MONTREAL — Maybe the first game back after three weeks was always going to be about which team could shake the cobwebs off quicker. Certainly, neither the Islanders nor Canadiens were anything like the best versions of themselves Thursday night.
At points, one would have been forgiven for assuming all 40 players on the ice had just gotten back from Milan, as the hockey took on a jet-lagged and disjointed quality.
Matthew Schaefer, though, woke the Islanders right up, earning himself another highlight and another pair of records, even as everyone has already lost count of both. As the night wore on, the Islanders found their urgency, they found their resiliency and they came away with a 4-3 win over the Canadiens on Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s backhand 1:46 into overtime.
“I have that feeling this year,” Pageau said. “When we get down, we always have a chance to come back.”
This was not pretty hockey. Both teams looked disconnected at points. The Islanders missed plenty of passes, they looked a step slow at times. So too did the Canadiens.
This turned into a fun one anyway, largely because of the two defensemen who are so central to the story of this Islanders’ season. Going into the third period, Noah Dobson had two goals against his old club, Schaefer had two goals for his new club and it was anyone’s game.
The Canadiens, though, struck first in the third, with Cole Caufield scoring off Ivan Demidov’s cross-crease feed on the power play for a 3-2 lead at 9:11 of the third.
The Islanders spent the rest of the third pressing, but it took until there was 1:41 to go and they were skating at six-on-five for Anders Lee to finally tip Bo Horvat’s shot in and tie the game at three, sending his 900th career game into overtime.
The Islanders barely touched the puck for the first 1:23 of overtime, but Pageau was sprung by Simon Holmstrom off a defensive zone faceoff win and poked his backhand past Samuel Montembeault.
“That’s fun hockey,” said Schaefer, who wasted no time reminding the NHL of his brilliance with a pair of goals 55 seconds apart, the latter a brilliant solo effort, to erase a 2-0 deficit at the end of the second period. “I thought we fought so hard. It’s so fun playing with this group of guys. I love coming to the rink when all the boys are going to war.”
Dobson, facing the club that dealt him away over the summer, scored his pair of goals first: a left-circle blast while the Islanders were caught in the middle of a change, then a slap shot from the top of the zone on the power play. The two points mean he’s already passed his total from a year ago, a sign of how happily his marriage with the Canadiens has gone so far.
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It wasn’t so long ago that Dobson was the next big thing on defense for the Islanders. Schaefer, though, has made that easy to forget.
With the Islanders skating five-on-three, he scored from the top of the slot to cut the lead in half. When the power play ended, he went and scored one of his more ridiculous goals of the season, skating behind the net, going around it, pulling up before the blue line, cutting back and lashing a shot from atop the right circle. By the end of the sequence, according to MSG, Schaefer had skated over 270 feet.
“I didn’t think we shot enough early in the game,” Schaefer said.
Exactly in line with what Patrick Roy was thinking.
“I never doubt his IQ,” the head coach said. “If there’s something I’ve seen pretty fast, it’s that.”
The first goal tied Schaefer for both the franchise lead in goals by a rookie defenseman and the all-time lead in goals for an 18-year-old defenseman. The second gave him both records, passing Denis Potvin and Phil Housley, respectively.
Just another Thursday for Schaefer.
And just another night to leave one wondering where the Islanders might be without him.
