Cory Schneider, who was placed on injured reserve on Monday with an abdominal strain, isn’t just carrying a monkey on his back.
It’s more like the whole zoo.
On Friday night at the Prudential Center, the beleaguered Devils goalie was pulled after allowing three goals on seven Vegas shots in just 9:36 of action.
Luckily, Schneider was off the hook when Keith Kinkaid came on to backstop a remarkable comeback from 4-1 down in the Devils’ thrilling 5-4 victory in overtime.
Friday’s no-decision spared Schneider from attaching another negative notch on his belt. He has not won a regular-season start since beating Detroit on Dec. 27, 2017, an ignominious 0-15-3 run that is approaching Bill McKenzie’s 26-game winless streak from Oct. 27, 1975, to March 18, 1978, for the then-Kansas City Scouts/Colorado Rockies as the longest in franchise history.
Coach John Hynes would have much rather focused his entire postgame news conference on the Devils’ grit without reigning NHL MVP Taylor Hall in the lineup in defeating last season’s Stanley Cup finalist.
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But the question had to be asked.
Have there been discussions regarding sending Schneider down to AHL Binghamton to work out the kinks in his game rather than having him continue to muck up the Devils’ playoff quest? New Jersey is just one point ahead of Philadelphia for last place in the Eastern Conference, but only seven points behind Pittsburgh (with a game in hand) for third in the Metropolitan Division.
So, when Schneider returns to health, how many more starts can you give to a goalie with the league’s worst goals-against average (4.66) and save percentage (.852) among those with at least five games played?
“We obviously have (Schneider) here, so this is where we think is best,” Hynes said. “Cory is a big part of our team, and he’s going through some things. Right now, we’ll all continue to work through it.”
This is not about Schneider the person, a true professional throughout his struggles dealing with a hip that plagued him for much of last season and forced him to undergo surgery in the offseason. Kinkaid mentioned that Schneider “gave me a little giggle and said, ‘sixth time’s a charm’ after Devils center Nico Hischier’s goal snapped Kinkaid’s own personal losing streak in overtimes at five.
But the excuses have to stop. The injuries. The bad luck (such as the three own goals the Devils put past Schneider in San Jose last week). The bad defense (Damon Severson inexcusably let William Karlsson get behind him on an odd-man rush for Vegas’ second goal Friday).
At some point, you have to go back to the Bill Parcells quote: You are what your record says you are.
And in Schneider’s case, it’s been really bad.
Vegas’ other two goals were stoppable. Just 1:19 into the game, Schneider was too slow pushing off to move across his crease and cover Alex Tuch’s wraparound. Eight minutes later came the piece de resistance -- a soft flick from the left-wing wall by William Carrier that somehow got behind Schneider for the goal that finally sent him to the bench.
Kinkaid returned to the net in Nashville on Saturday as scheduled on a back-to-back and kept the Devils in the game until Brian Boyle tied it at 1-1 in the final two minutes on a six-on-five. After another five minutes of overtime and six shootout rounds, the Predators finally prevailed.
Kinkaid has clearly earned the bulk of the work going forward. That only makes things harder on Schneider.
The Devils aren’t going to get Schneider’s game back to his former level of a few years ago, when he was an NHL All-Star and a member of the USA World Cup of Hockey team, by playing him once a week, maybe twice if the games are condensed. He needs to play a lot just to regain his confidence.
There’s almost no risk in placing Schneider on waivers, since I can’t believe any team would willingly take on a contract that has three more seasons after this with a $6 million average annual value. Not when he’s playing this poorly.
If someone does, that would be even better. It would save the Devils from having more uncomfortable discussions next summer regarding the pros and cons of a buyout. The Devils could save $4 million on their salary cap in the next three seasons by buying out Schneider, but then they would also take an annual $2 million charge in the following three seasons.
If the Devils were a cap team, I could see how ownership would frown upon paying extra money to stash such a high-priced player in the minors. This is not the Rangers.
However, the Devils have about $13.7 million in cap space, per CapFriendly.com. Only Carolina has more.
So we’re not talking about a major incremental cash outlay here. Schneider gets paid wherever he plays, and the Devils replaced him by calling up someone already under contract (on a two-way) at Binghamton --Mackenzie Blackwood.
Blackwood, a 2015 second-round draft pick, has bounced back somewhat after a disappointing 2017-18 campaign that saw him sent further down to the ECHL for five games. Recent subpar outings have lowered his numbers to 6-7-1 with a league-average 2.69 GAA and .911 save percentage this season.
With the Devils playing three games in four nights at the end of the week, it’s certainly possible Blackwood will get a start, giving him the opportunity to show whether he can handle NHL backup duties.
The only question in the short-term then will be whether Blackwood would give New Jersey a better chance to win in the upcoming games that would normally belong to Schneider.
I think the Devils know the answer. They just don’t want to acknowledge it.