{"id":459967,"date":"2025-01-04T12:37:41","date_gmt":"2025-01-04T17:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=459967"},"modified":"2025-01-04T12:37:41","modified_gmt":"2025-01-04T17:37:41","slug":"canucks-dodge-goaltender-bullet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/01\/04\/canucks-dodge-goaltender-bullet\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver Canucks Dodge Goaltender Bullet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vancouver Canucks<\/a> goaltender Thatcher Demko<\/a> pulled himself from Thursday’s game against the Seattle Kraken<\/a>. *UPDATE: Coach Rick Tocchet<\/a> says the injury is back spasms. The sigh of relief temporarily caused blue skies over Vancouver that evening.*<\/p>\n

Vancouver Canucks Goaltender Thatcher Demko Leaves Game, Adds Stress<\/h2>\n

Demko had 11 saves on 12 shots 7:49 into the second period when Conor Garland<\/a> scored for Vancouver. In the stoppage, Vancouver’s goaltender skated to the bench and was immediately replaced by Kevin Lankinen<\/a>. Demko continued down the hall to the dressing room and didn’t return to the bench for the night.<\/p>\n

Lankinen went the rest of the way, getting the team to the shootout and getting the win. He stopped 13 of 15 shots during the game and all three in the skills competition. Despite the season not reaching the halfway mark yet, Lankinen is a shoo-in nominee for team MVP.<\/p>\n

Demko played for the first time this season on December 10th against the St. Louis Blues<\/a>. He has played just seven games since then, including his half-game on Thursday. Demko went 2-1-3 in the games he has a decision in, getting points but not quite living up to his usual brilliance.<\/p>\n

Immediately before his decision, Demko was bumped by Noah Juulsen<\/a> and Brandon Tanev<\/a> jostling for position. He fell heavily to the ice and took his time getting back to his feet as the puck left the zone.<\/p>\n

The good news is that Demko didn’t need to get up quickly. That he had back spasms is the best possible result for Canucks fans. It may also be an overly optimistic one, given his decision to stay in the dressing room instead of on the bench.<\/p>\n

Now What<\/h3>\n

It’s all going to come down to how serious of an injury – if any – Demko has. Art\u016brs \u0160ilovs<\/a> is certainly going to be the backup for any time Demko misses. If, on the other hand, it is more serious than initially reported, then the Canucks should consider another trade.<\/p>\n

Lankinen hasn’t been the starter since he played 37 games with Chicago<\/a> in 2020-21, his rookie year. He’s been solid this year and will be the choice to start from here on in. The problem comes with who is behind him to back up. \u0160ilovs hasn’t been as sharp as hoped, moving back to Abbotsford as Lankinen solidified his hold on the position.<\/p>\n

If Vancouver wasn’t so hard up to make the playoffs, it wouldn’t matter too much. But \u0160ilovs has a very mediocre .847 save percentage and 4.11 goals against in his seven NHL appearances this season. The Canucks goaltender hierarchy is Thatcher Demko, Kevin Lankinen<\/a>, then \u0160ilovs. They can’t afford to experiment with players further down the depth chart, and possibly not with \u0160ilovs, either.<\/p>\n

Farm Boys<\/h3>\n

The Canucks do have Ji\u0159\u00ed Patera<\/a> in Abbotsford right now, and he’s likely to get tagged after \u0160ilovs. He played in six NHL games with the Golden Knights last season, going 1-3-1 with a .893 save percentage. He was pencilled in as the starter in Abbotsford before Lankinen was signed, and if \u0160ilovs struggles he’s within easy reach.<\/p>\n

But if the Canucks didn’t trust him before the season started, so why would they now? NHL experience could make the difference in management’s eyes, even if it’s only eight games. Should \u0160ilovs or Lankinen get injured without Demko ready to go, Patera could get his break to debut this season.<\/p>\n

The other option is Nikita Tolopilo. While he has yet to play in the NHL, the Belarusian split time with \u0160ilovs in Abbotsford last year and has the bulk of starts there this season. He’s been “good enough to do it” in the AHL, like Patera and \u0160ilovs. It’s hardly a glowing reference for a team that needs wins this year.<\/p>\n

As brilliant as Thatcher Demko is, all the ability in the world doesn’t matter if he isn’t available. Thursday’s game, as much as anything else, overshadows his career. Hopefully, it will only add depth and perspective, and not black it out completely.<\/p>\n

Main photo by: Bob Frid-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vancouver Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko pulled himself from Thursday’s game against the Seattle Kraken. *UPDATE: Coach Rick Tocchet says the injury is back spasms. The sigh of relief temporarily caused blue skies over Vancouver that evening.* Vancouver Canucks Goaltender Thatcher Demko Leaves Game, Adds Stress Demko had 11 saves on 12 shots 7:49 into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3171,"featured_media":451803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,4547,6671,4548],"tags":[7417,4803,852,5892],"class_list":["post-459967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canucks","category-hockey","category-injuries","category-nhl","tag-arturs-silovs","tag-kevin-lankinen","tag-thatcher-demko","tag-vancouver-canucks-analysis"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459967"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460097,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459967\/revisions\/460097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}