The New Jersey Devils have had some issues with Cory Schneider in the net in recent years but he has been awesome over the past few games.
The New Jersey Devils earned a very fun win to close out the California trip. They defeated the Anaheim Ducks by a final score of 3-0. Guys like Pavel Zacha, Nikita Gusev, and Jesper Bratt had great games, but the guy who stood out the most was goaltender Cory Schneider. He has had a rough time over the past few seasons but this shutout improved his record to 2-0-1 since returning to NHL action for good this season.
The shutout was Schneider’s first since last February. It has been a while since he planked an opponent. It was once a somewhat common occurrence so seeing him be this good again, at least for a stretch, has been fun. Schneider was put on waivers and sent down to the Binghamton Devils earlier in the year and he didn’t complain once. He didn’t refuse to do anything and was just a good soldier.
For those reasons, he deserved every minute of that shutout victory. Schneider made 34 saves on 34 shots to outduel John Gibson who is one of the best goalies in the world. For a guy who was such a good Devil for such a long time during an era that wasn’t very good, it was fun to see as a fan of his. It is unclear what the future holds for Schneider in the NHL. Hopefully, this makes it a bit more fruitful than it once looked like it was going to be.
MacKenzie Blackwood is clearly going to be the goalie of the future for this team unless something unforeseen happens, but that doesn’t mean people can’t root for Schneider in the meantime. Blackwood has been an amazing goalie this season and seemingly gets better every time he is out there. His opportunity to comfortable smart is large in part because Schneider was so willing to give it up in his struggles. No matter what happens going forward, the Devils need to make sure that the goalie situation is handled properly.
The team has Monday off before making its final stop of the western road trip. They will visit the desert to take on the Vegas Golden Knights at the T-Mobile Arena. That is going to be a challenge for the ages as far as New Jersey is concerned. Vegas is a very good hockey team that will make life difficult for whoever is in the net.