Now let me start by saying that regardless of how the headline may read, I am not all that upset. If I were upset I would say something along these lines: "Cory Schneider not receiving credit for being one of the top 3 goaltenders in the NHL this year is a league wide embarrassment of epic proportions, and it probably is worthy of a third party investigation that would undoubtedly return evidence of collusion". Like I said, however, I am not that mad and the reason being is two fold.
First things first, it doesn't really matter. Braden Holtby is as pure of a lock to win the trophy as any goalie I can even remember in recent history. He played for far and away the best team throughout the regular season and his performance was consistently brilliant. Hard to get too riled up about one of your players not receiving a nomination for an award they have next to no chance to win. Second of all, it's just not that surprisingly. For some reason people still think that putting up eye popping numbers as the last line of defense for the New Jersey Devils isn't all that much of an accomplishment. It's really quite fascinating when you think about. Scott Stevens retired over a decade ago. Scott Niedermayer left shortly thereafter. Yet, the fact that - at one point - Cory Schneider was 23-1 when his team scored more than ONE single goal goes without notice. His 2.15 GAA while playing behind one of the youngest, most inexperienced defense corps in the entirely league merely a product of some long forgotten system. A save percentage that only becomes more impressive by taking a quick look at how many quality shots he faced on a game-by-game basis? Somehow lost in the shuffle. I don't think it's too hard to see what happened here. The team's failure to make the postseason is likely what cost him the (very) off chance at an INDIVIDUAL award. Pretty ridiculous considering how much he did to make sure this team could even mention the word 'playoffs' without the rest of the league laughing in it's face. All this decision tells me is that NHL GM's don't pay enough attention to games that aren't theirs. I can't say I blame them. If I was a rich man I wouldn't spent my free time tuning into GameCenter. That said, maybe we should put the nomination privileges in the hands of others, because saying that Ben Bishop OR Jonathon Quick had a better season between the pipes than Cory Schneider is flat out irresponsible. P.S. Don't you dare Dubuttsky. I have put far too much into hating you to let you try to weasel your way into my good graces by tugging on my most vulnerable of heart strings...
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