Cory Schneider hesitated, then stopped himself, and yet what he left out was very clear.
On Thursday night in the Devils locker room at the Prudential Center, Schneider stood straight up and asked for the blame, begged for all of the negative of the just-completed 3-2 shootout loss to the Canucks to be placed on his shoulders.
But he stopped just short of saying what was on everyone’s mind, just short of pouring more gasoline on an already raging fire of a goalie controversy.
“It’s unacceptable on my part,” Schneider said, knowing Ryan Kesler’s and Daniel Sedin’s goals in regulation were entirely his fault, the first on a misplay of the puck and the second a soft goal from a bad angle that snuck under his right pad.
“So I know I’m better than that, I have to be better than that, and if I play like that again, then, you know,” he said, now pausing. “I’ll be better.”
What he knows, and what is known to all those paying attention, is that if he’s not better, than the pendulum of starts in net will swing back in the direction of Martin Brodeur. It was on Wednesday the future Hall of Famer and longtime backbone of this franchise told reporters that with Schneider’s start on Thursday, his third in a row, he was “in the net now to stay. I don’t see that’s going to be changed anytime soon.”
Brodeur, for all the sage wisdom of his 41 years, could not have seen this coming.
The Devils (1-5-4) are winless in four shootouts on the season, during which they haven’t even been able to get a goal in 11 attempts. The Canucks (7-4-1) of coach John Tortorella got the game-winner in the skills competition from Mike Santorelli, the lone player to score in the three rounds.
“Same old story,” said Jaromir Jagr, the 41-year-old winger whom Devils coach Pete DeBoer went on to describe as the team’s best forward through the first 10 games. “We had chances to win the hockey game, just didn’t do it.”
It’s hard to win hockey games when the goalie is giving up goals like the two Schneider did. His team was up 1-0 just five minutes into the first period, when Patrik Elias scored in his first game back after missing the previous two with severe food poisoning. But just 62 seconds later, Schneider had a miscommunication with defenseman Andy Greene, and the puck ended up with Henrik Sedin, who fed Kesler for the tying score.
“Those happen during the year,” DeBoer said. “They’ve happened to Marty before.”
Marty being Brodeur, who dealt with the death of his father just before the season started and who carries a 3.40 goals-against average and a horrid .865 save percentage in his four starts. Marty, who might very well get the start Saturday up in Boston against the Bruins.
Marty, who rarely in his 20-year career gave up timely soft goals like the one that Schneider did midway through the second period, a long, bad-angle shot from Daniel Sedin that snuck under his right pad and negated rookie Eric Gelinas’ first NHL goal, a power-play tally midway through the first.
“It starts with everyone pulling their weight, and tonight, I was probably the one guy who didn’t carry his load,” Schneider said. “It cost the team a point.”
Now it’s just wait and see if it cost Schneider his starting job.