{"id":302590,"date":"2025-11-23T01:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T01:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/302590\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T01:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T01:54:09","slug":"canucks-lankinen-back-in-spotlight-with-raised-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/302590\/","title":{"rendered":"Canucks’ Lankinen back in spotlight with raised expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER \u2013 Kevin Lankinen<\/a> began last season on a contract worth $875,000. He started this one on a deal worth $22.5 million. Expectations change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s a good question because coming into the season that was a question I was thinking, too: \u2018OK, what\u2019s different?\u2019\u201d the Vancouver Canucks<\/a> goalie said after Saturday\u2019s practice at Rogers Arena. \u201cAnd I came to a point where I realized nothing changes because I have been doing my thing all these years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the game as much as I have ever done, and I’m just so hungry and determined to get better. If anything, (the contract) just creates a little bit of a safer space where you don’t have to worry about the outside as much, and you can put more emphasis and more energy on what matters the most in hockey, which is the day-to-day stuff and how to get better. The pressure will always be there. But for me, it comes from within, from the expectations that I have on myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Lankinen went on his run last season as injured starter Thatcher Demko<\/a>\u2019s replacement, his 25-15-10 record was essential to keeping the Canucks in the playoff race. Essential, but not \u201cexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old Finn, who had spent four National Hockey League seasons as a backup in Chicago and Nashville, didn\u2019t even have a contract when training camp began. But he quickly knocked projected starter Arturs Silovs out of the crease \u2014 and eventually, effectively, out of the organization \u2014 and earned that life-changing contract extension.<\/p>\n

Where would the Canucks have been without Lankinen?<\/p>\n

Amid another avalanche of team injuries that have ensnared Demko once again, the Canucks end a short homestand Sunday against the Calgary Flames desperately trying to cling to the Western Conference playoff race at 9-11-2.<\/p>\n

Including the contest two weeks ago when Demko strained his groin, Lankinen has played in seven of Vancouver\u2019s last eight games. The team has won two of them, although the six that ended with Thursday\u2019s 4-2 loss to the Dallas Stars were a Murderer\u2019s Row of Stanley Cup-calibre opponents.<\/p>\n

For the season, Lankinen is 4-6-2 and his save percentage of .886 ranks 46th\u00a0among 65 NHL goaltenders who have appeared in at least five games. He has allowed at least four goals in seven of his 11 starts. Last season, Lankinen\u2019s save rate was .902.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, I might have had better stats but, quite honestly, where my game is trending, it’s in a better place now,\u201d Lankinen said. \u201cWhich is funny, but that’s just how hockey works sometimes. You can get lost in results because every season is a roller coaster and if you get lost in the ups and downs, then you’re going to lose yourself. You have to stay even keel and focus on what matters the most, which is the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, goaltending is a big part of the team and I think win or lose, you can make a difference as a goaltender. That’s what we’re looking for. I want my game to be at a level where no matter how we play as a team, I can win games. That’s what we’re striving for. But of course, I’m responsible as much as anybody else on this team to get more wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Navigate the vast analytics sea, and you can argue\u00a0that Lankinen\u2019s performance is slightly better than his basic statistics indicate.<\/p>\n

Clear Sight Analytics, whose proprietary data includes dozens of shot-quality variables such as east-west passing, shows Lankinen with an expected save percentage of .874 since Nov. 1, indicative of the challenging defensive environment the struggling Canucks created for him.<\/p>\n

He is one of only three goalies \u2013 Washington Capital Logan Thompson and New York Islander Ilya Sorokin are the others \u2013 who have outperformed expected save rates of .880 or less. Evolving Hockey\u2019s public data shows Lankinen with 2.7 goals saved above expectations, which ranks 32nd.<\/p>\n

Asked to assess his season so far, Lankinen described his game as \u201cprogressing.\u201d He is getting better.<\/p>\n

His save rate since Demko was hurt is .903 and Lankinen\u2019s best two games this season were probably on the Canucks\u2019 last road trip: a 4-3 loss in Carolina last Friday when shot attempts were 94-30 for the Hurricanes, and a 6-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday when Vancouver was outshot 13-1 in the first period.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would agree,\u201d Lankinen said when asked if these were his best two games. \u201cI think even talking with the goalie coach, Marko (Torenius), my game is getting to a point where I want it to be (where) every single night I’m able to help the team win, no matter how they play in front of me. I take a lot of pride in that, because that’s my job
\u2014 to take care of my own business and don’t worry about anything else.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like a lot of pieces are coming together. Marko has been a tremendous addition to my game and to be able to work with him now and, hopefully, for a long time ahead, we’re going to achieve so much more. The sky’s the limit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The road games Lankinen played last week were reminiscent of his many performances last season that might have made him the Canucks\u2019 MVP. But that level of play is now what is \u201cexpected\u201d of him \u2013 and what his team requires to maintain contact with the wild-card playoff race until the Canucks get healthy. Until Demko returns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to look behind the scenes a little bit, behind the score, because we\u2019ve faced a lot of adversity as a team and I’m a part of the team as well,\u201d Lankinen explained. \u201cWe’re getting a lot better over the last few games; we showed it, myself included. And I think that the pieces are coming together and we can get rolling here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI just keep coming back to the process. Like against Dallas, we probably played one of the best games of the year. We just didn’t win. There have been games where we haven’t played as well, and we still managed to get to point. So I think it’s just being consistent and bringing that A-game every single night. We’re still early in the year and putting the pieces together. And I have a lot of faith, a lot of trust, in this group.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canucks have a lot of trust \u2014 and money\u2014 invested in Lankinen, too.<\/p>\n

ICE CHIPS \u2013 Defenceman Filip Hronek missed Saturday\u2019s practice due to illness, but coach Adam Foote expects him to play Sunday… Injured centre Teddy Blueger (lower body) practised again in a non-contact jersey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2013 Kevin Lankinen began last season on a contract worth $875,000. He started this one on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-302590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}