Wouldn't even say Schief has been very good, I would say good, something looks off with his game this season compared to last season.
To my eye, it looks like he now hesitates to engage physically and plays with less purpose and intensity than previously.. He is seldom the first to pursue puck retrieval and engage on the forecheck, looking instead to be supportive of his teammates. In fact , his overall positioning has changed to where he is concentrating on being the "finisher" rather than the "setup" guy. I noticed his game begin to change a bit after he returned from the World Cup where he undoubtedly noticed and picked up on some traits of other elite #1 C such as McDavid (he is after all noted to be an anabashed student of the game, always learning and adjusting). As I speculated before, this may be the reason he likes to play with Wheeler so much now.