{"id":359718,"date":"2025-11-06T11:57:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T11:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/359718\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T11:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T11:57:14","slug":"matthew-schaefer-takes-playful-rangers-jab-at-henrik-lundqvist-in-hilarious-interview-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/359718\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Schaefer takes playful Rangers jab at Henrik Lundqvist in hilarious interview moment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As if Matthew Schaefer couldn\u2019t endear himself to Islanders fans even more than he already has, he goes out and does something else.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The charismatic 18-year-old star chirped former Rangers great Henrik Lundqvist while appearing on the \u201cNHL on TNT\u201d because the ex-NHL goaltender \u2014 and Islanders antagonist \u2014 got the first question on air over Liam McHugh, a Long Island native.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.79980469;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37588994\" width=\"472\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/new-york-islanders-defenseman-matthew-114820534.jpg\" alt=\"New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer (48) skates with the puck.\" class=\"wp-image-37588994\"  \/> IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p>Schaefer appeared on TNT\u2019s hockey studio show for an interview on Wednesday when Lundqvist, a hockey analyst for the network, proceeded to ask him what his \u201cwelcome to the NHL\u201d moment was.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst off, it\u2019s pretty tough to get a Ranger asking the first question over the Long Island native here,\u201d Schaefer replied, leading to the studio crew to start laughing. \u201cI\u2019d rather the Long Island native ask me first, but I\u2019ll let this one slide.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe kid gets it, he understands,\u201d McHugh joked right back, with analyst Paul Bissonnette chiming in, \u201cSchaef daddy coming in hot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Schaefer\u2019s arrival on Long Island has coincided with a massive culture shift within the organization after ownership parted ways with longtime general manager Lou Lamoriello.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That decision, along with the hiring of Mathieu Darche, has injected new life into the Islanders and allowed Schaefer\u2019s personality to flourish in his rookie season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Schaefer has instantly become a star on and off the ice, with the young defenseman registering 11 points (five goals, six assists) through the first 13 games of his NHL career.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.41828255;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37588993\" width=\"837\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/henrik-lundqvist-shows-off-hockey-72117680.jpg\" alt=\"Henrik Lundqvist shows off his Hockey Hall of Fame ring.\" class=\"wp-image-37588993\"  \/> Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The on-ice success has led to a bit of a target being put on the youngster\u2019s back, which included an incident on Tuesday night during the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/11\/04\/sports\/islanders-squander-late-lead-fall-to-bruins-in-tough-shootout-loss\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Islanders\u2019 shootout loss to the Bruins<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Nikita Zadorov <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/11\/05\/sports\/nikita-zadorov-trolls-islanders-fans-after-matthew-schaeffer-dustup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hit Schaefer up high<\/a>, knocking him to the ice, when the two were mixing it up, leading to a bit of a melee with several Islanders teammates rushing in to help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As if Matthew Schaefer couldn\u2019t endear himself to Islanders fans even more than he already has, he goes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":359719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[174946,12960,1301,1302,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-359718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-henrik-lundqvist","9":"tag-matthew-schaefer","10":"tag-new-york-islanders","11":"tag-new-york-rangers","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115502635136249596","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}