On Tuesday, Cory Schneider and Roberto Luongo will face each other for the first time since the June trade that saw Schneider get dealt from Vancouver to New Jersey.
Everybody’s anticipating the game will be a pretty big deal -- well, everybody except for Schneider.
“We’re there less than 24 hours,” Schneider said of Tuesday’s Devils-Canucks game at Rogers Arena, as per NHL.com. “Gotta play a game, gotta win a game. I’m not going to get all nostalgic.”
Schneider’s response to the ballyhooed matchup is understandable.
While his ties to the Canucks organization do run deep -- the club selected him in the first round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, and he appeared in 98 games over the course of five seasons -- his time in Vancouver was marked by uncertainty, culminating with the shock trade at the ’13 NHL Entry Draft.
There’s also another likely motive for Schneider’s downplay. The 27-year-old doesn’t want to turn this into a confrontational/controversial issue with Luongo, as the two seemed to genuinely get along while in Vancouver and have continued to since the trade.
“I learned a lot from Roberto, whether it was on the ice or off the ice,” Schneider said. “The way he dealt with some situations there that were fair or unfair, he put on a smile and did what was best for the team. And that’s not easy to do, especially for a guy who has accomplished as much as he has and has as much pride as he has.
“He always did as much as he could do to support me, to put the team first.”