Before anyone gets too excited, Henrik Sedin didn't say the Vancouver Canucks play harder for Cory Schneider.

What the Vancouver Canucks captain said, clearly and unequivocally, is that the Canucks recognize their backup goalie has one of the most thankless jobs in hockey.

He might play twice in a week. He might go a month between starts. But he's expected to play a critical, if not fully appreciated role, on a team with Stanley Cup aspiration - all, most importantly, while being a good guy in the room.

"First of all, he's a great goalie," quoth Henrik before the game against the Chicago Blackhawks. "But he's also a great guy who works hard. When he gets those chances, we want to play well for him.

"It's the same thing with Lui. But Cory has proven he can be a No. 1 on a lot of teams. When he comes in, you want to play well for him."

They had a funny way of showing it on Tuesday night. But if the Canucks thought highly of Schneider before their win over the Blackhawks, it figures their opinion of him hasn't lessened.

Tuesday night, in what's becoming a significant storyline for the Canucks this season, Schneider was given the net against the team's arch-rival and responded with a monster game, stopping 37 of 39 shots while basically stealing two points for the home team.

Included in his night's work was a 15-save clinic in the second period when the Canucks were almost blown into False Creek but left the frame tied 1-1.

"We gave up a lot in the second but he held us in," said Kevin Bieksa. "That's the game right there. If he keeps us in it, we're going to find our game in the third."

Which is about what happened. The twins would pot the winner in over-time on a piece of vintage Sedinery but the Orcans still needed Schneider stops off breakaways by Jonathan Toews and Viktor Stalberg in OT to set the stage for Daniel's game- winner.

Top to bottom, it might have been the best performance by a Canucks' goalie this season. It also continued a two-year stretch in which Schneider has emerged as one of the most intriguing goaltending properties in the NHL.

The title of best backup goalie in hockey might not get you the prettiest girl at the dance, but to fully appreciate Schneider's value consider the following data: Over the last two sea-sons he's 27-9-2 with a save percent-age around the .930 mark and a goals-against average below 2.30, which are Vezina Trophy numbers.

He's done this, moreover, while easing the workload and the pressure on Roberto Luongo, and you can make the case that Schneider's emergence has coincided with the emergence of the Canucks as an elite NHL team.

Did we mention he does all this for $900,000?

So it's a given that Schneider has established himself as an invaluable asset to the Canucks. The next question concerns his value to other teams, and that's where things get interesting.

Schneider, who turns 26 in six weeks, is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this summer. True, he might be a No. 1 masquerading as a backup. But he'll never get paid his full value because of the small sample size (65 games) of his work.

His value in a trade, on the other hand, would seem to be consider-ably higher, which brings us to our next intrigue.

Four years ago, then Dallas backup Mike Smith was the centrepiece of a trade with Tampa for Brad Richards. Two summers ago, Montreal dealt Jaro Halak, who was coming off a bravura playoff performance, to St. Louis for former first- rounder Lars Eller.

Schneider's value, meanwhile, only seems to be rising with each outing. Given Luongo's uneven history in the playoffs, it would take an oh-my-god offer to pry the Boston College product loose from the Canucks before this seasons' trade deadline.

But at some point in the near future, the organization is going to have to make a decision on the young man from Marblehead, and the after-shocks of that move will be felt for a long time, both in Vancouver and wherever Schneider lands.

ewilles@theprovince.com