There was a familiar face on the ice with the Vancouver Canucks at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon. The face was covered by a protective mask, but make no mistake that was Thatcher Demko skating with his teammates for the first time this season. 
Demko was the third goalie on the ice at today’s practice along with Kevin Lankinen and Arturs Silovs. His participation was limited, and he left the ice before the practice was finished. But his involvement in a full practice for the first time this season still represents progress in his recovery from a nagging knee injury. To this point, Demko has been limited to working on his own or with goalie coach Marko Torenius and usually away from public view. On Tuesday, Demko faced shots from healthy scratch Noah Juulsen and skills coach Jason Krog after the team’s morning skate in Anaheim. On Saturday, he took shots from Dakota Joshua after the morning skate in San Jose.
Today was the first time this season Demko shared the ice with the rest of the Canucks and, as such, it’s a significant development in the netminder’s long recovery from an injury to his popliteus — a small muscle in the back of his knee — that has kept him out of the line-up since the first game of the playoffs last April.
The 28-year-old San Diego native was not made available to the media after today’s practice, but head coach Rick Tocchet felt today was another step forward in Demko’s effort to return to the line-up.
“He’s taking more shots and more tougher shots, Tocchet said of today’s session. “It’s part of the plan and we’re just going to stick with it.”
The Canucks refuse to put any sort of timeline on Demko’s recovery or signal any potential target date for his return to game action. 
As for the way the rest of the team skated at practice today:
Based on the way they skated in Los Angeles today, it appears the Canucks will go with the same line-up that beat Anaheim 5-1 on Tuesday night. That means Aaty Räty will remain in the mix.
Following practice, Tocchet said there had been no setback for Dakota Joshua, explaining his absence from practice as the team taking precautions to ensure the big winger is completely healthy when he’s ready for his season debut. Tocchet also described Derek Forbort as week to week, although Rink Wide’s Irfaan Gaffar is reporting the veteran blueliner could be out up to a month with a lower body injury suffered during Monday’s practice in Anaheim.
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