'Life's changed' for Grizz's Schneider

WEST VALLEY CITY — Left wing Eric Schneider has played four years of professional hockey, but it's not likely he's faced anxiety like he's had the past few weeks before.

Schneider signed Oct. 8 as a free agent with the Utah Grizzlies, rather than their parent team, the Dallas Stars, and he's acutely aware the team still has several cuts to make before its roster is set.

Adding to Schneider's stress over trying to win a job — the Grizzlies have home games against Chicago tonight at 7 and Sunday at 3 p.m. and a game Monday at 7 p.m. against San Antonio, all in the E Center — is that on Tuesday, he will fly to Alberta and become the father of twins.

His wife has been hospitalized this week for bed rest, and even though the babies — their second and third children since they already have a 17-month-old daughter — aren't due until Nov. 11, doctors have decided that since the babies are healthy and mom's already in the hospital, early inducement is the way to go.

Talk about a guy who needs a job!

"Life has changed," said Schneider after Thursday's practice. "Life has been pretty hectic the last two weeks, not having a roster spot and being in the hotel with the wife at home. I'm just trying to do a good job."

Through Utah's first two games, both losses to a San Antonio team for which Schneider played last season, the 26-year-old from Calgary is the Grizzlies' top scorer with two assists. In 269 pro games for Knoxville, Kansas City, Johnstown, Detroit, Rochester, Cleveland, Saint John, Laredo, San Antonio and Utah, he has 300 points, so he averages a little better than a point a game.

The new twin daddy will miss Wednesday's home game against San Antonio but still hopes to have a job. "I'm just trying to do a good job," said the expectant father.

He had planned to stay in Alberta and then play for Las Vegas in the AA-level ECHL, but Utah hockey operations director Brian Poile asked if he'd like to try out with the Grizzlies, and the 2002-03 CHL MVP runner-up jumped at the chance. He left his wife home because medical coverage wouldn't start until the first game, and that was too late.

As for Utah's team, coach Don Hay certainly hopes to make hay during this homestand — the Grizz play eight of their next 11 in the E Center. With the next four home games against division opponents, they can't afford to fall much farther behind.

But Hay's philosophical about the first two games. His team didn't have exhibition games due to travel costs, so last weekend was a break-in period for the franchise. By the second game against a Rampage team that had played preseason games, the first game was disorganized with good individual effort, but the second was more a team effort.

"That's a real positive in my mind," he said. "You could start to see it coming together, and I thought we might have deserved a little better fate because we worked hard as a team." Utah's had this week to work on its problems, and Hay said he hasn't tinkered with anything. "We're just getting to know each other and the systems that we want to play a lot better."

Tonight is the first of Utah's 10th-anniversary celebrations of individual teams and will honor the 1994-95 club that won an IHL Turner Cup in Denver. Chicago general manager Kevin Chevaldayoff was a member of that club.

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E-mail: lham@desnews.com