Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko will be taking an undetermined amount of time off for rest.
When the Vancouver Canucks announced that goaltender Jiří Patera had been called up from the Abbotsford Canucks under emergency conditions, many assumed the worst. Reports later circulated that Thatcher Demko was the reason for the callup, as the goaltender would be taking a maintenance day ahead of the team’s back-to-back against the Columbus Blue Jackets and Colorado Avalanche this week. During practice today, Canucks Head Coach Adam Foote gave a bit of insight into why Demko will be out of the lineup.
“We asked him this summer, we had conversations with him to take care of himself, and in a condensed schedule when he feels he needs a little bit of time off, and that’s what he’s doing. I don’t want to say words that people don’t like, or like maintenance or whatever. I’ll give an example. You play a long time — it’s not Thatcher — but say you have a back surgery early in your career, as you get a chance to play a long time, in your last seven years, five years, the latter half your career, there’s times where you can feel something else come,” Foote explained after practice. “You might have a kind of a maintenance day, or some time to work on something. So that’s it.”
So, the long and short of that answer is that Demko is taking some time to rest. Whether that lasts past the weekend or not is undetermined as of right now.
“He may be. We’ll see. We’re going to go with this thing as we wake up every minute, right? That’s just the way I approach him anyway.”
Demko and Kevin Lankinen have shared starts this season, though the former has taken more of them (9) and won five. In his nine games played this year, Demko has a 2.57 GAA and .921 SV%. He has played the 23rd most minutes of all goaltenders in the NHL with 536:49.
While Demko will be resting for the time being, Foote notes that the goaltender would much rather be playing for his team.
“He’s such a great leader that he doesn’t want to ever miss a day. Even his teammates in the summer, in the leadership meeting, one thing we always talked about was, ‘Demmer, you’ve got to know when to go and take care of you in a certain situation,’ and he’s doing what we asked him to do. I like that.”
The Canucks will start the first half of their back-to-back on Saturday with a 7:00 pm PT matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The night after, they’ll take on the surging Colorado Avalanche. Next Tuesday marks the final game of this homestand for Vancouver, as they’ll play the Winnipeg Jets.
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