Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet has confirmed Thatcher Demko will return from injury for Tuesday’s game against the Calgary Flames.
Everything is going according to plan.
Thatcher Demko injured his knee during a game against the Winnipeg Jets on March 9. Shortly after, Demko and the Canucks’ medical staff put together a plan for Demko to return in time for Tuesday, April 16, against the Calgary Flames (the penultimate game). Canucks regular season.
“Our goal almost from day one was to get back against Calgary,” Demko said last week. “Obviously, I feel good right now. I think the timeline we’ve been following and pushing for was the Calgary game.”
After practice Monday morning, head coach Rick Tocchet confirmed Demko would start Tuesday against the Flames.
“He’s healthy and ready to go,” Tocchet said. “He’ll definitely play tomorrow and we’ll go from there.”
This is good news for the Canucks, who were reluctant to put their elite No. 1 goaltender in the net. His return gives him a chance to play two more games to get better heading into the playoffs.
Of course, the final standings could already be determined by Thursday’s final regular-season game, giving the Canucks the option of resting players for the playoffs. Tocchet did not say whether Demko would start both Tuesday and Thursday.
“There are so many scenarios right now that it’s dizzying,” Tocchet said. “To be honest, I’m only worried about tomorrow and then I’ll deal with it. That’s the way you should look at it… There are a lot of what-ifs, but tomorrow there will be Mr Thatcher.”
It was a long road back for Demko, but he credited the staff around him with an aggressive recovery plan to get back in time for the playoffs.
“It’s an injury, you don’t know, it’s unpredictable,” Demko said. “I’m really grateful to the staff for responding to my decision to come back. Sometimes it’s the worst for them. You ask them to do something, and they’re happy to do it.”
“He’s been at the rink twice a day since he’s been out,” Tocchet said. “Sometimes he’s on his own with his therapist. He’s here at 7 a.m., and he’s here at 7 p.m. — he’s worked really hard to get into this position. Yeah. , it’s really hard. He probably accelerated that process because he worked so hard. I think that’s contagious and that’s his dedication to the other players and for him to come back and help this team. I think it shows how much I wanted to help.”
Demko’s return means Artur Silovs will return to the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks. The rookie goaltender was called up to Vancouver as an emergency call-up in Demko’s absence, so he should return as soon as Demko is taken off injured reserve.
Either way, Abbotsford will need the Shilovs to make the playoffs themselves. The Abbotsford Canucks have two games left in the regular season and have already qualified for the Calder Cup Playoffs. Shilovs has found the back of the net alongside Nikita Tropilo in Abbotsford this season, but he is the better overall goaltender of the two and will likely start in Game 1.
