On today’s episode of Canucks Conversation, David Quadrelli and Harman Dayal were joined by Rinkwide’s Jeff Paterson to discuss the Vancouver Canucks’ 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers, Thatcher Demko’s progress towards returning, and the challenges facing the team on their current road trip.
Harm started with some optimism about Thatcher Demko’s recovery and the potential for his return soon with him back at practice.
“The fact he’s speaking in the first place and is a full participant in practice now — those are all promising signs that he’s heading in the right direction and a return is around the corner,” said Harm. “We don’t know the exact timeline, but the way he’s speaking, the conviction — it’s a level of confidence he didn’t have in Penticton. Back then, he sounded like a player who had no idea what the future looked like. Now, there’s that extra pep in his step and other promising signs, which would be great, especially with how many key players the Canucks have been losing.”
The guys were then joined by JPat, who added that while Demko’s return is exciting, the Canucks still face immediate challenges in managing their goaltending workload.
“It’s pretty clear now they have to reduce the workload on Kevin Lankinen,” JPat noted. “For a while, he was all they had, and I get why the team leaned on him. He was playing well, delivering results, and they didn’t have much confidence in Silovs. But now, Lankinen is looking more like the goaltender we anticipated when they signed him—a guy who can perform and win at the NHL level, but not someone who can stand on his head night after night. With all the defensive breakdowns we’ve been seeing, it’s just too much to ask.”
JPat predicted how the Canucks might handle their goaltending rotation: “It wouldn’t surprise me if they go back to Lankinen to start in Ottawa, but they can’t give him five of six games on this road trip. I don’t know if we’ll see Demko get a start as much as we’d like that storyline, but I’d anticipate three starts each for Lankinen and Silovs.”
The discussion turned to the continued struggles of the Carson Soucy-Tyler Myers defensive pairing.
When asked if the duo should be separated and other options explored, JPat said, “We’re past that point. Now they’re going on the road, where they don’t have last change to shelter guys, which adds another layer of complexity. It feels like a talking point every single game. A day doesn’t go by where we’re not asking, ‘What in the world do you do with these two guys?’ Last year, they seemed relatively low maintenance, but now they’re anything but for the Canucks.”
JPat briefly assessed Jonathan Lekkerimäki’s first five NHL games and the challenges he’s faced adjusting to the league.
“Five games of NHL experience now, and it’s gone a little quiet for him—just seven shots on goal for a guy that’s a volume shooter,” JPat said. “He admitted it’s tougher to find his shots here at this level, which isn’t a surprise. One thing he said that did surprise him was the wall work. The sheer size of defenders and how quickly time and space disappear… Things you can get away with in juniors or the Swedish league, even in the AHL, don’t work here. This is the best league in the world, and that time and space has dried up in a hurry for him. I’m not sour on him—this is what I expected it would look like for a 20-year-old getting his feet wet.”
Quads and Harm then shared their thoughts on the Canucks’ performance in their 4-3 loss to the Rangers.
“I’m happy with the effort,” Quads said. “It would’ve been so easy for them to get down on themselves, say it’s a scheduled loss, or think the Rangers are too tough an opponent to compete with. But they kept it close right until the end. It was a good, entertaining game with a lot of back and forth, rush chances both ways, and I was happy with the effort.”
Harman agreed, adding perspective on the Canucks’ upcoming schedule: “Fully agree. I’m looking at the schedule—you’ve got Ottawa next, then a Bruins team that just fired Jim Montgomery, a Penguins team that’s been a disaster and consistently blowing leads, the Sabres, and then Red Wings, who are also teetering on the edge of crisis mode. You close it out against Minnesota, the only strong opponent on this road trip… If the Canucks can maintain the effort we saw last night against the Rangers when facing these weaker teams, they’re going to pick up points and play at a respectable enough pace to avoid sliding out of a playoff spot.”
You can watch the full segment below:
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