Matthew Schaefer continues to be bright spot for Islanders amid brutal start to season

Things haven’t quite started as hoped for the Islanders. 

With Monday afternoon’s loss to the Winnipeg Jets, they’ve fallen to 0-3-0 to open the season for just the second time in franchise history. 

To sum it up kindly, lots has gone wrong and not much as gone right. 

One of the lone positives, though, is the strong play from young Matthew Schaefer. 

The Isles were relatively cautious with Schaefer’s playing time during the preseason, but the blueliner has quickly forced head coach Patrick Roy to take the handcuffs off just three games into the regular season. 

Schaefer has points in all three contests and he’s only seen his ice time increase. 

He picked up an assist in the first period of the season opener, then got himself acclimated to the hometown fans well, diving headfirst to knock in a rebound for his first career goal in the home opener on Saturday night. 

The orange and blue faithful let him hear it before and after the tally was confirmed. 

“It’s awesome, feels like home for sure,” Schaefer said. 

The 18-year-old picked up another helper during Monday’s loss. 

He also took over the defenseman spot on the Islanders’ top power play unit and stepped into Alexander Romanov’s place on the second penalty kill unit.

This increased role helped him lead the team in TOI for the second game in a row. 

Schaefer logged 17 minutes of ice time in his NHL debut, but he’s quickly risen just above the 26-minute mark over the past two contests. 

With his confidence growing, there’s no reason to believe that’ll dip anytime soon.

“I’m not balancing anything right now with the way he’s been playing,” Roy said. “He’s our best player out there right now -- he forced us to play him more these first few games, so we’re going to give it to him.”