00:00The Islanders are on a five-game heater and they open up a four-game road trip tonight on the
00:06West Coast, Anaheim, actually.
00:08So let's talk all things Islanders with our Isles beat writer for the post, Ethan Sears.
00:13Ethan, my man, what's going on?
00:16You are the beat writer for the best hockey team in New York City right now.
00:21Man, how does that feel?
00:23Thanks so much, Brandon, for having me.
00:25And it's been fun.
00:27It's been a fun season to cover.
00:28All right, man, five in a row, the tie for second in the Met.
00:32When you look at this Islanders team, how it's constructed, the coach, just anything and everything about them,
00:38can they be looked at as contenders out of the East or is it just too soon?
00:44Yeah, Brandon, I think it's probably a little premature to say that they could go, you know, make a Stanley
00:49Cup final.
00:50But let's see what they do at the deadline.
00:52That's two days from now.
00:54Matthew Darsh has said that he could look to move a first-round pick.
00:57There's rumors right now around Connor Garland in Vancouver, around Robert Thomas in St. Louis.
01:04Guys like that maybe could change the equation a little bit.
01:07And look, they have good enough goaltending that they could stay in the series against anyone,
01:12even if maybe some of their depth or their skaters or whatever are maybe not to the level of some
01:18of these other teams.
01:19Ilya Sorokin can keep them in game.
01:21So I would say wait and see on that.
01:24But it's going to be interesting to see how this team looks on Saturday morning and kind of going from
01:29there.
01:30All right.
01:30So I mentioned the five in a row, five wins in a row.
01:34A lot of that I feel like is because the youngster, Matthew Schaefer, he has been an absolute dog on
01:40the ice.
01:40And I think he's brought the Owls out of the ice age and into modern hockey.
01:46You've covered this team for a while now.
01:48Do you think he's having a bigger impact for the franchise on or off the ice in his first season
01:55with the big boys?
01:56Well, it's on the ice, but the on ice feeds into the off ice, if that makes sense.
02:02I mean, no one has ever really had a rookie season like this as a defenseman.
02:07He's got 20 goals.
02:09The all-time record for a rookie defenseman, I believe, is 23.
02:13Unless he gets hurt, he's almost certainly going to break that.
02:16There's 20 games left in the season.
02:18He's 18 years old.
02:19He's already broken the record for an 18-year-old defenseman scoring.
02:23He's playing 23, 24 minutes a night against the other team's top line.
02:31And he's doing it really, really well.
02:34His character, his attitude in the room is just as good as you can imagine, really.
02:40And when you look at the off ice, I mean, the Islanders are seeing the results of that in terms
02:45of marketing, jersey sales.
02:46I mean, you can't walk three feet at UBS without seeing a 48 jersey.
02:50I think they actually had to scramble to get more fours and eights around Christmas because they were running out.
02:56So certainly they're seeing, like, that impact from how good he is.
03:02But it all starts with, you know, it doesn't happen without his play on the ice that obviously, as you
03:07said, is feeding heavily into how good this team has been.
03:11Well, what's this kid's ceiling for his career?
03:15Like, how far can he take this thing in terms of you think he could be one day he could
03:19be the face of the league?
03:23Yeah. Yeah, I do.
03:25I mean, I think you're already seeing that a little bit with the way the league is putting him out
03:31there.
03:32The way, I mean, he's got an endorsement deal with Tom Brady's company, you know.
03:38And again, he's 18 years old.
03:41I mean, you don't want to get over your skis in terms of, you know, you never know what could
03:48happen in terms of injuries or whatever.
03:50But, like, if he plays like this and stays on this trajectory, I mean, he could be in the league
03:58for 20 years.
03:59His number could be retired.
04:00He could be a Hall of Fame.
04:01Like, whatever you want to say, whatever superlative, like, it's all in play right now.
04:08Because, yeah, I mean, he's just been that good.
04:13And, you know, again, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to say this and then have him,
04:18you know, go break his leg tonight.
04:20And suddenly you're having a different conversation.
