New York Islanders star rookie Matthew Schaefer has already accomplished a great deal in his first season. The 18-year-old\u2019s feats top those of some longtime veterans in this league.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s one thing that Schaefer could get to do that very few players ever could.<\/p>\n
The Isles are on a collision course with the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> in the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs. Of course, nothing is set in stone. But there\u2019s a good chance that the two clubs could meet in the opening round.<\/p>\n If that\u2019s the case, Schaefer could get to play against his boyhood idol, Sidney Crosby.<\/p>\n Schaefer opened up about his admiration for the Penguins\u2019 legend in an interview with Casino.ca. In the interview, the Islanders\u2019 first-overall pick discussed how much he admired Crosby growing up<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Crosby was definitely one, obviously,\u201d Schaefer said. \u201cJust everything he’s done to the person he is. Obviously he’s a great leader, and everyone loves him for who he is. He’s obviously done great things for the league. He was one of them. Obviously my brother (Jonathan Schaefer), too. Being young, being able to watch my brother. He wasn’t in the NHL. He was in the OHL, that was the highest level. But for me, that was a guy I also looked up to as a role model.”<\/p>\n It\u2019s a unique feat for a player to face off against his childhood idol. For one, a player would have to be quite young upon entering the NHL. Second, his idol would have to endure a lengthy career to make that happen.<\/p>\n Generally speaking, that\u2019s never the case. But in Schaefer\u2019s case, he\u2019ll have a chance to go head-to-head against his role model on the NHL\u2019s biggest stage.<\/p>\n Islanders not quite locked into playoff spot just yet<\/p>\n The Islanders aren\u2019t quite locked into a playoff spot just yet. Entering Thursday night\u2019s action, the Isles are third in the Metro Division with 89 points. That\u2019s a one-point lead over the Columbus Blue Jackets, who currently hold the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n The Isles do have some breathing room, as the next team on the outside looking in is the Ottawa Senators. The Sens have 86 points, three behind the Islanders. The Sens are in a three-way tie with the Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers. But with the runway getting shorter and shorter, all three clubs are running out of time to close the gap.<\/p>\n That said, the Islanders can\u2019t afford to take anything for granted. The premise is simple: Win, and you\u2019re in. That\u2019s what the path the Isles are facing. The Islanders square off against the Flyers on Friday night in a must-win for both teams. A win by the Isles would put significant daylight between them and Philly. So, there is no mystery:<\/a> Play hard and get two points. The rest will work itself out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Islanders star rookie Matthew Schaefer has already accomplished a great deal in his first season. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5110],"tags":[5,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-538353","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-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-islanders","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkislanders","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116340605527833166","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538353","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=538353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}