Here he comes to save the day?
According to both Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman and ChekTV's Rick Dhaliwal, Thatcher Demko will make his return for the Vancouver Canucks on Monday night against the New Jersey Devils.
"The plan is for Demko to play tonight," said Dhaliwal. "His latest injury was six weeks ago. It's a groin problem, he's had a groin issue the last six weeks. He did practice yesterday — not on the ice this morning, which is a pretty good sign that he could be in."
Injuries have wiped out nearly all of Demko's season, starting with the popliteus injury that kept him out until early December. That was followed by back spasms that took him out of the lineup for three games in early January, and then the groin injury that has kept him out for the past six weeks.
Demko has played just 17 games this season and has struggled overall, with an .891 save percentage that is far from his usual standard. Before his latest injury, however, Demko was finally looking more like himself, as he posted a shutout against the Colorado Avalanche and had 30+ saves against the Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks.
The question is, if Demko does return to the lineup on Monday, will he be the Demko that shut out the Avalanche or will he be the Demko that struggled to get back up to game speed when he first returned from injury?
The other question is, does it matter?
The Canucks are currently five points back of the red-hot St. Louis Blues for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. While the Canucks have a couple of games in hand, they'll also have to contend with the Calgary Flames and Utah Hockey Club.
The Blues are cruising and have a pillowy-soft schedule down the stretch, so they'll be tough for the Canucks to catch, even if Demko returns in Vezina-caliber form.
All hope is not lost but it's definitely taken a few wrong turns.
UPDATE: Demko has officially been activated off the Injured Reserve and Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet confirmed that he will start against the Devils.
Monday night's game will not be televised on Sportsnet. Instead, it will be streamed on Prime Video, as a few other Canucks games have been this season.
Vancouver Canucks projected lines
While Demko's potential return is the big story, the status of Elias Pettersson and Nils Höglander is also a major question. Both forwards left Saturday's game against the New York Rangers, missing the entire third period, and they also both missed Sunday's practice in New Jersey.
UPDATE: Tocchet told reporters on Monday that both Pettersson and Höglander have been sent home to Vancouver. That means they will miss not only miss Monday's game against the Devils but also the remaining three games of the road trip.
The Canucks' next home game isn't until April 2 against the Seattle Kraken.
The Canucks called up Aatu Räty from the Abbotsford Canucks under emergency conditions.
Here are the Canucks' projected lines:
These lines are based on how the Canucks practiced on Sunday according to Sportsnet's Iain MacIntyre. We'll see if they change when the Canucks take the ice for warm-up.
The Canucks' starting goaltender will be Thatcher Demko.
New Jersey Devils projected lines
The Hughes Bowl will be missing a Hughes.
Jack Hughes had season-ending shoulder surgery in early March, a year after another shoulder surgery ended his previous season. Hughes had 27 goals and 70 points in 62 games at the time of the injury.
The Devils have soldiered on without Hughes, however, and remain in a playoff spot, currently sitting third in the Metropolitan Division.
Here are the Devils' projected lines, courtesy of Devils reporter Amanda Stein:
Erik Haula - Nico Hischier - Timo Meier
Stefan Noesen - Cody Glass - Jesper Bratt
Ondrej Palat - Dawson Mercer - Tomas Tatar
Nolan Foote - Justin Dowling - Paul Cotter
Luke Hughes - Brett Pesce
Brian Dumoulin - Johnathan Kovacevic
Brenden Dillon - Dennis Cholowski
Jacob Markstrom
Jake Allen
Former Canucks Curtis Lazar and Daniel Sprong won't be in the Devils' lineup but a couple of other former Canucks will be in Justin Dowling and, of course, Jacob Markstrom.
The Devils' starting goaltender will be Markstrom, who has a .901 save percentage this season. Markstrom shut out the Canucks in his last start against them this season, making 20 saves on 20 shots in what was, at the time, the worst performance of the season for the Canucks. That was back in October. It's gained some competition for the title since then.
