Head coach Alain Vigneault divulged his highly confidential goaltending decision at the Vancouver Canucks' morning skate Wednesday at Staples Center, revealing that Cory Schneider will make his second straight start of the first-round series that the Los Angeles Kings lead three games to none.
Roberto Luongo, who appeared to be Vancouver's best player on the ice with a 35-save performance in Game 1 and contributed another fine effort in Game 2, received the tough-luck bench assignment and did not speak with the media after Wednesday's skate.
"Goaltending has not been the issue for us this year, and in this series we've had great goaltending," Vigneault said. "Whichever decision I had made would have been the right one. But without getting into the specifics of why Cory is playing tonight, I'm confident that he's going to have a good game and that the guys are going to play real hard in front of him."
The decision to start Schneider, while not unexpected, once again raises the concern of where the Canucks' goaltending priorities currently lie, and it's not pretty for the team's long-term financials, never mind the here and now of trailing three-games-to-none. Luongo, who signed a 12-year, $64-million extension prior to the 2009-10 season, handcuffs the organization with a $5.3 million cap hit through 2022.
On Tuesday, when asked by a reporter after Vancouver's practice if he understood Vigneault's decision to start Schneider in Game 3, the 33-year-old offered a one word reply.
"Yep," the six-year Canuck and veteran of 61 career playoff games said.
Instead, Schneider, a Massachusetts native who has occupied the net across from Connecticut native Jonathan Quick at several stops in his playing career, gets a second opportunity to best the longtime rival he carries a great deal of respect for. In Game 3, Quick stopped all 41 shots, while Schneider stopped 19 of 20.
"We're from the same area. We played against each other in high school and college, and it's been great to see him rise to the level he has," Schneider said of Quick. "I remember in college, he stood on his head a few games against us at UMass. You can see that there was something special there. The way he's adapted to the game and learned from it so quickly to be as good as he is is pretty remarkable. We've got to find a way to solve him and get back in this series."
The Canucks will also be looking for a boost from the probable return of star winger Daniel Sedin, who hasn't played since a vicious Duncan Keith elbow left him concussed in a 2-1 overtime loss on March 21. He skated at practice with his teammates for the first time since the injury on Tuesday and expressed optimism that he'll play on Wednesday night. Should he be able to return to the lineup, Vigneault announced that it would be at the expense of fourth line sandpaper type Dale Weise.
"Daniel and our docs here will talk after practice this morning," Vigneault said. "They'll talk after warmup, and they'll make that call."
On being informed by a reporter that the Kings wouldn't "hold back" at all should he return to the lineup, Sedin interrupted the media scrum to express his own opinion.
"No, why should they? I wouldn't be back if I wasn't 100%," Sedin said. "They're going to expect the same from me, to be 100%, so I think that's kind of a stupid question."
It does seem like an all-too-convenient turn of events for Sedin, who was pegged by a former team employee on Saturday as not having recovered well enough to play in this series, let alone to join his teammates in Los Angeles.
While it wouldn't be shocking at all if this turned out to be a ploy to raise the Canucks' expectations of the series and instill more confidence by bringing Sedin down to L.A., the 31-year-old Swede talked the talk of someone expecting to play that night.
"We'll see how A.V. uses me," Sedin said of his ability to play in different roles Wednesday. "Once you're out there, you want to play as much as you can. That's always been my case, and however much he plays me, I'm going to work hard."
"That's why you work hard in the summer, to be ready for these kinds of moments. It's understandable it's going to be a little bit off, but that's the way it is."
Considering Keith's elbow and a number of brutal hits through the playoffs, typified in a Flyers-Penguins game that featured 158 penalty minutes and Raffi Torres launching his body like a missile at Marian Hossa Tuesday night, Sedin had an opinion for the spike in ugly hits and suspensions.
"Lack of respect," he said. "That's the main issue."
