By: Trent Leith / December 12, 2024 Thatcher Demko returned to the Canucks crease for the first time since last season. Canucks watched with severe anxiety every time Demko pushed across the crease or sprawled out for a big save fearing a re-injury. The last time Demko returned from an injury, he only played one game and was shut down until Tuesday night.
So how did he do in his return? Let’s take a look using the clips Wyatt Arndt kindly let me use. Make sure to read his Stanchies here. After all, I wouldn’t have the clips if he didn’t do the legwork.
The 50,000 ft View
The numbers aren’t great at first glance, I am not going to lie. Demko let in four goals on 25 shots for an SV% of 0.840. Demko had an xGA of 2.69. Not his best performance by any stretch. But you must remember he didn’t get a training camp, preseason or first two months to get up to speed. Also, the Canucks defence were in front of him. So big props for keeping it to four goals.
Demko seemed to move around just fine, he seemed to push off the posts fine, and he seemed to have repaired his popliteus in full.
I like how there is a small pocket of Western Canada that knows what the popliteus muscle is. Drop me on the street in Vancouver, at least 20% would know what that is. Drop me into any other North American city, I bet that number is closer to 1%.
Anyway, when Friedman said a few months ago this injury could fundamentally change the way Demko plays the game, it didn’t inspire hope. Demko is 29 now, it’s getting late in the game to teach an old dog new tricks.
Beyond some rust, Demko looked alright from my couch. Who knows how he is feeling today, or even in the run of play? Not me, I was at home eating chips. But let’s take a closer look.
The Nitty Gritty
Did I have to make a new Bluesky account to host these gifs because that’s all I could get to work on our humble little site and I didn’t want to spam people with random clips? Maybe? Who knows?
Literally seconds into the game, Canucks fans were worried.
Demko accidentally on purpose had his right leg kicked out from under him. On the way down, he seems to have smoked his head pretty bad. It was a scary start, but he seemed to be no worse for wear.
Next, on Demko’s second shot, he drops down, makes a kick save and tracks across the crease well.
This is a routine save we would never think twice about under normal circumstances. But these aren’t normal circumstances. We were all catastrophizing.
But stay calm, two shots in he looks fine!
Four shots in, however, Demko let in a stinker.
Was that a good shot with a good screen? Why yes, yes it was. But that is one peak Demko saves. He entirely loses track of the puck and as a result, is scored on. That is simply rust. A few more starts and this kind of goal won’t go in.
You can tell mobility or injury isn’t a factor here at all.
Demko made his first big save of the night off Brayden Schenn
Schenn drives the net and cuts across the crease like we all envisioned Virtanen would after we told ourselves “Power forwards take longer to develop”.
Demko tracks the puck beautifully and makes a sprawling save. This would be the first of many breakaways, and partial breakaways of the night. This was the first physically demanding save that Demko faced and he handled it quite well.
Next up is a more routine save.
However, I want to highlight this save because it was Demko’s left knee that was the problem and here after the initial save, he pushes off with his left leg. Looks good so far. I like what I am seeing at this point as someone absolutely shaking in his boots anytime a shot goes anywhere near Demko.
The second goal against the Canucks comes on a Robert Thomas breakaway.
That is a tough one, even for a goalie in peak form. Thomas can shoot the puck with the best of them and with that much time and space on a goalie still trying to work the WD40 into his knee, that’s a sure goal.
I will say, his glove looked good.
But we weren’t worried about that. Good save here. I don’t know why the Blues didn’t make a pass to the third man up high, but I guess he didn’t beavertail so how was anyone supposed to know he was there?
Breakaway #2:
Again, Demko had good lateral movement here and stayed with the shooter the whole way. Another great save.
Two minutes later, breakaway #3:
Less lateral movement on this save, but what I like about it is he dives back into the crease after being pushed out by the Blues attacker. While he is out of the crease, the Blue’s attacker backhand passes the puck to the front of the net for the trailer. Luckily a defender got there to clean up the mess, but Demko was able to keep track of the puck through the chaos and was ready to make a second save on the play.
The third goal came after the Canucks made the Blues look like the Tampa Bay Lightning from Sunday’s game stretching a pass from half-wall to half-wall.
Demko has to cover the entire expanse of the net when a pass gets through a seam like that, and while he got close, close only counts in horseshoes and moral victories.
Early in the third Demko had to stop a 2-on-1 set up beautifully set up by Conor Garlan- wait?
Demko can take away the pass at the top of the crease then can slide back across to the near side to stop the rebound attempt.
2-on-0 anyone?
Not Thatcher the Snatcher. Once again, sliding across from the bad knee to make a huge save. Now, I may be paranoid, but he doesn’t seem to snap back up to the rebound very quickly. It could be nothing, it could be something, what do I look like? A doctor? A goalie nerd? Kick rocks.
Who doesn’t love some good rebound control?
The game-winning goal came in OT when Holloway tucked the puck in on Demko’s near side.
Weirdly, I couldn’t find Wyatt’s clip of this goal so either he is pretending it never happened, or I am as blind as Peter MacDougall.
All in all, this was a very reassuring performance from Demko. He is far from the top of his game, but he made it through the game without getting hurt and at this point, that is what I care about most. It will probably take a few more games until he is back to the Demko we know and love, but man was it nice seeing him on the ice again.