Thatcher Demko will join the Vancouver Canucks for their six-game road trip starting Saturday, and he's feeling confident about his progress toward returning to the crease.
"It's obviously been a long road, so it's nice to be back with the guys a little bit, definitely a little more energy, a little pepper in my step coming back and being out with those guys," Demko told NHL.com's Kevin Woodley.
"Still a lot of work to do, I think, but I feel really good. It's the best I felt, obviously, in seven-to-eight months, so (I) finally have a little bit of a light at the end of the tunnel, for sure, and have a lot of direction in what we're trying to accomplish, and we've gotten some huge progress and big jumps the last probably two, three, four weeks, so we're moving in the right direction."
Demko hasn't suited up since Game 1 of the opening round of the playoffs this past spring due to a knee injury. He still doesn't have a definitive timeline for game action and is trying to remain patient.
"I'm a day-to-day guy; I think you have to be," he said. "Admittedly, through the process, I slipped into the future-seeking mindset, and it never really ended up too well for me, so just sticking with it day-by-day, and I definitely know that I'll be playing here."
The Canucks are off to a 9-6-3 start without their star netminder. Kevin Lankinen and Arturs Silovs have shared duties between the pipes, with the former taking on most of the workload. Lankinen has posted a respectable .902 save percentage in 13 appearances, while Silovs has struggled to an .857 clip in six games.
Demko was the Vezina Trophy runner-up last season after compiling a 35-14-2 record with a .918 save percentage. He's played in parts of seven campaigns with the Canucks after they selected him in the second round of the 2014 draft.
