Devils' Schneider to return Saturday

The New Jersey Devils will give goaltender Cory Schneider a couple more days rest before he makes his return to the net.

The Devils, in Florida for a two-game road trip, will have Keith Kinkaid between the pipes Thursday against the Florida Panthers and then turn to Schneider on Saturday versus the Tampa Bay Lightning.

"We didn't come into the trip really with the expectation that he would play two (games)," head coach John Hynes said, according to The Record's Tom Gulitti. "I think it just makes sense to give him a few extra days and let him get his practice minutes up. His time on ice in game-like situations like he had today and yesterday, expand those a couple extra days and he should be good to go Saturday."

In the meantime, Schneider will serve as the backup Thursday while he deals with the biggest lingering effect of recovering from his MCL sprain: fatigue.

"We just decided just get me into a game-day routine and back up and get that under my belt next," Schneider said. "I felt good yesterday, but got a little fatigued there at the end of practice, so they just wanted to make sure I was ready to go. So, Keith's been doing well and maybe it will be a good thing to just see a game up close and have that game-day routine back and jump in the next one."

Schneider has been out since March 4. He'd amassed a record of 26-23-6 with a 2.17 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage.