The New Jersey Devils are about to get a highly anticipated season underway and it starts and ends with their goaltending. Thankfully, Cory Schneider looks great.
Most people say that the biggest question mark for the New Jersey Devils is the play of their goaltenders. They have what appears to be a solid tandem in Cory Schneider and MacKenzie Blackwood to run out there, but many analysts were wary of whether or not they would be able to play well enough with a playoff-caliber lineup in front of them.
Cory Schneider has silenced a lot of people with his play during the preseason. He has dominated every game he has played and is beginning to look like the Schneider we came to know before his injury. He showed flashes of it towards the end of last year but he looks ready to go. The Devils were a bad team when he was a Vezina caliber goalie and he started to see a slip in his play when the team started to get better. It looks like they might finally be able to put it together this season.
Since returning from injury in February, he has been pretty awesome for the Devils. He had a .921 save percentage in 17 games to end the year last year, a .920 save percentage in six World Championship games representing Team USA, and a .951 save percentage in four preseason games. It remains to be seen if he can keep it up in the regular season, but you have to be pretty confident in his chances. There is no doubt that if he continues to play this well, the Devils are going to be a very good team this year.
MacKenzie Blackwood is a solid goalie as well. He will help allow Schneider to have a manageable workload as he tries to be his old self for a long period of time. Schneider being good will also help out Blackwood as well. The way Schneider has played in the preseason should have all fans of the team be excited about what he can potentially do this year because if he can play that good this could be a very special year for the Devils.