Schneider ready to help Team USA in World Cup

VANCOUVER — New Jersey Devils goalie Cory Schneider is completely recovered from surgery to repair a core muscle injury on May 12, and he isn’t worried it delayed his normal summer training routine for a season which starts earlier than normal for him at the World Cup of Hockey 2016.

Schneider thinks being part of Team USA will help him make up lost time.

“Surgery pushed me back a little, but honestly I think having the World Cup sooner was a good thing because once I was cleared and felt good to go, I started pushing pretty hard,” Schneider said. “Not only to test the groin and make sure it’s where it needed to be and [that] we didn’t need to do anything else, but to get ready for the World Cup, too. So it’s been a good, focused summer in terms of not only rehabbing, but keeping in mind that you have to be in game shape a little sooner than normal because you don’t have as long a training camp to ease into it.”

Schneider was one of three goalies named to the initial Team USA roster on March 2, along with Ben Bishop of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings, but a sprained MCL in his right knee forced him to miss some time shortly after the announcement. He returned to play three games for the Devils in April, and had surgery a month later.

“Sometimes you have a few bumps and bruises or injuries that don’t require any further action but they do require rest to heal,” Schneider said. “So I took that time off completely and unfortunately it didn’t seem to improve at all. So we dug a little further and by the time you run extra tests, and get second and third opinions and schedule surgery, it takes a few weeks. So the soonest I could get in was early May and that’s usually when I might start getting back into the gym.”

Because it was a minor procedure, Schneider, who was 27-25-6 with a 2.15 goals-against average and a .924 …

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