New Jersey Devils: Cory Schneider Back To His Old Self
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils are 3-0-0 to start the season after a big win against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Stellar performances by goalie Cory Schneider has everything to do with the team’s hot start.
Last season was bad in every aspect for the New Jersey Devils. The defense looked thoroughly bad from top to bottom. The offense couldn’t score despite adding Taylor Hall. Young kids were underperforming and head coach John Hynes kept making mistakes he didn’t make the season before. While that all contributed to the Devils failures, the scariest part of last season was the future of Cory Schneider.
Schneider proved early this season that last year was an anomaly.
Schneider was a top ten goalie since coming to the Devils back in 2013. In fact, just two years ago Schneider was in the top five of Vezina Trophy voting. So should one year change everything you think about a goaltender?
Coming into the season, Schneider was the biggest question mark. Which player would show up to start the year? There is the Schneider who stops everything possible. He makes plays one great plays and stops all the easy plays. Then, there is the Schneider who lost his confidence. He allows shots from the point to get behind him. There are rebounds going right in front of him instead of being kicked to the boards.
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Just look at Schneider’s performance from last night. He faced 50 shots. 50! He only allowed three goals, which seems almost impossible against a team like the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Luckily for Schneider, this defense is better than it was last year. The defense is not good, per se, but this isn’t last year’s club. Heck, the team has been able to bench Ben Lovejoy after he was spending more than 20 minutes on the ice per game.
Is it too early to declare Schneider as “back”? No. This isn’t overreacting to Jesper Bratt’s hot start and calling him a star. Schneider is already a star goaltender coming off a bad year. Showing already he’s back to where he was two years ago is all we need.
The key to the season coming in was how well Schneider could play. Three games into the season, Schneider has been great and the Devils are 3-0. The two are not mutually exclusive.