Canucks: Thatcher Demko in no danger of losing his status as No. 1 goaltender
Demko #Demko
LAS VEGAS — The last time the Vancouver Canucks visited Sin City, their goaltender got better as the game went along.
The Canucks were in the thick of a playoff chase on April 6. Beating the Vegas Golden Knights 5-1 that night at T-Mobile Arena kept the Canucks within four points of the fourth-place Knights.
The top of the story was a four-point night for Elias Pettersson, but underneath it all, as was so often the case last season, was another outstanding performance by goalie Thatcher Demko.
Vegas star Jack Eichel scored a goal in the first period after a chaotic goalmouth scramble, but Demko never looked bothered again. He made 16 saves in the third period as he led the way in repelling a ferocious pushback by Vegas with a number of tough stops.
NEXT GAME
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Vancouver Canucks vs. Vegas Golden Knights
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Fast-forward to this week. The Canucks are back in Las Vegas with a 7-10-3 record, once again chasing a playoff position as they ace the Golden Knights on Saturday, the second time in a week they’ll face the team that’s leading their division.
Last Monday, the Canucks lost 5-4 to the Golden Knights at Rogers Arena, taking and then blowing a third-period lead, giving up two tallies in the game’s final 10 minutes.
For the most part, it’s been a night and day experience for Demko this season. He’s struggled for consistency.
Even though backup Spencer Martin has played well, forget the idea of a goalie controversy. The Canucks just need their No. 1 goalie to get back to playing like one.
Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau thinks Demko is on the right track to rediscovering his game. Some of that is the improved defensive play from the Canucks over the past four games.
“Nobody knows this, but Demko was pretty sick the other night (against Vegas), and we didn’t know that (till later),” Boudreau said. “But the game before (against L.A.), he was awesome.
“We know he’s going to be awesome for a long time. It’s not like all of a sudden he’s going to be relegated to being a backup.”
Demko has been off at times, but former NHL goalie Mike McKenna, briefly a Canucks backup and now a commentator for Daily Faceoff and SiriusXM, sees the defence in front of him as a bigger problem.
In an analysis he wrote earlier this week on Demko’s season so far — he has just a 88.3 save percentage so far — McKenna was scathing in describing the Canucks’ defensive issues.
“Putrid,” is how McKenna described their defensive efforts in front of their goalies so far.
The Canucks’ defence hasn’t been good enough. But neither has Demko, InGoal Magazine’s Kevin Woodley says.
Looking at data from Clear Sight Analytics, which tracks data from hockey games, Woodley sees a clear trend.
“This is the third-toughest defensive environment in the NHL,” he said.
Data collected by CSA suggests that Demko’s expected even-strength save percentage should be 87.7. Only two goalies have a lower figure, Eric Comrie, who has made the most starts for Buffalo this season, and Montreal’s Jake Allen.
The catch here, Woodley said, is that Demko hasn’t outperformed his expected save percentage, something he has done in the past.
“You can outperform a bad environment,” Woodley said. “So there’s two parts to this, the environment is terrible, and you can outplay a bad environment but he’s not.”
Some of this may be down to a run of bad bounces, which can set a goalie’s mental game off, Woodley said.
It also doesn’t help a goalie to see the defenders in front of them be all over the shop. Goalies don’t want to spend even a split-second reading what their defence is going to do, they want it to be totally predictable.
“Being able to trust what’s going on in front of you is such an important piece,” Woodley said. “As a goaltender you’re trying to read off what the defence is supposed to do, but I’m not 100 per cent sure the Canucks’ goalies and defence have been on the same page.”
Ethan Bear has now played 11 games for the Canucks. He’s seen the team improve its defensive structure since he’s arrived, but concurred with Woodley’s assessment that they still need to be better.
“Doesn’t matter who’s in the pipes, you know, we want to play good for both of our goalies,” Bear said. “That’s our job. They stop lots of shots for us. So we’ve got to sacrifice and do our jobs too.”
Fortunately for the Canucks, Martin has been on his game and given the Canucks the kind of performance they were hoping for. The backup has five wins this year, while Demko has just two.
Early in the season, Demko was playing opposing rushes much more aggressively than in the past, with his feet outside his crease, defending the shooter but leaving himself exposed to a pass-across.
And the Canucks were doing a terrible job of defending passes across the slot.
Lately, though, Demko has been defending rushes by standing tighter to the net, not letting his feet get outside the crease.
And it seems to paying off.
“His first two periods of Monday’s game were the best he’s looked since the start of season in my mind,” Woodley said. “Movement was light and crisp, made tough chances look routine, thought he was maybe all way back after 40 minutes.”
The Canucks took the lead in the third but then their defence, and Demko’s game, fell apart in the final 10 minutes of the game.
“The rebound goal that lead to the Vegas comeback was a disastrous breakdown in front of Demko,” Woodley said.
“Broken plays and rebound chances speak to an inability to take care of the front of the net.”
pjohnston@postmedia.com
twitter.com/risingaction
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