When the Vancouver Canucks entered this season, question marks in net loomed large over the team.
Regular starter Thatcher Demko was dealing with a mysterious injury and his timeline to return was unknown. Beyond that, the Canucks had a trio of largely untested goalies.
Fast-forward to the present day with Demko suiting up tonight, and all of those concerns failed to materialize, largely due to the stellar play of Kevin Lankinen.
The Finnish netminder was thrust into action and has been one of the best in the world at his position. He even set an NHL record for most consecutive road wins to start a season.
More than just helping the Canucks up the standings, Lankinen’s incredible play has also afforded Demko the luxury of taking his time with his recovery. That privilege has not been lost on Demko.
“I want to give Lanks all the credit in the world, he’s been unbelievable this year, it’s been really fun to get to know him and be able to watch him play,” said the American goalie yesterday. “It’s a challenging position he was put in, coming into a new team and being able to manage the workload he’s been given.”
“Obviously the way Lanks has played it kind of takes a little bit of pressure off myself, to come in and not feel like I have to save the world. I’m taking it day-by-day.”
Lankinen has a 12-3-3 record, a 2.66 goals-against-average, and a .906% save percentage so far this season. He’s played so well that it would be foolish to assume that Demko will immediately go back to taking the lion’s share of the starts, especially as he works his way back from this unusual injury.
“For me, I’m managing my expectations a little bit. I think it would be foolish to say I’m going to come back and be perfectly sharp and feel like I have my A-game in game one,” explained Demko. “Obviously that takes a little bit of time, seeing game reps and things is kind of the last step of fully doing the rehab. I’m not really putting an expectation on that.”