Amid unprecedented slump, Canucks' Demko knows he needs to be better

TORONTO – His worst stretch of professional hockey represents not only a stunning break in form for Thatcher Demko, but it's buckling one of his core beliefs about hard work and preparation.

The Vancouver Canucks’ goalie returned from San Diego in early August to begin training in B.C. with goaltending guru Ian Clark. The 26-year-old actually put off his honeymoon to get a head start on this season.

By the time training camp opened in late September, Demko felt better prepared than ever before and said he was confident he could find yet an even higher level of play after his National Hockey League breakthrough last year when he was on the fringes of Vezina Trophy discussions.

And then the Canucks’ regular season started on Oct. 12 and Demko began an astonishing stretch of form that has seen him allow four or more goals in seven of 10 starts – and never fewer than three – while building a save percentage of .874 that ranks 45^th among 48 NHL goalies who have logged at least five games.

One month into the regular season, Demko has one win.

“That's the most frustrating part, I think,” he said Friday when reminded of his preparation. “If I was sitting around all summer not doing anything, then you can look at yourself (struggle) and be like, 'alright, well, that makes sense.' I think that's where some of the frustration comes -- putting the work in in the summer, putting the work in every day. . . (trying) to be one of the first guys that come to the rink, I'm in the gym all the time, working hard on the ice.

“You've always kind of been told that as you grow up, that's kind of what it takes to be successful. And so sometimes it feels like you're just trying everything. But, you know, it's part of the process. Nothing is going to be perfect all the time, so I'm sticking with it and, like I said, I know it's going to turn.”

In a short, candid discussion with reporters after the Canucks practised in nearby Etobicoke for Saturday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Demko said he knows he must play better.

“I'm aware of it; I think that's Step 1,” he said of his problems. “So just put my nose down right now and get back to work.

“You’ve got to remember, like, stuff's going to happen. It's not always going to be perfect. It's really easy to wake up, pissed off and maybe a little bit grumpy or whatever. But taking a step back, (you) realize it's all going to be okay. I'm going to come out of this. Obviously, with the work that I put in, I'm trying to make that happen a lot sooner than later. Finding my game, finding myself a little bit out there, and just doing the work to do that.”

It’s not always perfect, even if Demko seemed close to that at times last season when he won 33 games and finished with a .915 save rate that was skewed downward by a late-season injury and did not reflect the quality of shots the American faced as one of the NHL leaders in goals saved above expectation.

Demko had surgery immediately after the season but, in revealing it in general terms to Sportsnet at training camp, downplayed the procedure’s severity and its impact on his off-season.

Since Demko began playing in the United States Hockey League at age 15, the 2014 second-round pick doesn’t appear to have endured anything close to the slump he is fighting now. In 2 ½ years in the NHL, for instance, he had never gone more than five straight games allowing three or more goals. After losing 5-2 in Montreal on Wednesday, that streak for Demko is at 10 games.

His 11^th game will be either Saturday or Sunday, as the 4-7-3 Canucks play back-to-back in Toronto and Boston, where Demko played college hockey.

Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau admitted Friday that all his projections for this season were based on the premise that Demko would provide strong goaltending.

“The one thing you always based everything on was, in the end, we had the goaltending to save us,” he said. “And it will save us in the end, but it hasn't saved us too often yet. But there's not a guy in the room -- coaches or players -- that doesn't have the ultimate faith in him that it's going to come back. His body of work has been too good for it not to happen.

“No one works harder than him. He comes out half an hour early every day. He stays on (late) every day. His desire and drive to be the best is right up there with all of them. I mean, his slump has been a little longer than we would really have liked. But at some point, he's going to find it. Whether it's one save, whether it's one game. . . all of a sudden it'll click back in and his confidence will be there.”

Backup goalie Spencer Martin, who has three of the team’s four wins and has never failed to get at least a point in 10 games under Boudreau going back to last season, will play at least one of the games this weekend.

“I'm not doing as good a job as I know I can do,” Demko said. “It's something that as a teammate, as a competitor, you know, it kind of eats at you.

“I think everyone's hard themselves in this environment. I think you have to be. Maybe, like you said, sometimes you've got to take it easy on yourself a little bit here and there. It's just about finding that joy and coming to the rink excited. Obviously, things aren't going great for us as a team, but I think guys attitudes have been great. . . just trying to have each other's back even when stuff's going on around in the media or whatever's going on. It's about us in here.”

• Boudreau changed his defence pairings and top forward lines on Friday. He split the effective Quinn Hughes-Luke Schenn duo, partnering Hughes with Tyler Myers, dropping Schenn on to a pairing with Riley Stillman and moving Oliver Ekman-Larsson alongside Ethan Bear. With winger Tanner Pearson injured, Ilya Mikheyev replaced him on a line with J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser, while Nils Hoglander was elevated to a unit with Elias Pettersson and Andrei Kuzmenko.