00:00Who do we thank and give flowers to for the turnaround of the Islanders?
00:04Let's talk all things Owls with our Islanders beat writer for the Post, Ethan Sears.
00:09Ethan, fresh out of Morning Skate, my man.
00:11Appreciate you hopping on with us.
00:13Let's talk about the new guy first before we talk about this turnaround.
00:17Braden Shin wore the C for this Blues, and we felt the impact immediately for the Owls
00:24since he's been here with us.
00:25Small sample size, but when you trade for a guy like Braden Shin, what exactly are you
00:31getting on and off the ice, and does that trade mean that the Owls are all the way in for
00:37a playoff run this season?
00:39Well, Brandon, we've seen the kind of characteristics that Matthew Darsh really likes in players,
00:45and here it is again.
00:46You know, Braden Shin, super competitive guy.
00:49He's had playoff success.
00:50He plays with good details.
00:52He's hard on the walls.
00:53He's good in battles.
00:54All the stuff that you like to see in games this kind of year, or this time of year, excuse
00:59me.
01:00I mean, it's worth noting his numbers in St. Louis haven't been great this year, although
01:04you can kind of debate and tease out how much of that is him versus just the Blues having
01:10a bad year.
01:11And for the Islanders, you know, I think you're getting someone with proven playoff success
01:18who can win face-offs and maybe take some of the burden off of Cal Ritchie, you know,
01:22a young guy who is still kind of getting his feet wet in the league, and, you know, that's
01:28something that'll help them in the playoffs going forward.
01:31As to whether it means they're all in, you know, we didn't see them go and trade their
01:38top prospects.
01:39You know, I've written a lot this year about how they're working on two tracks.
01:45They want to be competitive this year.
01:47They want to be in the playoffs this year, and they want to do that without jeopardizing
01:51their long-term future.
01:52And while still understanding that their best chances to win a Stanley Cup are going
01:56to be two, three, four, five years down the line.
02:01And I think that this trade has kind of been keeping with that philosophy.
02:04You know, they moved one first-round pick.
02:05They still have their own first-round pick.
02:08They didn't move any of their top prospects, like I said.
02:11They kept the salaries relatively evenly balanced because Jonathan's grew and went the other way.
02:16So it was a way for them to get better while still kind of keeping all of their key assets
02:23for the long-term future intact.
02:25And that's, again, the same philosophy that we've seen Matthew Darsh operate with for pretty
02:31much the entire year.
02:33So it seems as though we're on or they're on the right spot in the timeline for Matthew
02:39Darsh and his vision for this team.
02:41Because if we go back to last year, this time last year, the Owls were 29-28-7, coming
02:48off a pretty embarrassing 4-1 loss to the Sharks.
02:52I think I spoke to you after that game.
02:54Going into tonight's game against the Kings, the 37-23-5.
02:58You're around this team.
02:59You've been on the road with this team.
03:01You see these guys.
03:03So what would you say is the biggest difference between last year's team and this year?
03:09And why, what do you attribute to the immediate turnaround?
03:13Well, the obvious answer is Matthew Schaefer, right?
03:17And that's the headline of the season.
03:19And I mean, they added a guy who's already, you know, one of the best 5, 10, pick your number,
03:26right?
03:27Defenseman in the league at age 18.
03:29And he's energized the team and the fan base.
03:32And he's doing stuff every night that is just beyond any reasonable expectation for what
03:38an 18-year-old should be doing in the NHL.
03:40So that's number one.
03:43But beyond that, it's just a totally different team than it was a year ago.
03:47You know, it's a different GM.
03:49It's the same coach, but he's running a different system that's probably more in line with what
03:53he always kind of wanted to do.
03:56And it's a pretty different roster, right?
03:58There's no Brock Nelson.
03:59There's no Noah Dobson.
04:01There's no Matt Martin.
04:03They've added Emile Heinemann, Cal Ritchie, Matt Barzal is healthy.
04:08They've got a full year of Tony D'Angelo.
