VANCOUVER — As the Vancouver Canucks embark on a new season in search of at least 10 more points than they had last year, goalie Thatcher Demko playing 53 games instead of 23 is a pretty good place to start looking.
His year shortened and hollowed by a series of injuries, Demko did not play last season until Game 27 for the Canucks. In December.
On Thursday, he was ready for Game 1. Demko stopped 17 of 18 shots, including a couple of breakaway saves, and kept the Calgary Flames scoreless until the Canucks found their game in the third period and pumped four goals past Dustin Wolf to win 5-1 at Rogers Arena.
After last season’s chaos for the Canucks and a disappointing 90-point finish that left them out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Game 1 felt like something more than just the first of 82 tests. But it was especially significant for Demko, the 2024 Vezina Trophy runner-up, who spent much of last year trying to solve a knee injury that delayed his start and undermined his performance.
Demko played only 23 times. Thirty more games for him this season would surely be worth at least another five wins.
“Felt pretty good even this morning,” Demko told reporters after the game. “You know, just excited to be here. So yeah, I felt good all day, just kind of waiting around, wanting to get to the rink and get the gear on.
“I think the first game is huge … just kind of keeping the momentum building (from the pre-season). And especially (with) the turnover that we had from last year in our room and our coaching staff, too, it’s a testament to the work that everyone kind of put in in the summer and then through camp. Obviously, 81 left.”
And still undefeated.
“Demmer playing always helps,” Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers smiled when asked about the potential for 53 games for their all-star goalkeeper instead of 23. “You know, he’s a world-class goalie, and he always has been since I’ve been here. So for him to be feeling the way he is, it’s really encouraging for our group. He’s incredible. It’s great having him behind us.”
It was great on Thursday that top centre Elias Pettersson, another player vital to a rebound season in Vancouver, emerged unscathed from a dangerous second-period boarding by Flames defenceman MacKenzie Weegar.
It was great that elegant second-line centre Filip Chytil, who said before training camp that he needed to score more — “not just play nice hockey; nobody cares about that” — cracked open a nervy game by scoring twice in six minutes early in the second period, making it 3-0 on a beautiful breakaway at 8:53 after he partially blocked a shot and then took Arshdeep Bains’ pass behind the Calgary defence.
Probably what was greatest for the Canucks is that the team, so harmonious and re-energized after a positive pre-season, overcame a jittery first half without surrendering any goals by eventually just taking the game away from the Flames in the third period.
Jonathan Lekkerimaki, from Evander Kane’s centring pass, and Brock Boeser also zipped pucks past Wolf, last season’s Calder Trophy finalist, who had to start this season by playing twice in 25 hours.
Canuck Kiefer Sherwood scored the only goal of the first two periods by surprising Wolf with a heavy wrist shot from the right-wing circle that got on top of the goalie in a hurry at 14:53 of the first.
“Yeah, it’s a good feeling,” Myers said. “At the same time, we know there’s a lot more. First game, whether it’s a little bit of nerves or whatever it was, there’s definitely more. But we did a lot of good things, too.”
“We talked about it; it’s not always going to be perfect,” Pettersson said. “But I think we stuck with it. So, yeah, happy with the win. I mean, I think it builds character (when) we find a way to win even though it wasn’t our best.”
It was a game with pre-season execution at the start, but it quickly escalated to mid-season intensity with a pair of boarding calls early in the second.
Just 20 seconds into the middle frame, Weegar caught Pettersson off-balance with a shoulder check, launching the most expensive player in Canucks history head-first into the boards.
But in a nearly-identical hit at 4:33, Vancouver’s other Elias Pettersson, the second-year defenceman known as “Junior,” catapulted Flame Connor Zary into the boards with a borderline hit.
In both cases, referees Francis Charron and Tom Chmielewski wisely called major boarding penalties initially, which allowed them to review the checks. The punishments to Weegar and Pettersson Junior were downgraded to two-minute minors.
They looked like the correct calls as neither hit was delivered with malice. But the adjudication did little to satisfy either team on the receiving end.
Fortunately, both Zary and the original Pettersson stayed in the game after getting medical attention.
“I’m okay,” Pettersson said. “I saw the replay. I don’t think it’s a dirty hit, just bad timing. I drop (the puck) to Brock, and it’s a bad drop, so I reach for the puck, and then he pushed me. I think I took the impact a little bit with my arm, but I landed sideways. I feel a little bit in my neck, but it’s fine.”
Pettersson expects to play Saturday when the Canucks visit the Edmonton Oilers, still perfect at 1-0 after an imperfect but gritty opener.
PK perfect, too
The Canucks power play, so cohesive and dangerous through the pre-season, struggled to generate quality chances against the Flames. The first unit was especially untidy. But Vancouver’s penalty killing, which led the NHL over the final two-thirds of last season, blanked Calgary’s power play on four chances spanning eight minutes.
During one critical kill in the second period, with the Canucks clinging to their 1-0 lead, Bains blocked a pair of heavy one-timers by Flame Matt Coronato.
“Big boy blocks,” Demko said of Bains, who won a roster spot during the pre-season. “I gave him a pat right when we got in the room here in the second intermission, and I think everyone else did, too. I mean, those are huge blocks, especially at that point. One-goal game, and they’re looking to tie it up on the power play, and he steps up and makes two huge plays for us. He’s a really smart guy, a lot of hockey IQ, and obviously that’s why he’s out there on the PK.”
The Canucks finished with 19 blocks, 11 more than the Flames. Vancouver was outhit 36-27.
How the Canucks lined up
Forwards
DeBrusk-Pettersson-Boeser
Bains-Chytil-Garland
Kane-Cootes-Lekkerimaki
O’Connor-Raty-Sherwood
Defencemen
Hughes-Hronek
M. Pettersson-Myers
Forbort-Pettersson (Junior)
Goalies
Demko
Lankinen
Scratches
Blueger, Karlsson, Mancini
