Penticton, BC – Having your starting netminder out to start the year is not ideal for any team. That’s the situation the Vancouver Canucks find themselves in, however, as life without Thatcher Demko could be the reality for the foreseeable future. So how does this team move forward, with a Vezina-calibre netminder out of the picture for now?

Head coach Rick Tocchet doesn’t seem too worried about who will start the season between the pipes for his team.

“I’ll tell you right now, the way our team defends, the way we play the puck, I’m comfortable,” he asserted on day one. “We have a certain way we want to play and hopefully take pressure off a goalie, whether it’s Demmer [Demko], Silovs, or whoever. I think that’s important.”

That belief in the defensive structure is important, considering that Tocchet will be trying out new personnel on the back end, with at least two departures on defence to contend with. Replicating that defensive success without Demko behind them will definitely be a challenge, but if the team can successfully implement their defensive system, that becomes a lot lighter of a concern.

That revolves around the attitude that Tocchet wants to see from his team, regardless of the situation. “It’s not, to me, about plays, it’s mindset. It’s chasing down pucks, it’s attacking, it’s not getting frustrated,” he said. “I don’t want to see frustration, that’s a mindset.”

“If there’s a mistake or something, there’s a bad pass, I want to watch the reaction of a guy. I he chasing the puck down? Is he finishing the play? Is he stopping? Is he putting his hands in the air?”

With higher expectations, cementing their team identity and playing to their strengths becomes critical. “We talked about our pillars and staples and stuff, and how do we get this the next plateau? That’s really what the this season’s about,” Tocchet said about the upcoming year. “How do you create higher expectations? You got to be a better practice player. You have to be even more accountable. You got to be a good teammate. That’s the way you get the next plateau.”

“There’s a reason why some teams get there every year, are knocking on the door, because they’ve created that.”

Being able to stick to those good habits and pillars that they create will help the Canucks through the start of the year without Demko. It remains to be seen if the words can become actions, but at the very least, Tocchet has a plan of action, and it is up to the team to see how resilient of an identity they have in the face of a key injury.

JT Miller certainly agrees with his head coach. “We proved it last year, I don’t think it matters who’s in net. Obviously, we want our number one guy with us, but we have total faith in Artie [Silovs], the way he played last year and came in and played unreal in that Nashville and Edmonton series,” he said on Thursday. “That’s out of our control. That’s not something as a player you worry about, shouldn’t matter who’s playing.”

While the Canucks management will try and figure out a stop-gap solution to fill in for Demko in the time being, the players and coach are confident in their structure being able to deliver results. They’ve shown in a small sample size that they could still win games without Demko. Now, they’ll have to prove it over possibly a longer duration.