00:00The Islanders dropped to 0-3 on the season with a loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Monday night.
00:04I read this stat here.
00:05The only other time the Owls have started a season with three straight losses was the 2006-2007 season.
00:13They made the playoffs that year, though.
00:15Can Matthew Schaefer lead this team to the 2006 vibes is the question.
00:20While our Owls beat writer for the post, Ethan Sears, is on, and we're hoping he has the answer.
00:25Ethan, what's going on, man?
00:27First time we've had you on in this new season.
00:30How you doing?
00:31But let's go straight into your article, which you titled, Concerns Already Mounting.
00:37That's never a good thing three games into a season.
00:40So from what you've seen from the Owls so far, which areas are most troubling right now, and are they fixable?
00:47Well, Brandon, first of all, thanks so much for having me and glad to be here.
00:53Yeah, look, it's three games out of 82.
00:55So no matter what it is, it's fixable.
00:57It's a small sample size.
01:00You know, they could go out and win the next four games, and then you're not talking about this.
01:05But there's a lot that hasn't been great so far.
01:11Ilya Sorokin hasn't really looked quite like himself.
01:14You know, he gave up kind of a soft goal yesterday and has given up four in all of their games, all three of their games so far.
01:25Defensively, they haven't looked great.
01:26They've struggled to kind of clear out the area around the crease.
01:31Their second pair, which is Alexander Romanov and Tony D'Angelo, have really struggled.
01:40They just haven't really been able to sustain any momentum.
01:46They've given up a lot of odd man rushes outside of really the first game in Pittsburgh, that opening night game where they looked good and kind of couldn't come up with a win.
01:57They just they've looked kind of just a step behind in general for most of those most of those last two games so far, I would say.
02:07All right, let's look at a positive because the Owls have their own version of Jackson Dart and Matthew Schaefer dished out an assist at four shots on net and recorded a block shot.
02:19That's three straight games where he's recorded a point.
02:23What kind of impact has this kid had on that group on the blue line and on the team, I guess, as a whole coming in as the number one overall pick?
02:30I mean, right now, I think Matthew Schaefer is really the only reason that you're not hitting the panic button on the season.
02:40He has been absolutely terrific.
02:43He is.
02:46Every single game he's played so far, he's he's been fantastic.
02:50You can't say enough good things.
02:52He's played over 26 minutes, two games in a row.
02:55The game against Washington, the home opener on Saturday, he was the best player in the game for either team.
03:00He was absolutely dominant.
03:02He scored his first goal.
03:06He the way he skates and moves the puck is as good as I don't want to be over the top, but it's it has the ability to be as good as as anyone in the league.
03:20So, I mean, it's been a huge impact already.
03:24And if he can keep doing this, it is going to raise the ceiling of the Islanders for a long time to come, because obviously him being a number one pick, you knew that he had a lot of potential.
03:37But I'm not sure that anybody realized that he would be this good, this fast, having really not played a lot of hockey last year.
03:47He broke his collarbone in December.
03:49He played just 17 games at the junior level.
03:52There were some people in the run up to the draft who thought, hey, maybe he should go to college or he should go play another year in junior.
03:58It seems pretty clear he's he's ready for the NHL and he's going to be here for a long time.
04:04You mentioned he's the reason or one of the reasons why you don't hit the panic button on the team for the season.
04:10The Owls right now are currently one of three winless teams left in the entire NHL.
04:15They're San Jose and Buffalo, obviously.
04:18So you think this is an early showing of who the Owls are or who they're going to be this year?
04:22Or can you just chalk this up as a rough start to the twenty five, twenty six season?
04:28You know, I think for me, it's probably somewhere in between.
04:32I would be surprised if the Islanders were one of the three worst teams in the league.
04:37That's this roster has enough talent that that shouldn't be the case.
04:41But that said, there are also some pretty serious holes here.
04:44And you've seen that play out, you know, the right side of their defense where they didn't get a direct.
04:52Has struggled their kind of secondary scoring hasn't really been there.
05:00I wouldn't expect Ilya Sorokin to to struggle the way he has for the season.
05:06But if that's the case, well, then I think you you have a more serious problem.
05:14All right, Ethan, appreciate you hopping on, man.
05:17Sure, we're going to be checking in with you throughout the course of the season.
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