{"id":406861,"date":"2026-01-14T08:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T08:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/406861\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T08:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T08:44:18","slug":"islanders-matthew-schaefer-likely-ok-after-two-injury-scares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/406861\/","title":{"rendered":"Islanders’ Matthew Schaefer likely OK after two injury scares"},"content":{"rendered":"

WINNIPEG, Manitoba \u2014 The Islanders were relieved to see Matthew Schaefer return to Tuesday\u2019s game not once but twice after injury scares, but the 18-year-old defenseman is not completely out of the woods.<\/p>\n

Schaefer needed to be examined by team doctors after the 5-4 loss to the Jets<\/a> in relation to the shot he took off his right leg in the second period, despite finishing the game. <\/p>\n

It was for that reason he wasn\u2019t made available to reporters postgame.<\/p>\n

\"MatthewMatthew Schaefer is tended to by a trainer and some teammates after a Winnipeg goal during the first period of the Islanders\u2019 5-4 road loss to the Jets on Jan. 13, 2025. Terrence Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old didn\u2019t go to the dressing room after eating Luke Schenn\u2019s slap shot at 15:41 of the second, but could barely move for the remainder of the shift. <\/p>\n

Play was ultimately blown dead because he was struggling, which left the Jets none too happy as they were buzzing around the offensive zone with the Islanders effectively down to 4 \u00bd men.<\/p>\n

Schaefer limped to the bench, tested his leg during the next stoppage in play then took his next shift during the penalty kill. <\/p>\n

He finished the night with 22:39 of ice time despite missing 12:22 of action in the first period after being taken off by the concussion spotter and cleared, but would hardly be the first player to finish a game off adrenaline.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was fine,\u201d coach Patrick Roy said. \u201cI think he just lost his wind on that [first] play. I guess they thought that was an incidental contact with [Josh] Morrissey into the head. I think that\u2019s the protocol from the league, but he was 100 percent fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morrissey, who went into Schaefer\u2019s chest prompting the spotter to take him off, went over to ask if he was OK after he returned.<\/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

The Islanders are already without Alexander Romanov on their blue line, and Schaefer is probably the player they could least afford to lose. <\/p>\n

That is both for hockey reasons \u2014 they don\u2019t have any other player who can do what Schaefer does \u2014 and psychological reasons, given the impact the 18-year-old has had on the team.<\/p>\n

The Islanders next play Thursday in Edmonton.<\/p>\n

Adam Boqvist stayed in the lineup for a second straight game, the first time since November that he\u2019s played consecutive games.<\/p>\n

Ryan Pulock\u2019s secondary assist tied him with Noah Dobson for the fifth-most points in history by an Islanders defenseman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINNIPEG, Manitoba \u2014 The Islanders were relieved to see Matthew Schaefer return to Tuesday\u2019s game not once but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[5,122,374,3328,159,5190,5189,4,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-406861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-islanders","10":"tag-matthew-schaefer","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-islanders","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkislanders","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115892575976082307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}