Baby’s Health Weighing on Defenseman Schneider

The last couple of games have been difficult for defenseman Mathieu Schneider.

Actually, the last few days have been hard.

“I’ve had a lot on my mind,” he admitted Tuesday.

At the top of the list has been Mathieu Schneider Jr., in an incubator at Cedars Sinai, where he was born Thursday, a few hours after his father was minus-three in a game he was excited about playing against the New York Rangers, his former employers.

Wife Shannon had been through a difficult pregnancy with their first child, and had been hospitalized for three days before she finally delivered Mathieu, who was four pounds, four ounces and two months premature.

She is out of the hospital now, but the parents spend as much of their days as possible at Cedars, where Mathieu Jr. is, according to his father, doing well but a likely resident for a while.

Schneider continued to struggle Saturday, turning in a minus-two rating in a 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, though he had two assists.

There have been questions as to whether the tandem of Schneider and rookie Lubomir Visnovsky has soured, but Coach Andy Murray remains confident that the twosome will right itself.

“Mathieu normally plays a lot better than he’s played the last couple of games,” the coach said. “He really has had a lot to worry about. And ‘Lubo’ is playing OK.”