Reacting to Matthew Schaefer’s Islanders Preseason Debut | New York Islanders News

Reacting to Matthew Schaefer’s Islanders Preseason Debut | New York Islanders News

Let’s get into the big story of the night. Matthew Schaefer makes his debut at preseason debut with the New York Islanders. All eyes were on him. He did end up playing Mitch 24 minutes and 39 seconds. So, he played a lot. Second most for any defenseman on the team and second most overall on the team. There was some good. There was some rookie mistakes. We’re going to talk about all of it. And I was texting you on the side while we’re watching this game. I like the approach, especially especially in the preseason when these games don’t matter. Just get give him as much ice time realistically as you can. I’m not saying play him a full 60 minutes obviously, but give him a ton of ice time. Let him do some like the positives, let him learn the negatives, and kind of just take it from there. Yeah. And when you saw the lineup, I think that’s what we were all expecting. You see Mayfield, Schaefer, and you’re like, that should be our third pair going into the year. Clearly, they want to get a measure of this kid. Like, are you going to be here all year or you just getting the maybe nine games type of thing? And so, you give him as much as you can right away. And he looked the part immediately, right? His first shift in his own zone, takes a hit, makes an outlet pass, and then is right up the ice to try to finish off the play. You’re go, “This is what we want. North South Hockey, and this kid can do it already. Shift one.” It’s not like shift one, done. this kid’s a lot to to make the team for the year, but it is a really good look instantaneously. Yeah, that’s what you want to see. And the skating ability I thought was put on display a lot tonight. He was out there, you know, in overtime and was showing that play on o on Zris in overtime or was it Ziggress or Mishkov? Well, both. He got back on two separate occasions. There was one the second one I forget the order uh forgive me but the second one I thought was more impressive that he got back on than the first one. Yeah cuz he makes the play behind the flyer net and then it comes all the way back to strip the puck on the player whether it’s Mishkov or Ziggris made him look like a goddamn pylon with that orange suit. So that was that was nice. Obviously he picks up an apple too in his first game which bucks on net man. He he throws one on net goes off the goalie pads and bounces right to Kappa Mary. He he pops it in. Good. I hope Kyle Pal Mary scores 25 goals like that this year and that’s what we want to see from Matthew Schaefer. Get pucks on net from the point. Absolutely. I It was a lot of good and that that was early in the game. Well, no, the second he scored in the second period that K pal Mary, but throughout the first he did quite a few good both in his own and not in his own, right on and off the puck. So there’s a lot to like in what Matthew Schaefer was doing. It wasn’t obviously all perfect. That giveaway for the first goal was pretty bad. Yeah. So, he throws one to the neutral zone, it gets picked off, and it ends up a goal. Now, that honestly, and he can’t make that mistake, and that’s hopefully something that he he learns from. There was there’s been a few defenseman here over the years that have continued to make that mistake many years into their career. Um, I will say that’s one I thought Riddic should have saved. Um, put a put a pin in Riddic. I want to talk about him after we get through um I want to focus on Matthew Schaefer now, but I do want to talk some David Riddic uh later on in this uh episode here. Um but that’s a play that Matthew Schaefer can’t make. I I do want to give one more positive before I hit on a couple things that I think he needs to work on and a couple mistakes from tonight. I was impressed with him at the blue line. Yeah, they showed a couple like replays and Cal as the color man was talking about like what he was doing in that situation and he was standing strong on the blue line and not making it easy for his man to get into the into the zone. Yeah. And this is an 18-year-old first set of actions against Sure. There’s a few 18-year-olds, but there also a lot of of veterans on on that. Maybe not veterans like Son Couture wasn’t playing, but guys who’ve been in the league for a hot minute at least, even in Matt Beichkov or 23 or 24 year olds, you older guys on that Flyer team. So, his timing isn’t as good as some of these other guys timing at least at this level and he’s still trying to learn that and he’s already hitting on it. You’re talking about protecting that blue line. He’s his gap control is pretty good at least at the blue line. Um, and so protecting that is going to be huge in in what is today a more rush styled offense. uh being able to protect that blue line and break those plays down before they even happen is