NHL: Preseason-New Jersey Devils at New York Rangers

Devils backup Keith Kinkaid has played one NHL game but is waiting for his first start. (Andy Marlin / USA Today)

(Andy Marlin)

NEWARK — Devils rookie goalie Keith Kinkaid won't make his first NHL start in St. Louis, but he is still hoping it might come in Detroit Friday night.

"I'm hoping for any day," Kinkaid said Wednesday. "I'm waiting and taking it day by day."

Coach Pete DeBoer would not say if Kinkaid was a possibility for the game in Detroit.

"I have not decided that. I'm taking it night by night and (Cory) Schneider is starting tomorrow night," DeBoer said.

Kinkaid has played a junior game (with the St. Louis Bandits of the NAHL in 2008-09) in Joe Louis Arena. The young goalie skated Wednesday with a very small group of players that included Jaromir Jagr, Jordin Tootoo and Scott Gomez before the Devils left for St. Louis.

In the meantime, Schneider is set to make his 13th straight start. That's a career high and no other NHL team this season has started the same goalie in every game.

"I still feel pretty fresh. I don't know what it's like to play on the back half (of back-to-back games) when I've already played 30 or 40 games, so we'll find out," Schneider said. "But the schedule has been pretty friendly so far.

"It picks up here in November. Maybe this is where you start taking some games off to set you up for the second half. I trust the coach and coach (Chris) Terreri to help me through. They've had experience with this before. If they suggest something, then I'll listen."

The Devils will play 15 of their next 20 games on the road.

"It's a great challenge," Schneider said. "We've had some success on the road (4-2-0). We've also had two of our worst games on the road (an 8-3 loss in Pittsburgh and a 6-2 loss at Washington). We need to play the way we know we can. Limit chances and be a tough team to play against on the road. I think we're a team built to be a good road team."

Schneider said his conditioning has improved because of the work load.

"The first three or four games on that first trip you're kind of getting your cardio down and your legs to get into that game mode. So I think that was actually the hardest stretch I've had so far physically," the goalie said. "I've been feeling better and better almost every game. Save for that Pittsburgh game, the last five or six have been pretty good and I've felt sharp."

He's forgotten that 8-3 loss to the Penguins.

"I think we've done a great job sort of putting it behind us," Schneider said. "We didn't let it snowball or really bleed into other parts of our game too much. We talked about it after and really put it behind us and forgot about it. Burned the game tape."

He anticipated that one of his adjustments would be facing fewer shots with the Devils. But the team's shots-against are up.

"The last few games we've kept it down more where we want to be at," he said. "I think we're a little better defensively at home, as most teams tare, so you have to prepare for that type of game at home.

"That first 10-15 games we're breaking in some new guys on the back end. Guys who haven't played much together. Maybe some more shots are going to get through than usual. I think we're starting to get around ti where we normally have been in the past in terms of shots allowed."

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DeBoer on the 1-0 loss to the Blues Tuesday night: "We've obviously got to find a way to score a goal. You can't win a game without scoring a goal. We have some offensive players on the sidelines and we have to find a way, with the guys that are in there, to get in front of the net a little bit more, get to the paint a little bit more, find an ugly one. That's got to be the message. Other than that, finding another goal, I thought we did a lot of good things against a very good team."

DeBoer added: "I thought our battle level was very good last game, compared to the (game) before against Columbus and even the night before that against Winnipeg. I thought we rose to the occasion. It would've been nice to get rewarded for playing a solid game, but like one of the guys said: That's hockey. You play what you think is a poor game and you find a way to win. You play a solid game and you don't win. We just have to make sure we stick with it and that game you saw last night has to become more of a regular game for us."

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Does the Devils' 5-on-5 play have to be better?

"We've been scoring 5-on-5," DeBoer said. "Through last night's game it hasn't been a huge issue. I don't know where we're ranked in the league. I don't have that number but I know it's not 28th, 29th or 30th like we have been at.

"Some of those guys we had in the lineup earlier in the season help in those areas. We haven't had them so we have to find other ways."

He said the shots-against have been "a little higher than we like around here."

Rich Chere may be reached at rchere@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ledger_NJDevils. Find NJ.com on Facebook.