
Matthew Schaefer, Islanders’ likely No. 1 pick, fought through two tragedies before reaching this spot
NY Post
BUFFALO — It would have been so easy for things to go so off course for Matthew Schaefer.
He could have been labeled injury-prone, or seen his draft ranking fall off a cliff after playing just 17 games last season.
He could have drowned in grief a year before that, when his mother, Jennifer, died of cancer shortly after his billet mom, Emily Matson, died of suicide — an unimaginable pair of tragedies that would wreck so many people.
That Schaefer stayed on course to have an NHL career at all is impressive.

Suddenly, someone had hit a rewind button and everyone had been transported back seven months. It was early spring instead of late fall, it was broiling hot outside the arena walls and not freezing cold. Everyone was back at TD Garden. There were 19,156 frenzied fans on their feet begging for blood, poised for the kill.












