Thatcher Demko didn’t emerge from the tunnel when the Vancouver Canucks returned for the second period of their game against the Winnipeg Jets. Instead, Kevin Lankinen led the Canucks out in a game they trailed 3-2 in after 20 minutes of play.
Demko missed Friday’s Canucks practice with what the team suggested was preventative maintenance, and was making his return tonight.
Demko missed both of the Canucks’ weekend back-to-back games, with Lankinen starting for the Canucks both on Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets and on Sunday against the Colorado Avalanche. Demko appeared to be favouring his groin following a stretch save in the first period. Here is the video:
Thatcher Demko has left this game with what looks like a groin injury. He might have suffered it on this save.
🎥: Sportsnet | #Canucks
We will provide updates when Adam Foote speaks to the media post game.
“We asked him this summer, and we had a conversation with him to take care of himself, and know in a condensed schedule when he feels he needs a little bit of time off, and that’s what he’s doing. I don’t want to say words that people don’t like, like maintenance [or that] sort of thing, but l’ll give you an example. If you play a long time — not Thatcher — but say you have a back surgery early in your career. As you get a chance to play a long time, you know in your last seven years, five years, the latter half of your career, there’s times where you can feel something else come, [because of] compensation, right? So, you might have to have a maintenance day or some time to work on something, so that’s it, that’s all.
“He’s such a great leader that he doesn’t want to ever miss a day. Even his teammates in the summer in the leadership meetings were like, one thing we always talked about was ‘Demmer, you got to know when to go and take care of you in a certain situation.’ He’s doing what we asked him to do, and I like that.”
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