massive. And again, 18 years old, still got to put some muscle on. So, you know, he would be a little bit more effective at that line. And his timing to know like when can I do it, what can I do, and how far out can I have my stick and how much can I cheat? Uh he’s still going to have to figure that out going forward, but he’s already huge strides in that department. And again, he’s only played here for 24 minutes. And again, that that’s something that you obviously love to see. But in the second period, an area that he needs to improve on, he took a couple penalties. The first one was holding call, which probably could have just kept his skates going, you know, got a little lazy down on uh his own end, and then delay a game, put the puck over the glass. We kill Scott Mayfield when he does that and other veterans. And at at some point, we will kill Matthew Schaefer for making that mistake. It’s not something you can do. It’s that’s one of the more frustrating penalties in my opinion. I get I know it happens. I know. And this is nitpicking, but that’s one of the ones that’s tends to frustrate me the the most. Um it’s something that he’s got to he’s got to learn from. And again, this is his it’s his first action. We’re not saying it’s all sunshine and rainbows or oh my god, it’s horrible. They were good. And there was some some rookie moments. And to me, the the early portions of the second period, first one was at 10:45. The ne the second penalty 1459, that to me was the growing pains of an 18-year-old. Yeah. And it’s not like it got worse after that. It it kind of stabilized after after those two mistakes that happened in quick secession. To me is you saw that the shift count was pretty high um throughout the game. I don’t I don’t think we have the detailed reports that we usually have. We might even Holy crap. with the NHL. Good job here by getting this all these um all these reports. If I can get on it full playbyplay. No, I can’t get the shift report just yet, but I can get the time on ice, I think, report. Oh, there it is. Um for uh M Mr. Matthew Schaefer 48 because it seemed like the shifts were coming in pretty quick through often in that first and second period and I I felt like he was maybe getting tired in the second making mental mistakes, right? So, the holding, as you said, a little bit lazy. I thought he just got bad positioning. Uh, and just tried to make up for by getting an arm in there. Got caught. Uh, and then that second one was just under duress, right? Get and he’s just trying to I’m not going to say um freak out, but he’s panicking in a way because he’s got two flyers coming at him. He’s just trying to get the puck out and he makes a bad play instead of keeping his head up type of thing. So, it seems like it to me it’s a tired play. And you look at the number of shifts you have. I I I can’t do the count. 29 total shifts, eight in the first, eight in the second, but then he got 10 in the third. So, like it wasn’t necessarily a tired thing. Like Patty played him even more afterwards. So, it must have been just kind of going through the motions, maybe a little too tired. Um, but is there Oh, yeah. Look at the shift lengths for minute 40 seconds, minute 47, a minute 19, a minute four. he was getting some really really extended shifts in the second period because you have the long change and I think that kind of gassed him a little bit in those taking those penalties. Yeah, I think that’s a good call out from you as part of the reason why we could have potentially seen um that coming up with Matthew Schaefer. But um again up and down he ended up with uh four penalty minutes, an assist minus one if you care about that. Uh 29 shifts, five shots on net. Um we’ll see how much more we see of him in the preseason. A couple more games left. Yeah. Five shots. That’s insane. Yeah. Like there’s a lot to like here. Um I to me I think he makes the roster. Seeing that tonight, does it make you more comfortable or less comfortable in his ability to not just make the roster for those nine games, but make the roster full-time this year? Uh well, my stance before going into this game was that I thought he was going to make the roster and play the entirety of the year. And I still feel that way. his performance. It wasn’t like he came out and was like, “Oh my god, yeah, this is a no doubt he’s staying.” And it also wasn’t like, “Geez, like this kid just looks like he’s completely lost out there.” He got he met my expectation. That’s right. Yeah, I I’m I’m with you there. Like, I’m sure he’s making the team and this just kind of almost reaffirms that again. Not like, oh, this is going to be Conor McDavid here. It’s this kid belongs and let’s try to bring him along and build this thing as we go forward.

Matt and Mitch discuss the New York Islanders preseason debut and what Matthew Schaefer did well and needs to work on

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