New Jersey Devils: Cory Schneider Shouldn’t Play Until He’s 100 Percent
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils announced three star players who underwent surgery this week. The most significant of which was to goaltender Cory Schneider. He cannot rush his way back for the good of next season.
Cory Schneider’s excellent showing in the playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning looks more impressive today, after the New Jersey Devils announced he needed surgery on his hip.
Schneider needed to repair a torn ligament in his left hip. When thinking about how many crazy saves he made going side to side, that seems insane. The amount of pain he had to be playing through shows his toughness despite another less than stellar season.
Schneider’s injury may have contributed to what can be amounted to a lost second half. He went out with a lower-body injury January 24th. This came after a month where he didn’t look like the same goalie, and a month where he didn’t win a game.
On December 27th, Schneider looked like one of the best goalies in the league. He had two straight months with a save percentage over .920. He was coming off wins in five straight games. Head coach John Hynes was playing him in back-to-back games. Schneider was the man helping the Devils stick around in the Metropolitan Division race.
He fell off the face of the Earth, and literally didn’t win another game until the playoffs.
There’s a lot to learn from this season, but the main lesson is that Schneider cannot be overused like he has been under Hynes. The Devils head coach will lean on his goalie until they crack. It’s one flaw that usually ends up biting him in the end. He’s leaned on Schneider for multiple seasons, and it’s clear towards the end of the season he isn’t the same goalie.
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That’s why the Devils need to take their time with Schneider’s current injury. Recovery from this type of surgery should take about five months. If it takes a little bit longer, then so be it. The Devils can survive with a mixture of Keith Kinkaid, Ken Appleby and possibly re-signing Eddie Lack for the first month of the season.
Schneider may try to force his way back in order to win his job from Kinkaid out of camp, but the Devils need to take that decision away from him. We’ve seen what happens when players come back too early. Travis Zajac came back too early and took a month to get back to his normal production. It hurts the player and the team more than allowing them to recover.
Schneider can easily win the job back when he returns. We’ve seen that the coaching staff still has confidence in his ability to be the starting goalie. Schneider couldn’t stop a pee wee hockey team towards the end of the season, yet he was given the torch in the playoffs when Kinkaid faltered. Hynes plays the goalie that gives him the best chance to win. That’s why Schneider needs to rest and rehab as long as possible. We need him at 100 percent all season long.