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Originally, this article was about what was going wrong with Thatcher Demko‘s game. It was going to be about why he has been struggling so far this season. His save percentage was down 45 points compared to his 2023-24 season and he hadn’t looked confident in the net. Returning from a knee injury in the middle of a playoff race with no preseason is not easy – it’s even harder with all of the Vancouver Canucks’ turmoil. But his shutout against the Colorado Avalanche was a bright spot and he continued his positive trend on Thursday against the San Jose Sharks. He played well and looked more confident than he has in recent weeks.
So, does that mean he’s back and ready to provide the Canucks with elite goaltending again? Let’s dig into the issues he was having before the Colorado game and see if they showed up at all in his 25-save shutout of the Avalanche or 33-save overtime win against San Jose.
In his first 14 games of the season, 14 of the 45 goals he allowed were scored either while he was in RVH, transitioning out of RVH, or because of a direct rebound off an RVH transition. (RVH is the technique seen in the video below. Down on one knee, leaning into the post. Most NHL goalies use it when the puck is near or below the goal line. This is a good primer on it).
Not all of the goals were Demko’s fault, but one thing that he was doing in RVH made him vulnerable to plays that developed out of it.
Demko’s Issues in RVH
When he’s in RVH, Demko’s had a tendency to get very focused on the puck and lose track of where opponents are in front of the net. On this goal, you can see that he never takes a look to the front of the net, and while it’s not great defensive zone coverage by the Canucks to leave a player wide open in front of the net like this, it should also be a short push to the shooter’s stick to make this save. But because Demko isn’t sure where that shooter is, he doesn’t get out to crowd him and the puck finds a hole under his arm.
This isn’t a problem that’s unique to Demko. A lot of goalies have this issue in RVH, but it has been leading to a lot of goals against for him. This goal by Morgan Geekie of the Boston Bruins is a good example of the issue. Pay attention to Demko’s head before the puck gets passed to Geekie. It’s laser-focused on the puck in the corner and never turns to find the dangerous player in front of the net.
Related: Thatcher Demko Notches 1st Shutout in Canucks’ 3-0 Victory Over Avalanche
The Boston goal is poor defence from Vancouver, leaving a player so open in front of the net, but watch it again and you can see that the first time Demko sees Geekie in front of the net, the player already has the puck on his stick and by that point, there’s no chance to stop the shot. This play might be a goal no matter what Demko does, but the separation between finding the man in front and pushing towards his stick was a significant factor in the goal.
Obviously, there were no goals scored by Colorado against Demko like this, but this sequence did stand out. Watch Demko’s head when the puck ends up in the corner on his blocker side. He never turns to take a look at the back door. There is one check to the middle of the ice which is good, but against a team that moves around as much without the puck as Colorado does in the offensive zone, it’s dangerous to just ignore a player standing backdoor like this, especially while the puck is in such a safe area of the ice.
Demko’s Five Hole a Problem?
Demko has allowed a few five-hole goals this season and looks to be worried about his ability to snap his knees down and cover his five-hole quickly. This breakaway goal shows that. The irony of going paddle down to fill the five-hole on a breakaway like this is that, when dropping his paddle to the ice, his knees open up as his body leans forward, opening up a hole that would have been covered in a normal butterfly.
Where Demko’s concern about getting beat five-hole has really shown is in his smoothness in making saves. When a goalie is worried about being scored on, rather than confident that they can make a save, they tend to get “tight” and save attempts can be awkward, as their limbs don’t move together in a coordinated way. Their knees often hit the ice at different times instead of snapping down together in their butterfly.
When it’s a concern about the five-hole, you can also see it in things like goalies’ gloves moving down towards the five-hole and their arms looking rigid and flexed when they go down. Double coverage (arms covering their body instead of the net) and too much movement of their stick is another indicator of this. The effect of this tightness is often that pucks squeak through the five-hole and arms, as well as rebounds bouncing into dangerous areas instead of being absorbed. Here are a couple of goals that show Demko battling with this:
Against San Jose, he made two good saves on breakaways. The first one was a five-hole shot that he tried to go paddle down on, just like the Utah overtime goal, but he showed better commitment to making the save and followed it well to stop the rebound, too. While paddle-down isn’t the textbook way to save this shot, the commitment to the save shows a higher level of confidence. The important thing is that he kept the puck out of the net and made two good saves on the play.
On the other breakaway, he did a good job of keeping his hands up and out and didn’t drop his paddle, which allowed him to make a good blocker save. Breakaway shots are tough because there’s no time to react more than a few inches to make the save, so mostly, a goalie is just trying to be big and fill space and maybe read the player’s stick blade for any extra information. That Demko kept his blocker up instead of going paddle down is a sign that he’s doing a better job of reading and reacting and not as concerned about being beaten five-hole.
Demko’s Cross-Ice Movement
Prior to the Colorado game, Demko’s pushes on cross-ice passes had been inconsistent. The Geekie goal is a good example. The pushes were a bit slow at times, and less powerful than they could be, which led to goals. Again, the Canucks’ defensive zone play needed to be better on these goals, and they were not all Demko’s fault, but at his best, he has a better chance of stopping these. Part of the problem on these goals is similar to the issue he’s had in RVH, where he isn’t picking up the back door guy as well as he could and there seems to be a gap in between the pass being made and Demko pushing to make the save.
In his shutout of the Avalanche, Demko made a few excellent saves on slides, committing fully to his slide and reading the play well. The glove save below is an excellent read and an efficient route back toward the net. With a full stretch, he gets his glove over to keep the puck out of the net. The save against San Jose isn’t as dramatic, but Demko beats the pass and makes a good save. Beating the pass is a surefire sign that a goalie is reading the play well and it’s also a great sign of consistency going forward, as it means less movement. With less movement, fewer things can go wrong.
Demko was really good against the Avalanche and it’s a great sign for the Canucks that he looked more confident and composed. There were physical signs that things could be trending in the right direction for him. There was also a little bit of luck involved. Colorado hit the post twice and Cale Makar had a sequence where he missed the net twice in a row on good scoring chances. If those go in, the narrative looks different for Demko. The San Jose game was even more promising. He looked more calm and composed in many areas and it looks like his confidence is growing. Coming back from a major injury is at least as big of a mental hurdle as it is a physical one, as it can take time to trust that you’re healed, on top of trust that you can still make saves. Demko looks to be trending upward, which is a great sign for Vancouver’s playoff hopes.
