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When he has been up from AHL Bridgeport and with the Islanders this season, Cory Schneider, dispensing with the formality of possibility, has often donned a baseball cap on the team’s bench. There’s been little reason to believe the team would play him ahead of Ilya Sorokin or Semyon Varlamov, even when one or the other has been on short rest.
Schneider had not played an NHL game since March 6, 2020 — a 4-2 win for the Devils over the Blues. But on Sunday afternoon, with Sorokin dealing with an upper-body injury and Varlamov having played both ends of a back-to-back a couple days earlier, Islanders coach Barry Trotz declined to say before the game who would be in net. And when his Islanders hit the ice for warm-ups at Prudential Center, it was Schneider, back in his old stomping grounds, who led them out.
Then, something even more remarkable happened. Schneider stopped 27 shots in a fourth straight Islanders win, as they beat the Devils, 4-3, on the back of Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s hat trick and helped by their 36-year-old netminder.
Like Friday night’s win over the Rangers, the Islanders had the jump from the start. Lately, they’ve been playing what they would call Islanders hockey: grinding, low-event, wearing teams down, and that’s what this was again as high-danger chances were at a premium. Only the Islanders could play a second period in which they recorded seven shots on goal and feel completely happy about it.
It was the third that caused their blood pressure to rise, as Tomas Tatar scored at 5:32 to bring the Devils within a goal. But Kyle Palmieri gave the Islanders some insurance with a wrist shot past Nico Daws at 14:32, on an assist from Pageau. That proved key when Nico Hischier pulled the Devils back to within 4-3 at 18:54, but the Islanders managed to fend off a late push.
At 32-27-9, the Islanders have their best record of the season and are playing their best hockey. In Schneider, they might have just featured one of their best stories, too.
The Islanders jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period with both goals coming from Pageau, the center’s first multi-goal game since Feb. 13, 2021. Thanks to some strong play from his defense, Schneider was rarely tested early on, notching his first save with the shoulder pad on Jesper Bratt at 3:02, then soldiering through a Devils power play that produced few chances of note later in the period.
Pageau completed the hat trick at 14:58 of the second, cleaning up a loose puck in the crease to increase the Islanders’ lead to 3-0. Jesper Boqvist got one back for the Devils 47 seconds later to make it 3-1.
The home side will take away two major issues from this game, the first being Jack Hughes’ injury, incurred on a second-period hit from Oliver Wahlstrom and the second being P.K. Subban’s ejection from the game, incurred after he pummeled Wahlstrom following said hit, which in real time looked clean albeit unfortunate.
The win was the 116th of Schneider’s career, which had looked as though it was all but officially over at the NHL level. That it came in New Jersey, his home for seven seasons, added a sentimental touch.
For the Islanders, the win continues a run of play good enough to make one wonder what could have been if they had produced it in January or February instead of now. If nothing else, they’ve had the distinct look of a group filled with pride of late, and their play has very much reflected it.
When the horn sounded on Sunday, Schneider had his moment, Pageau had his hat trick and the only thing stopping all from being right for the Islanders was the inconvenient fact of the standings.
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