The Maple Leafs will host Hamilton native Matthew Schaefer for his first-ever NHL game in Toronto tonight at Scotiabank Arena (7:00 p.m. EST, TSN4).
Game Day Quotes
Matthew Schaefer on his first-ever NHL game in Toronto:
It is awesome. I’m coming home to the roots a little bit. I came to the games with my dad and friends.
It will be good to be here with family in the building. Just with people I’ve grown up with — teachers, family, and so on — there will be so many people here.
Schaefer on his earliest memories at the Scotiabank Arena:
There was a video from my dad when I was so young, and I was just chanting “Go Leafs Go” or whatever. It’s funny. Times have changed. Now, I’m an Islander.
Here and Buffalo are the two closest NHL teams I could go watch. I wouldn’t come to a lot of games, but my dad was a Leafs fan growing up. I was watching them growing up.
Now, we’re all Islanders fans.
Islanders head coach Patrick Roy on the message to Schaefer as he visits his hometown team for the first time:
Just be himself. That is what he has been doing since he has been with us. It was a big stage in Montreal, and he handled it really well. It was a big stage when we played the Leafs in New York.
Schaef has been handling those situations really well. He has been a great teammate. He praises his teammates. He enjoys playing with Pulock, who has been helping him a lot.
He is very humble and handles success very well. He has been a leader on our team, even at 18 years old. It is pretty impressive what he has been doing.
Roy on whether Schaefer has exceeded expectations in his rookie season:
It is hard to answer. We didn’t know what to expect. He played 17 games last year. We were all hoping to see him play at the level.
Yes and no. It is “no” in the way that we didn’t know because of the number of games he played last year. But it is “yes” because we know the talent he has and the type of person he is.
The ceiling was pretty high for his talent. It is impressive what he has been doing, actually.
He has helped our team tremendously, the way he is jumping in the rush and closing on teams defensively. It is nice to see a player like that play at this level, especially for a defenseman.
Craig Berube on the most impressive aspects of Schaefer’s game:
For me, it is his hockey IQ and speed, more than anything. For a young kid coming into the league, to be able to do what he is doing, you need a very high hockey IQ. You also need ability, which he has — his skating ability is off the charts. Very impressive. Very impressive.
John Tavares on Schaefer’s accomplishments as an 18-year-old in the league:
It’s pretty remarkable. He is doing things only a handful of players have done. It is extremely impressive. He is not just a franchise player. He has certainly put himself in the conversation as a generational talent.
We know the challenge he presents. He played extremely well in the last game we played against them. We will have to do a good job of making it difficult on him tonight by trying to keep the puck out of his hands and keep him in front of us. Like any player, you try to make him play on his half of the ice and defend more than being on the attack.
A heck of a player.
Berube on how often the team revisits the response to the Auston Matthews injury:
It is something we’ve talked about almost daily: getting in there for each other, being physical, and being hard to play against. When someone takes advantage, like the other night with the goaltender in Buffalo, OEL was right in there, and we had everybody in there. That is what we need to look like all of the time.
Berube on the status of Oliver Ekman-Larsson for tonight’s game:
I am not sure yet. He has spent the last couple of days in the hospital with our wife. He is resting right now. He will give me an update later on it.
Maple Leafs (29-27-12) vs. Islanders (38-24-5): Head-to-Head Stats
via NaturalStatTrick.com & AdvancedHockeyStats.com
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#63 Matias Maccelli – #91 John Tavares – #88 William Nylander
#23 Matthew Knies – #11 Max Domi – #53 Easton Cowan
#81 Dakota Joshua – #29 Bo Groulx – #89 Nick Robertson
#18 Steven Lorentz – #26 Jacob Quillan – #19 Calle Jarnkrok
Defensemen
#22 Jake McCabe – #25 Brandon Carlo
#44 Morgan Rielly – #51 Philippe Myers
#95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson – #28 Troy Stecher
Goaltenders
Starter: #60 Joseph Woll
#41 Anthony Stolarz
Extras: Simon Benoit
Injured: Auston Matthews, Chris Tanev (LTIR)
New York Islanders Projected Lines
Forwards
#51 Emil Heineman – #14 Bo Horvat – #13 Mathew Barzal
#11 Anthony Duclair – #10 Brayden Schenn – #92 Simon Holmstrom
#27 Anders Lee – #44 JG Pageau – #64 Calum Ritchie
#81 Ondrej Palat – #53 Casey Cizikas – #32 Kyle MacLean
Defensemen
#48 Matthew Schaefer – #6 Ryan Pulock
#3 Adam Pelech – #77 Tony DeAngelo
#4 Carson Soucy – #24 Scott Mayfield
Goaltenders
Starter: #30 Ilya Sorokin
#33 David Rittich
Injured: Semyon Varlamov, Pierre Engvall, Alex Romanov, Kyle Palmieri
