New Jersey Devils: Cory Schneider Must Get Past Mental Gymnastics
By Kevin Whalen
The New Jersey Devils embark on the 2019-20 season with some exciting new faces, like first-overall pick Jack Hughes, P.K. Subban, and newly-signed free agent Wayne Simmonds. It has the possibility of energizing a young group of players and offering some much-needed excitement to the Devils fan base. But one large question looms. What can we expect from the Devils’ goaltending?
Last year, young MacKenzie Blackwood, 22 years of age, had flashes of brilliance and really impressed in his first season. The oft-injured Cory Schneider was once again hot and cold, only appearing in 26 games and having his highest goals against average since coming to New Jersey, 3.06.
While the goaltending is in question, let’s focus our attention on Schneider for now. Blackwood is a young goalie who can be a reliable starter in this league, but it won’t come overnight, not without some help. That help will have to come from Schneider.
It isn’t ideal to have your young goaltender thrust into a starting role so abruptly. This could prove to be a major problem for New Jersey since they have yet to see consistent play from Schneider in recent years. Now, it begs the question, why is Cory Schneider so inconsistent?
There is absolutely no debating that potential success for Schneider is there. We’ve seen him play out of his mind before, not just here but for the Vancouver Canucks early in his career. He’s had stints of good play for Team USA as well. The narrative is always the same for Cory, however, and that is his inconsistent play. He has shown to be an unreliable goalie in an otherwise very important position for a rebuilding team.
So, again, why?
He has all the tools to be a great player night in and night out, it just doesn’t translate. The reason is likely internal. He is putting so much pressure on himself that he isn’t giving himself the chance to be at his best. This isn’t the kind of thing that can be fixed, it just isn’t.
A perfect example is from two years ago when the Devils had a surprising year and made the playoffs under the play of Keith Kinkaid. It was an unfortunate draw to face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round and Kinkaid got lit up against them. Coach John Hynes made the decision to shake things up and put Schneider in the net during the middle of the series.
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The goaltending was much better with Schneider in the net, despite him unable to pull off the miracle of beating Tampa in the series. He played so well because he was coming off the bench and nothing was expected of him. Schneider was in a win/win situation. The pressure wasn’t there for him this time and it showed in how he played. Why can’t he play like that more consistently? Again, it’s what he has done to himself mentally. When he is expected to play like the goalie the Devils traded for, he folds. When he’s not expected to be, he can be outstanding. This is an extremely frustrating trend for the Devils and that doesn’t seem to be changing.
They saw it again last year when he returned from injury and played in a hand full of games after Kinkaid was traded at the deadline. He was put into a more prominent role, but no one was expecting much from him. He had games where he put the Devils on his back and willed them to win. He had nights where he had to fend off 40-plus shots because our defense was so bad, yet he rose to the challenge.
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Now, we will see more of Cory getting in his own way again since going into this year it’s expected he will be given the chance begin the year as the team’s starter. He likely won’t have a terrible go of it, but we’ve seen all of this before and we know how it plays out. He’ll have games where he plays really well, but then have those games where he lets in a few soft goals and those will outweigh the positive play.
The goaltending is surely the most at risk situation the Devils currently have. If Schneider (or even Blackwood if the situation presents itself) can play well and play well consistently, then I think this can be a playoff team. But if it starts to go south then a lot of other things could fall along with it, like a domino effect.