Young goalie savours first taste of pro hockey on jaunt to China
Puck-stopping is now Nick Schneider’s full-time job.
For the Calgary Flames’ goaltender-in-grooming, pizza delivery was a one-time deal.
“I got a picture of that,” said Flames goalie coach Jordan Sigalet, chuckling at the thought of the 21-year-old Schneider serving up slices of cheesy goodness to the team’s biggest stars during a sightseeing trip to the Great Wall of China.
“It was funny. Smitty bought the pizzas and gave them to Schneids, and he came up on the chair-lift with them. He was huffing and puffing because he had three very large pizzas, but the boys were excited. I think they thought he bought them, so it was a pretty cool moment for him, and a bonding experience, too.”
Schneider, treated to a trip-of-alifetime as the Flames’ third goalie during their grow-the-game getaway to Shenzhen and Beijing, is quick to confirm that Mike Smith paidforthepies.
In fact, he insists the stalwart starter did basically all of the heavy lifting, lugging the pizzas up the steepest part of the approach before handing off the greasy grub so he could locate his ticket.
“Just right place, right time,” said a smiling Schneider. “Smitty knew what to do. He said, ‘All the guys are going to be hungry, might as well buy a bunch.’ It was a veteran move on his part, for sure.”
Schneider would have witnessed a lot of veteran moves over the past week and change.
The Flames’ roster for the 2018 O.R.G. China Games was stocked with full-timers. The backup to the backup goaltender was the only road-tripper without a realistic shot of cracking the lineup for their Oct. 3 opener against the Vancouver Canucks.
“The group of guys was awesome. They were so welcoming, right from the start when I met them at the airport,” Schneider said prior to Wednesday’s latenight flight back to Calgary.
“And just being around a veteran goalie like Smitty has been unbelievable. He’s a wealth of knowledge, obviously, and seeing the way he prepares for practices and games, that’s been the coolest part for me.
“You get to know and understand why guys like that are around for so long in the NHL.”
Now with 500-plus crease appearances on the biggest stage, the 36-year-old Smith was once a wide-eyed wannabe. He remembers.
“A smile hasn’t left his face the whole time we’ve been here,” Smith said of Schneider. “I think it’s been a pretty cool experience for him. I was in his shoes, it seemed like not too long ago. It’s been quite a few years now, and for a kid like that to get an experience like this in Asia, it’s probably something he’ll never forget.”
Schneider was a workhorse for the Western Hockey League’s Calgary Hitmen as an over-ager last winter, setting a franchise record for most saves in a single season.
He’ll likely be assigned to the ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks for his first season in the pro ranks.
A long-term project, it could be awhile before his next stay in a Ritz-Carlton or next flight on a luxury charter.
“You can tell he’s a kid in awe, just to be around these guys, at this level,” Sigalet said of Schneider, who didn’t see any game action in China, but did dress as Jon Gillies’ backup for a 4-3 shootout loss in Shenzhen.
“To be around Smitty every day and see how he is as a pro and how he prepares … You can’t teach that stuff. He’ll soak everything in like that, and Smitty has kind of taken him under his wing, as well.
“And then he hasn’t seen a ton of shots in practice, but he’s such a good kid that when he gets in there, he just works his tail off, trying to get better and asking tons of questions to all the guys. He’s not just sitting back. He’s trying to learn as much as he can.”
About the only thing that Schneider didn’t digest on the exhibition adventure was a slice of pepperoni or Hawaiian.
The pizza delivery boy, it turns out, is lactose intolerant.
But he’s hungry, perhaps more now than ever, for a career at hockey’s highest level.
“You get a taste of it at this level and you see how they’re treated, and going into my first season as a pro, I really want to strive to try to keep getting better so that this is life, not just a one-week span in China,” Schneider said.
“Being a hockey player growing up in Canada, you can only imagine how awesome it would be to be in the NHL. I was fortunate to be here this week and I want to make a return, that’s for sure.”