Cory Schneider is a grown ass man. A professional's professional. A proud guy who understands the obvious, which is that it's going to take more than a solid 2.5 game (really 3.5, if you include the Islanders' shootout loss in which the Devils' offense was offensive) stretch to silence the uncertainty regarding the potential resurrection of a career that's become riddled by injuries and crushed by a lack of confidence. For those reasons, I'm not going to patronize him by overpraising his initial efforts in helping to clean up what was a complete mess in the Devils' crease like he's a child that sloppily threw the sports' section over the full gallon of milk that he spilled. He deserves no shortage of credit for taking an absolute beating in stride and coming out the other side of the gauntlet of gut punches that was a sickly twisted losing streak capable of breaking the will of even a slightly lesser man. However, considering a shutout over a Senators' team that was hosting a live auction for 80% of its talent while the game was going on to be proof that he's "back" could only lead to a lot of disappointment moving forward. I hate to be the one to measure the approach here, but this cautiously optimistic feeling probably just seems a lot more promising than it is due to the hapless hopelessness from which it rose like a phoenix. That being said, if the bad news is that Cory Schneider's recent success has continued his awkward trend of winning when his team would be better served not to then the good news is that his fluidity, positioning, and athleticism while doing so follow a much more promising trend of goaltenders slowly returning to form after hip surgery. The truth is that we've probably already seen the best of #35, but we've certainly already seen the worst of #35. If he's managed to find the higher end of that middle ground, and the audition out of desperation that was Mackenzie Blackwood's shockingly successful stint in New Jersey is a sign of what he'll eventual bring to the show, then the Devils have at least found some answers at the tail end of an otherwise lost season. Cory Schneider's days as the most formidable of franchise goaltender are more than likely over, but if he can relied upon for nights like last then the...::gulp::...three years and 18 million dollars left on his contract are somewhat easier to swallow. Not sure I've gone from thinking inevitable buy-out to fully buying in quite yet, but - at risk of being swayed by a couple impressive starts and a big shiny goose egg - I can pretty easily be sold on him taking the occasional page out of his past in splitting time with someone who looked a hell of a lot like the future. Even as a longtime Cory Schneider apologist, that's a hell of a lot better than any outcome I would have felt comfortable putting my money on a couple weeks ago.
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