Vancouver Canucks
Thatcher Demko returned to a full practice Sunday for the first time since sustaining a lower-body injury last month.
"I feel good," the Canucks goalie said. "I mean, it's that of year where practices are kind of hard to come by. A lot of tight games, emotions are high, and rest is a weapon this time of year. So, I'm just trying to find the repetitions when I can get them and whether that's been helping out for morning skates or luckily, today, we had a full team skate, to get out there for that, I felt good."
Demko left midway through the first period of a 2-1 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 8 after making six saves. He participated in a few morning skates prior to the Canucks starting a six-game road trip March 20.
"That's probably as close to a full practice as he's had so far but he's starting to feel pretty good, so we'll see what happens,” coach Rick Tocchet said.
Vancouver plays the third game of the trip at the New Jersey Devils on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; Disney+, HULU, ESPN+, Prime).
It's the third time this season that Demko, who was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy as the top goalie in the NHL last season, has missed time because of injury. He missed training camp and the first 24 games this season recovering from a knee injury sustained in the first game of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs on April 21. He backed up Kevin Lankinen for two games before making his season debut Dec. 10, when he made 21 saves in a 4-3 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues.
Demko also left a 4-3 shootout win at the Seattle Kraken on Jan. 2 with back spasms and missed the next two games.
He is 6-6-3 with a 2.87 goals-against average and .891 save percentage in 17 games this season. There remains no timetable for the 29-year-old’s return.
"I can't give you a game that I'm aiming for, but I'm on the right track," Demko said. "I think right now is just kind of last step of the rehab where it's making sure that you're just getting the reps to build that capacity back up. Obviously when you're not on the ice for five weeks or whatever it was, there's a little bit of rust. You're trying to get the feel back for the game, get your reads going, your pace, your conditioning, and just the capacity on the joints and in the body to sustain the schedule. So, today was a good step for all that stuff."
Elias Pettersson and Nils Hoglander could be out Monday after each forward sustained an undisclosed injury and did not play in the third period of a 5-3 loss at the New York Rangers on Saturday.
“At this moment, they’re day to day,” Tocchet said. “They’re pretty sore and banged up, so we’ll see what 24 hours does. … I don’t know. I mean, I couldn’t tell you for sure either way [if they’ll play Monday].”
Vancouver (32-26-12) is already without center Filip Chytil (upper body), who is not on the trip. -- Mike G. Morreale