04:23But based on what he's done so far, I mean, it's, yeah, you could go, you could take things pretty
04:31far in terms of the sort of trajectory he's on.
04:35That's a lot of praise for the rookie.
04:38And he's been, I mean, it's been phenomenal watching this kid kind of come onto the scene and just breathe
04:43a new life and energy into that franchise.
04:46That's the rookie, but you've got a really cool article out on the vet, Matt Barzell's growth and maturity.
04:52So how do you feel like his growth has impacted not only his personal performance, but also the Owls turnaround
04:58this season?
05:00Yeah, I mean, look, last year, Matt Barzell was hurt.
05:04He, in the games he played, which wasn't many, he kind of seemed to be trying to find his game
05:10a little bit.
05:12And this year, like the example he gave me yesterday, which I thought was interesting, was early in games.
05:18If it's a night and there's a lot of nights like this, right, in an 82-game season where there's
05:23not much ice out there.
05:24The game is kind of slow.
05:26There's not much offense going on.
05:28Early in his career, he maybe would have let that affect him a bit, you know, kind of throw him
05:33off for the rest of the night.
05:34And now he's obviously, you know, he's been in the league a long time.
05:38He's played almost 600 games.
05:40He can take a breath, realize that this is what the night is giving him.
05:44There might only be one or two really good scoring chances and work toward finding that.
05:51And you're seeing him, and it's pretty quiet because a lot of the noise around this team is around Matthew
05:56Schaefer.
05:57Like, he's having maybe the best year of his career.
06:01You know, he's got 55 points in 60 games.
06:03The last 10 or so games, he's got, I think, 14 points.
06:07He's played wing.
06:09He's played center.
06:10He's clicked with his line mates, kind of regardless of what the combination has been, which has, throughout his career,
06:16has been sort of a recurring issue.
06:21And he's been a better two-way player, with a couple of notable exceptions that the Islanders have been pretty
06:29quick to hold him to account about.
06:31But, you know, for the most part, he's back-checked pretty hard.
06:34He's been responsible defensively.
06:37So, I mean, I think all of that goes into it.
06:40And, yeah, I mean, it's having a huge impact on them.
06:44You know, when your best player is putting in 20-plus good minutes a night, or your best offensive player,
06:50I should say, of course that makes a huge difference.
06:56Big game tonight against the Ducks.
06:58They're trying to make it six in a row.
07:00So, before I let you go, can you give us the updates on the statuses of Jonathan Drew and then
07:05Ryan Pullick?
07:06You reported that Drew in practice Tuesday, but Pullick didn't.
07:09So, who suits up?
07:10Who plays tonight against the Duck?
07:12And if either doesn't, how is that going to affect what Patty Waugh does for the game plan and for
07:19the lines?
07:21Yeah, so we'll see in a few hours here the Islanders will have their morning skate.
07:25And we'll see whether they're on the ice, whether they're in or out.
07:30When we get over to the Honda Center there.
07:33In terms of what the lineup would be, just based on how they practiced yesterday, we would see Scott Mayfield
07:39go up with Schaefer in that spot that Ryan Pullick usually plays.
07:45Adam Boquist would come into the lineup, be on the third pair with Carson Soucy.
07:49And then, in terms of the forwards, I think we would probably just see the same thing we saw on
07:55Sunday night when Jonathan Drewin was out, which is Anthony Duclair coming in, being on the second line in Drewin's
08:03usual spot with Cal Ritchie and Emil Heinemann.
08:09And, yeah, we'll see there how that shakes out in a few hours here.
08:14They're going to be on the ice at 2.30 Eastern for their morning skate.
08:19All right, Ethan, enjoy the game tonight in that California weather, man.
08:23Appreciate you hopping on with this.
08:25Thanks, Brandon.
08:26Thanks for having me.
08:27Thanks for having me.
08:29Thanks for having me.
08:31Thanks for having me.
08:31Thanks for having me.
08:32Thanks for having me.
08:32Thanks for having me.
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