04:11Now Braden Shen and Andre Palad and Carson Soucy have all been added in the last six or so weeks.
04:18So, yeah, I mean, it's a different team.
04:21It's playing a different style of hockey.
04:23The biggest sort of singular difference is Schaefer.
04:27I don't think that's really up for debate, but it's not as if they just sort of plugged
04:31in Matthew Schaefer and everything else is the same.
04:34Like it's, you know, sort of everything about it is different.
04:38The feeling in the room is different.
04:40You know, we're no longer talking about like the core and, you know, the core that went
04:47to the two conference finals, you know, five and six years ago.
04:51And how long are they going to hang on to the core?
04:53That was this discussion that we had for years with Lou Lamorello.
04:58You know, the core has changed.
05:00It's a different, it's a fundamentally different group of players, even if, you know, some of
05:05the names are the same.
05:08It's just a different Islanders team.
05:11Matthew Schaefer coming in at 18 years old and kind of pretty much dominating the competition
05:16and being the anchor for this team is absolutely wild.
05:19It makes me look back at my 18-year-old self and just question, what exactly was I doing
05:23with my life at the time?
05:26It's 18 years old.
05:27It's like LeBron James stepping into the NHL.
05:30This kid has been absolutely on fire since he stepped on the ice for this franchise.
05:34All right, let's look ahead a little bit because, again, like the Islanders, hands down, the
05:39best team in New York, in the tri-state.
05:4217 games left.
05:44They're tied for points with Pittsburgh for second in the Met.
05:48Do you think that this team has enough to make a run and go deep into the playoffs?
05:57Certainly, I think they've got enough to get into the playoffs and to be pretty competitive
06:01when they're there.
06:03You know, the last couple times they made it to the playoffs, they sort of, they sort
06:08of lumped in.
06:09They, you know, played a couple series with Carolina.
06:12One of them was five games.
06:14The other was six games.
06:15And neither of them were really that close.
06:18I don't think that's going to be the case this year.
06:20Do I think they're going to go to the cup final or anything like that?
06:24Probably not.
06:27But I think they could win a series.
06:29I think if things break right for them, they could, you know, maybe go to the conference
06:33final and have some real energy around it.
06:36And, you know, the bottom line, I think, is that they, what they've done this year is
06:42fundamentally they've changed the outlook of this franchise in a really short period of
06:47time.
06:47You know, you look at this roster now and where this team is and what it's done this
06:51year.
06:51And I don't think they're going to compete for a cup this year, but I think they're going
06:56to do it sooner rather than later.
06:59I think that now, I think that a year ago, to go back to your last question, you looked
07:04at the roster and kind of where they were, and it was really hard to picture them kind
07:11of really competing for anything in the next, you know, three, four years, it seemed like
07:17they were going to need a real long process to do that.
07:21And they have sped that timeline up.
07:24And Schaefer is a huge part of why they've sped that timeline up now to where you can
07:30now look and see a real path to not just being like a fun team that makes the playoffs
07:37and maybe can win a series, which might be what they are this year, but to, you know,
07:42really genuinely having a cup window that opens soon.
07:47And to me, like, even beyond the sort of basic, like, okay, yes, they're a much better team
07:55and they have a better chance to make in the playoffs.
07:58That fact alone is enough to kind of declare this season a success.
08:03Like, they have made so much progress in the big picture that it's hard to think of
08:10another example of a team kind of going from that sort of mediocre area in the standings
08:16where, you know, every analytics person, right, will tell you that's exactly where
08:21you don't want to be.
08:22You don't want to be around 500 and kind of the 8th to 10th best team in the league
08:27that's good enough to get in and not really good enough to do anything once you're there
08:33to being sort of on the front end of a title window in a year is, I mean, that's incredible
08:44to be able to do that.
08:45All right.
08:46Ethan, appreciate you hopping on with us right after Morning Skate, man.
08:50Enjoy the game tonight.
08:52Yeah, you bet.
08:52Thanks for having me, Brandon.
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