The Vancouver Canucks hit double-digit losses in Rogers Arena on Tuesday against the Buffalo Sabres.

Thatcher Demko earned his third consecutive and 11th start of the season for the Canucks, with standout free agent signing Kevin Lankinen sidelined due to an illness.

The American netminder allowed three goals on 26 shots, finishing with a 3.10 goals against average (GAA) and a .885% save percentage (S%). But in his post-game media availability, you could tell he was expecting more out of himself:

“I mean, it’s disappointing. I think I just got to try and get a piece of one of those in the third, you know, got a piece of the first one and it snuck through. And so it’s disappointing. You know, I didn’t think we played a bad game.”

Surely, Demko would have loved to have some of those goals back. As he mentions, he gets a piece of Tage Thompson’s goal but couldn’t fully stop it. The Canucks defence lost track of Jiri Kulich for the Sabres’ second goal, but this third one here is another one Demko wishes he could have back. The puck’s coming at him fast, but he gets a piece of it, and it goes through his five-hole.

But the struggles don’t just stem from this game. It’s been a down year from the reigning Vezina Trophy runner-up.

“Yeah, I mean, I don’t think I’ve been good enough this year,” Demko admitted. “Obviously, it’s been a challenging year, you know, dating back to the summer. So, I mean, obviously, it’s been a lot of soul-searching for me over the last few months. And I mean, I don’t know how else to put it. I just haven’t been good enough so far. So yeah, take it day by day, and I know I’m putting in the work, so it’ll come.”

Demko has started 11 games this season, holding a 3-4-3 record, with a 3.23 GAA and a .873 S%. These numbers are exceptionally down from his inspiring 2023-24 season. The San Diego, California native had a 35-14-2 record last year, with a 2.45 GAA, a .918% S%, and five shutouts.

It’s still young into Demko’s season, with a lot of starts for him remaining. He’ll need to turn around his game if he doesn’t want this to be the worst statistical season of his NHL career.

As mentioned above, Demko earned his third consecutive start for the first time this season. And it’s to be expected that the Canucks would manage his workload, considering his return from a lengthy injury and Kevin Lankinen’s emergence as a reliable option between the pipes.

However, last season, Demko made three consecutive starts on three occasions, five straight starts on four occasions, and one stretch where he started five games in a row.

One thing about goaltending, especially in today’s NHL, is teams often will ride the hot hand if they have two competent netminders. Allowing your goaltender to get into a rhythm is essential for all who play the position, let alone one returning after a long absence who’s used to a regular, consistent workload like Demko.

“That’s kind of been my role over the last several years is, you know, kind of just carrying the workload,” Demko stated. “So, yeah. I mean, it’s been an odd year in that sense, just, you know, I came back a few games before Christmas break, and then missed two games, so yeah, it just feels like a little bit of back and forth. But I mean, that’s irrelevant to me. I gotta show up when my name’s called, and I gotta do a better job.

“I don’t think there’s one thing, you know. I think [that’s] how it goes sometimes. I think sometimes you fall out of touch with the game a little bit. You just shoot natural reads and things like that. And obviously, you can’t manufacture confidence. You have to work for it and keep grabbing it. So, yeah, like I said, it’s just focused on little things and making sure that the work ethic and the attention to detail is there. And you know, you’d like to think that the results will follow.”

Now, it wouldn’t be fair to pin all of the Canucks struggles on Demko. The team as a whole hasn’t played to the standard they set for themselves last season when they won the Pacific Division and, at points, held first place in the NHL standings.

Whether it’s the locker room drama, the outside noise, or the on-ice play, the players seem just as perplexed as the rest of the organization and their fans are with how this season has gone.

“Yeah. I mean, it’s a tricky one,” Demko thought about the club’s troubles. “I don’t think there’s any, you know, finite answer, tangible thing that you can kind of pinpoint. [It] Just comes down to to us in the room. I think that’s the best way I can put it. We got to man up a little bit, certainly myself included. I mean, I don’t think I’ve, I’ve been good enough this year so far. So I gotta keep working to find, find that level that I know I can get to. And you know, I’ll be the first guy working on my game day in and day out. So focus on myself and focus on my game. I think [if] everyone does that, then we’ll be okay.

“We haven’t been good enough closing games out. So yeah, I mean, obviously, we got to hammer those details down. And, you know, in a hurry, we’re over halfway through the year. So, we have string some games together here for sure.”

Nothing seems to be fully clicking for this Canucks team this season. When the offence is producing, the defence flounders. When the defence is shutting opponents down, the offence dries up. Both groups rarely seem to be going at the same time, and the goaltenders can only do so much.

While it’s been a disappointing season for the Canucks, it hasn’t officially crushed their playoff hopes. The club currently sits just one point behind the Calgary Flames for the final Wild Card spot. It won’t be an easy playoff race down the stretch for the team, as they have the 12th hardest remaining strength of schedule in terms of points percentage, per Tankathon. However, the teams they’re competing with (Flames and St. Louis Blues) have marginally tougher schedules.

It’s a small sample size for Demko, but it’s still not up to his standards. He will have the remaining 36 games of the regular season to return to form and hopefully lead this Canucks team to the Stanley Cup playoffs.