- Matt Martin dropped the gloves with housemate Matthew Schaefer at his own hockey camp Friday
- Schaefer later staged a scrap with a camper and worked the crowd on the way to the box
- Read below for video of both fights and what Schaefer said about his day on the ice
Matt Martin retired this spring. He found one more fight anyway.
The former Islanders forward squared off with Matthew Schaefer on Friday at the Matt Martin Hockey Academy in East Meadow, jerseys swapped for tracksuits and a rink full of kids howling. Schaefer lives with the Martin family, so this one was a housemate scrap.
Watch the two of them go:
Fighting was part of Martin’s job for 16 seasons. He had 164 of them in 987 NHL games, starting with a bout against Tyler Kennedy on Feb. 10, 2010. Schaefer was two and a half years old that night.
The Calder Trophy winner was not finished, either. Some chirping with a camper later in the day turned into a second tilt, whistle and all, and Schaefer played it up for the crowd on his way to the penalty box. The league account grabbed that clip on Saturday.
Here is the video of Schaefer running it back against a kid half his size:
The camp is in its 11th year and drew a record 360 skaters between the ages of 6 and 15 to Northwell Ice Center, the Islanders’ practice facility. Schaefer turned up Friday morning and stayed the whole day, hopping into ice sessions and signing whatever got handed to him.
Schaefer was asked by The Elmonters why he keeps giving up a summer day for it.
“Yeah, it’s the best. I mean, doing this for Marty is awesome, but doing this for Long Island is the best, too. And it’s just so fun when you can come out and have fun with kids, and I can be a kid.”
Martin, now an assistant to general manager Mathieu Darche, talked about how much the week has grown on him since he stopped playing.
“Every year is kind of special in its own way. The camp continues to grow, which is a good thing, especially since I’m retired now. My former teammates and Schaef and the guys that are willing to come out and donate their time play a big part in that.”
Schaefer just wrapped a rookie year that collected all 198 first-place Calder votes. He scored 23 goals and put up 59 points in 82 games while logging 24:41 a night, and he became the youngest Calder winner in league history at 18 years and 223 days. Those 23 goals tied Brian Leetch’s record for a rookie defenseman. He also debuted at No. 7 on the NHL Network’s top 20 defensemen list this month.
Not every shift ended in a scrap. News 12’s Kevin Maher caught Schaefer shoving a camper up the ice on a fast break:
Retirement resumes for Martin now. The camp scrap will not show up in his fight record, but 360 kids watched it.
