u2019ll always have their back. Obviously it means a lot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once the fracas was sorted out, Lee and Duclair had taken roughing penalties, but the Islanders ended up on the power play, with Zadorov being handed an interference and a double-minor for roughing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NikitaNikita Zadorov of the Boston Bruins checks Matthew Schaefer of the New York Islanders in the second period during their game at UBS Arena on November 4, 2025 in Elmont, New York. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like the referee had a lot of choices,\u201d Islanders coach Patrick Roy said, sardonically. \u201cCould have called cross-check, could have called roughing, could have called interference. Pretty much, might\u2019ve been able to have a four-minute power play.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

More important to the Islanders, though, is protecting the 18-year-old rookie who is the franchise\u2019s crown jewel. Schaefer\u2019s almost immediate ascendence into one of the best Islanders players combined with his very young age of 18 make him an obvious target for opposing malfeasance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually, he\u2019s gonna have the same protection as a star player,\u201d Roy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How long might that take?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope not too long,\u201d he answered.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indeed, the Bruins are not the first team to try to intimidate Schaefer via some extra physicality. Every time an opposing player has tried to hit Schaefer, the Islanders have responded similarly, though this was perhaps the most enthusiastic instance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no different than any other star player,\u201d Duclair said. \u201cYou want to slow down the best players on each team. We do the same with their star players, whoever we\u2019re playing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer (48) gets some attention and rough play that ended in a fight when his teammates came to his defense during the second period. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, Schaef coming into this league, the way he\u2019s playing, obviously teams are gonna look at that and try to slow him down. I think for us, it\u2019s doing our best to protect him out there and let him do his thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bo Horvat scored two more goals, bringing his season total to nine, with Team Canada assistant general manager Don Sweeney on hand in his capacity as Bruins general manager. <\/p>\n

Horvat also scored in front of Sweeney and Canada general manager Doug Armstrong last Friday in Washington, and had a hat trick with AGM Julien BriseBois watching in mid-October against Edmonton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Islanders want to put the rest of the league on notice:\u00a0 Do. Not. Touch. The. Kid.\u00a0 Bruins…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,5789,31031,5791,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-264133","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-boston-bruins","11":"tag-matthew-schaefer","12":"tag-new-york-islanders","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264133","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=264133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}