Thatcher Demko Gets Honest About His First Start Back with the Vancouver Canucks' After Lengthy Absence
Photo credit: Vancouver Canucks/NHL
For the first time since suffering a second knee injury during Game 1 of their first round series against the Nashville Predators, Vancouver Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko returned to the crease.
Demko's return was confirmed on Tuesday afternoon when Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet met with reporters, with fans eager to see the 29-year-old between the pipes.
It was a tough game for the Vancouver Canucks and Thatcher Demko, as they fell to the St. Louis Blues by a score of 4 to 3 in overtime, with the netminder making 21 saves on 25 shots.
Thatcher Demko opens up after first game back since April 21st
After the game, Demko spoke to reporters where he said he felt rusty during the game and it was frustrating to lose, adding that there's a couple things he believes he needs to clean up going forward.
"Yeah, I mean, felt rusty for sure," Demko said. "Obviously, it's frustrating losing. I thought I could have played a couple of goals differently. I'm sure that there's stuff that I can pull to keep building. But obviously it's frustrating right now."
He added, "There's a couple of things I thought that I can clean up that shouldn't take too much time. Just different reads and different ideas, positionally, things like that. I'm frustrated losing the game. I want to make a couple of those saves."
He added, "There's a couple of things I thought that I can clean up that shouldn't take too much time. Just different reads and different ideas, positionally, things like that. I'm frustrated losing the game. I want to make a couple of those saves."
Despite the loss to the Blues, Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet was happy to have his star netminder back.
"I thought he was good tonight," Tocchet said. "It's good to see him in net; he looks big. I love seeing him back in. He's worked really hard, so I thought he did a great job for us tonight."
It's still unclear what the plan is going forward, whether Thatcher Demko will be the starter on a full-time basis, or if they'll try and ease him back in slowly and go 50/50 split with him and Kevin Lankinen.
Either way, the Canucks and their fans can breathe a bit easier now with Thatcher Demko back.
The Vancouver Canucks will return to action tomorrow night as they welcome the 2024 Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers to Rogers Arena, with puck drop set for just after 7 pm PT.
Previously on CanucksDaily
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 11 | 368 ANSWERS Thatcher Demko Gets Honest About His First Start Back with the Vancouver Canucks' After Lengthy Absence Should the Vancouver Canucks go with Thatcher Demko as the starter full-time or ease him back in by splitting starts? | ||
| Back to full-time starter | 29 | 7.9 % |
| Split starts with Kevin Lankinen for a little bit | 339 | 92.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
TRENDING NOW
