Cory Schnieder can only watch as the Devils give up another lead last night

It’s amazing how one game and one night can change your entire perspective on things.  After Friday night, when Cory Schneider was the hero in Washington with a 1-0 shutout win and had two excellent puck-stopping games in a row, it looked as if he finally broke out of his early-season funk and was playing like the goalie many expected him to be once he finally got a full-time starting job this year.  And with Mike Cammalleri and Martin Havlat back in the lineup it looked as if better days were just around the corner offensively as well.

Then last night’s trainwreck happened.

Once again Schneider allowed a killer soft shortside goal.  Once again the PP failed, now completing the role reversal on special teams (early in the season when our PK was historically bad, our PP was good…now it’s just the opposite now that the PK has finally been fixed).  And once again, the Devils blew a lead and both points at home to a Colorado team that has been playing sub-mediocre for most of the season.  If our 8-8-2 overall record wasn’t troubling enough just digest this stat, the Devils are 5-4-1 when scoring the first goal.  That means games are a virtual coinflip even after getting out to a lead, which is pretty inexcusable.

Of course your number one lead protector is your goaltender, and Schneider continued his wild inconsistency within games last night.  Even with less than twenty games played so far it seems as if at least half of them have been ‘Cory had a great game BUT gave up a bad goal, or BUT mishandled the puck for a goal against’.  I’m tired of the buts at this point, true upper-echelon goalies (what Cory was supposed to be given his career numbers) don’t have ‘great game…buts’.  Our last two home games epitomized Cory’s season, particularly last night.  On Tuesday he made some of his best saves of the season, but spoiled his own shutout by giving away a goal to Ryan Carter with his puckhandling of doom.  Last night, Cory’s moment of doom came in the third period with the Devils up 2-1 and after playing a spotty game finally gaining momentum after Eric Gelinas’ tiebreaking goal with 11:39 remaining.  In fact the goal he allowed to Eric Johnson minutes later could have actually been the worst he allowed all season, which is saying something – a soft wrister from the boards that squirts through the legs tying the game and killing our momentum.

With the Devils trying to put a good streak together before the Western Canada swing this week, last night’s loss to a struggling WC team at home was a killer.  Of course, it was just another sign of a mediocre team doing what mediocre teams do.  Early in the season when the defense and PK were struggling, a batch of goalscoring (particularly on the power play) was carrying them.  Now that the defense looks better and the PK woes have magically been solved since Bryce Salvador’s undisclosed ‘injury’, the PP has gone from stud to dud with only an empty-net goal by Travis Zajac against Minnesota being a successful conversion in the last several games.  Overall the offense has blown a tire as well, managing no more than two (non-empty net) goals in any of the last five games.  The last time the Devils scored more than three goals in a game?  October 11, in Florida – the second game of the season.  Injury excuses can only take you so far, look at teams like the Ducks and Blues who have continued to get points in spite of a MASH unit up front at different times this season.

Despite an 8-8-2 record, desperation is starting to creep in as the glow from a 6-3-2 start has been blown away in an Avalanche of bad defeats.  I was just waiting for coach Pete DeBoer to slip up last night and say how we were playing in a tough building.  Sadly it wouldn’t be too far from the truth these days, only our building’s getting tougher on our own than the opposition.  While I wasn’t on the premises last night (I had a friend’s baby party to go to) I was told some of the yahoos up near my section were getting really impatient with Cory starting ‘We want Marty!’ chants, which made me doubly glad I didn’t go to last night’s disaster.   Would it really shock anyone if ‘Marty’s Better’ chants soon started after Cory’s next bad goal allowed?  Well no **** Marty’s better, you’re talking about arguably one of the five greatest goalies ever, but he’s 42 and not on that level anymore.  As much as I’ve complained about Cory’s play at some point you have to get behind these guys, or at least not actively turn on them.  It’s not as if Cory’s going to start playing better with the crowd giving him **** in intros or with drunken clowns upstairs expecting a 25-year old Marty to walk through the door.  How about just being thankful you had two great decades of goaltending instead of expecting the next guy to seamlessly carry that standard of greatness.

Perhaps the only similarity this year between Cory and Marty in his prime is the insane workloads, with Cory getting his 18th straight start and no sign of a break anytime soon.  At this point it wouldn’t shock me if Cory played through Thanksgiving, though after turkey break there’s a stretch of 13 games in 23 days where you’d have to figure a backup should get at least three of them.  Who gets the first backup starts is anyone’s guess though…will Kinkaid ever get an NHL start?  Now he’s been on the bench for two prolonged stretches (in 2013 and this year) when the starter’s gotten in every game.  Will Scott Clemmensen get the first shot at it now that he’s gotten some of the rust off his game in Albany?  Or will the Devils get desperate and sign/trade for someone, even (shudder) Marty, which would really make the yahoos crazy and give the tabloids fresh meat.

More importantly, will it even matter?  With the offense going cold and not all of the defensive issues leaving the building when Sal put on a suit and tie, it’s not as if the team’s playing well enough to survive less than near-perfect goaltending.  October darling Damon Severson’s become a November concern, following the pattern of Adam Larsson’s rookie year as some of us who didn’t want to totally buy into the hype feared it might.  Though Severson led the defense in icetime last night(!), he was a -3 and generally hasn’t looked that great lately, exhibit A last night’s first goal where he chased Gabriel Landeskog around the net putting both he and Gelinas on the same side of the ice and leaving the right side wide open for a tap-in goal by John Mitchell.  Gelinas and fellow offensive d-man Marek Zidlicky is a disaster of a pairing waiting to happen and though Seth Hegelson’s gotten off to a nice start in his career he’s still green.  Of course with how desperate our overrated head coach is to ride a hot hand, Hegelson will probably get twenty minutes a game anyday now.  Offensively, can someone – anyone besides Mike Cammalleri start scoring consistently?  Patrik Elias’s career worst scoring drought has continued, since he hasn’t gotten a goal since Opening Night.  The only Devil besides Cammalleri in last night’s lineup with as many as four goals is Michael Ryder, who scored half of them in our too little, too late binge in St. Louis.

I would say this is a good time for the team to be heading on the road except that their first game’s against Winnipeg Tuesday, and their speed usually is problematic for us.  The the Devils face another surprise team in Calgary on Friday before going to Edmonton on Saturday, scene of one of the worst losses we suffered last year.  Then they conclude the trip in Vancouver on Tuesday before coming home for Thanksgiving.  Hopefully by then the Devils themselves won’t be coming home as stuffed turkeys.