Screen Shots: Cory Schneider, Hockey Canada vs. BCHL and Jersey Reviews

Welcome back to another edition of Screen Shots, THN.com’s regular feature in which this writer tackles a few different hockey topics and breaks them down over a few paragraphs apiece. As usual, we’re going to keep the introductory paragraph even more brief and get down to brass tacks.

Hockey Canada announced Tuesday that any player participating in a non-sanctioned league – including the British Columbia Hockey League, which left Hockey Canada after a vote in May – after Sept. 30 will be considered ineligible to join, affiliate with or apply for reinstatement to any Hockey Canada-sanctioned team competing for a national championship for the rest of the season. That includes the CHL, the Jr. A Canadian Junior Hockey League and Canada's U-18 National Club Championship. The move is the latest in an ongoing political battle, and Hockey Canada is not taking baby steps to address the issue.

But the move has not caused the BCHL to backpedal in its direction. It began a 54-game season on Sept. 22, and it plans to push its players to American collegiate teams wherever possible.

“Our goal is to provide a world-class experience to athletes pursuing education and hockey through college,” the BCHL said on its website.

That’s an admirable goal, but the fracturing of the grassroots and minor amateur systems may not be ideal. Having two rival governing entities can hurt the overall competitiveness of every league. Only time will tell whether the BCHL and/or Hockey Canada will rue the day they went their separate ways, but here’s hoping the athletes don’t suffer for this territorial showdown.

Cheers to longtime NHL goalie Cory Schneider, who retired Tuesday after 13 NHL seasons split between the Vancouver Canucks, New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders. 

At his peak, the 37-year-old was a terrific second option between the pipes for the Canucks, posting a 20-8-1 record, .937 save percentage and 1.96 goals-against average in 2011-12. Two seasons later, the Canucks traded him to the Devils, but New Jersey was not a great team for the grand majority of the time he spent with the organization, making the playoffs just once in his seven seasons with the franchise.

Schneider never found his ideal form after the 2015-16 campaign, and he battled injury issues and stints in the AHL during his time under contract by the Islanders, for whom he appeared in just one NHL game in 2021-22. But he was a dedicated competitor who made 410 career NHL appearances, with a 2.43 GAA and .918 save percentage in that span. 

Most goalies would kill to have those career totals. Here’s hoping the Massachusetts native has a happy and healthy post-playing existence.

There have been a slew of new NHL jersey unveilings in the past week and a bit. While we like the reimagined Boston Bruins jerseys, along with the Minnesota Wild's alternate, the Winnipeg Jets' alternate and the Calgary Flames' Heritage Classic uniform, we can’t say the same for Edmonton’s Heritage Classic jerseys. 

The Oilers’ choice to go with brown pants and gloves is not aesthetically pleasing, but they’re stuck with them now, and we doubt their fans will look back fondly on this decision. 

A team like the Wild hit a home run by dipping back into their past, and their choice of alternate jerseys is so good that we’d argue it should be their regular jersey. But you can’t please everyone all the time, and Edmonton certainly hasn’t pleased everyone with this color scheme. At least it will only be used in the Heritage Classic and a couple of other games, so we can quickly assign it to the dustbin of history.