The Vancouver Canucks are getting All-Star goalie Thatcher Demko back from injury.
The team’s head coach Rick Tocchet confirmed today that Demko will start tomorrow night against the Calgary Flames.
The goalie hasn’t played since leaving midway through a game against the Winnipeg Jets. That was more than a month ago.
“I’ve got to think about it for a while,” said Tocchet today after practice before cracking a smile and giving up the act. “All right, he’s playing.”
“He’s healthy, he’s ready to go. He’s definitely going to play tomorrow and we’ll go from there,” continued the head coach. “He’s looked really good in practice.”
Demko has been one of the best goalies in the NHL this season. He currently has a 34-13-2 record with a .917% save percentage and a 2.47 goals-against-average.
The American-born goalie also missed significant time due to injury last season, but when he returned, he was better than ever.
“This is a different circumstance. I only missed about a month here which is good,” said Demko today after practice. “Just having attention to detail, staying engaged, going through some old videos, staying sharp mentally, and obviously it’ll be a big game for me tomorrow.”
The goalie confirmed it was a knee injury he suffered when talking to the media last week.
“Since he’s been out, he’s at the rink twice a day. He’s by himself sometimes with a therapist. He’s here at 7 am, he’s here at 7 pm. He’s worked really hard to get to this position, like really hard,” said the Canucks head coach today about his star goalie. “He’s probably accelerated the process because he worked so hard. I think that’s contagious and it just shows other players the dedication and how bad he wanted to come back and help this team.”
The hard work has not gone unnoticed by his teammates. Demko’s work ethic is held in high regard.
“A massive appreciation for him and that’s why he’s one of the best in the world. He takes his game very seriously and you know game days I don’t even talk to him,” said the team’s captain Quinn Hughes. “He’s very dialled in, kind of just leave him alone, he takes it very seriously. He might steal a game 4-1 but he’ll be mad at himself for the one goal he let it, so he’s really hard on himself too.”
The Canucks have two more games left on the schedule; tomorrow night against the Flames and Thursday against the Winnipeg Jets. While he’s definitely starting on Tuesday, no decision has been made for Thursday.
“There’s so many scenarios right now spinning in my head. Honestly we’re just worried about tomorrow and then we’ll deal from then,” said Tocchet today. “That’s the way you’ve got to look at it.”
The Canucks will start their playoffs shortly after, with new reports suggesting the first game could be on Tuesday next week.