{"id":493980,"date":"2026-03-09T01:50:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T01:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/493980\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T01:50:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T01:50:31","slug":"brayden-schenn-coming-into-special-group-with-islanders-you-could-tell-theres-a-belief-in-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/493980\/","title":{"rendered":"Brayden Schenn coming into \u2018special group\u2019 with Islanders: \u2018You could tell there\u2019s a belief in here\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"891\" height=\"502\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screen-Shot-2026-03-08-at-10.11.49-AM.jpg\" class=\"crop-center wp-post-image\" alt=\"Brayden Schenn Islanders\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"   title=\"Brayden Schenn coming into 'special group' with Islanders: 'You could tell there's a belief in here' 1\"\/>\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Brayden Schenn (Photo courtesy of Madison Peyser\/New York Islanders)<\/p>\n<p>New York Islanders head coach Patrick Roy knows exactly what Brayden Schenn is going through.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s hard, I played 10 years in Montreal,\u201d the Hall-of-Fame netminder said. \u201cThe first game [with the Colorado Avalanche], it was not my best one. We lost against Edmonton.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Schenn, 34, had played parts of nine seasons with the St. Louis Blues, which included a Stanley Cup championship in 2019, before he was dealt to the Islanders shortly before the NHL\u2019s trade deadline on Friday afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>One day later, he was suiting up for his new team, playing 17-and-a-half minutes and centering the second line alongside Cal Ritchie and Ondrej Palat in New York\u2019s 2-1 overtime victory over the San Jose Sharks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was great,\u201d Roy said. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy doing what he did and coming in, new team, and playing as well as he did. Especially playing against a tough line like the [Macklin] Celebrini line\u2026 He played a really good game. He had a really solid start. I think he clicked really well with Palat and Ritchie, I was very happy with his game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor him to be in St. Louis for 10 years, coming in tonight, I know he\u2019s played for different teams before, and this isn\u2019t his first trade\u2026 but I thought he played really well in that circumstance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For Schenn, there will understandably be some growing pains in getting acclimated to a new system on the fly with just 18 games remaining in the regular season, but the change of scenery is a welcome one. St. Louis attempted to be a significant seller at the trade deadline, as it sits near the bottom of the Central Division, just one point ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks for last place. While they could not find deals for Jordan Kyrou or Robert Thomas, they were able to send Schenn to a surprising contender.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With the Islanders\u2019 win on Saturday night in San Jose, they leapfrogged the Pittsburgh Penguins for second place in the Metropolitan Division.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo I think I had my A-game? No. But I tried to buy into the team\u2019s system and do whatever they asked me to do,\u201d Schenn said (h\/t <a href=\"https:\/\/nhl.com\/islanders\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Islanders official website<\/a>). \u201cI feel like I have more offensively to give, but at the same time, I feel happy to be a part of a win. It\u2019s a special group where you could tell there\u2019s a belief in here and a group of guys who are really pushing for the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The former Cup winner was Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche\u2019s largest gift to his team this trade deadline. The first-year boss repeatedly expressed a desire to \u201creward\u201d his team for being ahead of schedule and in the thick of the playoff hunt. Schenn bolsters the team\u2019s middle six down the middle, allowing the rookie Ritchie to flex to the wing. It makes New York\u2019s lineup far more dependable than it was with Jonathan Drouin, who was traded to St. Louis, or Anthony Duclair, who has been rooted to the bench in recent weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe always say that we want to be hard to play against. We have to have some snarl. Brayden fits that,\u201d Darche said. \u201cYou should see some of the texts we got from former players and players that had been with him \u2014 the type of player he is. He\u2019s a playoff guy; he plays hard. If something happens, he\u2019s not afraid to defend a teammate. He\u2019s scored 20 goals multiple times in his career, so we just feel that he\u2019s going to help us down the middle and give us a lot of flexibility\u2026 We have a lot more options. He\u2019s a competitor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what you want this time of year, when you play after the deadline and in the playoffs, it\u2019s fighting for every inch on the ice, being able to take a hit and dish out hits. We want to be physical. Brayden does that, and I think he fits exactly what we need right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That satisfaction of needs appears to be overwhelmingly mutual, as Schenn waived his no-trade clause to come to the Islanders for this stretch run and for the final two years of his contract.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is what hockey\u2019s all about,\u201d Schenn said. \u201cIt\u2019s about playing for one another, it\u2019s about buying into each other, buying into a system, and striving for the same goal, and that\u2019s to make the playoffs. Once you make the playoffs, anyone really has a chance. You have to keep pushing day by day here and have a belief in the locker room that we\u2019re gonna rely on one another, and guys are going to do their job and go game by game here for two points.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For more on Brayden Schenn and the Islanders, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amny.com\/sports\/hockey\/islanders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">AMNY.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brayden Schenn (Photo courtesy of Madison Peyser\/New York Islanders) New York Islanders head coach Patrick Roy knows exactly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[3669,5,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-493980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-bo-horvat","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-islanders","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\/116196712450564712","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493980","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=493980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}