In a report coming from Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff, Vancouver Canucks’ starting goaltender Thatcher Demko is set to miss Game 2 of the team’s First Round series against the Nashville Predators, and could potentially miss the rest of the series. For tonight’s game and possibly further, the Canucks will rely on Casey DeSmith and Arturs Silovs in the crease.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman quickly confirmed Seravalli’s report and indicated that Demko is out with an injury. Without any specifics to the injury, it could potentially be a re-aggravation of the lower-body injury that kept Demko out of Vancouver’s lineup from March 9th to April 16th.
In Demko’s absence towards the last month of the regular season, the Canucks produced a 7-5-2 record, earning a 2.86 goals against average and a .884 save percentage. In Sunday night’s game against the Predators, Demko played in all 60 minutes of game one, saving 20 of 22 shots on goal.
Now that DeSmith is the likely starter heading into Game 2, Vancouver will deploy a goalie that produced a 12-9-6 record this season over 27 starts, securing a 2.89 GAA and a .895 SV%. Much like Demko, DeSmith has limited playoff experience, as his only postseason appearance came two years ago with the Pittsburgh Penguins, earning an overtime win against the New York Rangers after stopping 48 of 51 shots.
Heading into the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Canucks had the second-highest odds of being the last team left standing according to MoneyPuck. Unfortunately, without one of the top goaltenders in the league between the pipes, Vancouver’s odds have certainly lowered.
In a positive outlook for the Canucks, recent history is on their side, as both Conference Champions from last year’s playoffs started the postseason with different goalies than they started with, while the Colorado Avalanche had to utilize then-backup goalie Pavel Francouz in their pursuit of the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals. If the Canucks have any hopes of making a deep playoff run this postseason, the team in front will have their work cut out for them moving forward.
Oh boy… As a penguins fan, you don’t want Casey desmith as a playoff goal tender.
As a Canucks fan you might be right
But you’re also not in the playoffs so i’m going to choose to ignore you
Lol savage
sign jeff zatkoff for round 1
Casey desmith is a big part of why we haven’t had playoff success in years.
Well, let’s be honest. You’re not in the playoffs either. A team you root for is.
It’s hilarious when people talk about their favorite teams with “we” & “we’re”.
True. They all think they are in the lineup. Lol.
It’s just faster to type
Even if Vancouver wins a round, They are NO threat to win the cup.
You got that right !
Great point Wilf. Because a division winning team with 50 wins has never been a threat to win the Cup. You’re always so far ahead of the rest of us.
Vancouver won the weakest division in hockey, Vancouver is not even the best team in the Pacific, Tocchet’s coaching resume is South of pedestrian, And now Demko is out.
Vancouver *could* surprise a couple of teams. Maybe even four of them. But, losing Demko is a big loss. Now we’ll see what the group is made of and how much adjusting the coaching staff has to do, especially Ian Clark.