Demko bothered by his early season slump: 'It kind of eats at you'

Thatcher Demko admits he's had a hard time dealing with his struggles in the early stages of this campaign.

"I'm not doing as good a job as I know I can do," the Vancouver Canucks goaltender said, according to Sportsnet's Iain MacIntyre. "It's something that as a teammate, as a competitor, you know, it kind of eats at you."

Demko is 1-7-2 with an .874 save percentage in 10 games this season. The San Diego-born netminder has saved minus-0.47 goals above expected and minus-1.74 goals above average at five-on-five in 2022-23, according to Evolving-Hockey. The latter two figures place him 38th and 46th in the NHL, respectively.

He's particularly unnerved by his performance so far considering how much work he did in the offseason.

"That's the most frustrating part, I think," Demko said. "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."

Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau believes his No. 1 puck-stopper is fully capable of turning things around.

"The one thing you always based everything on was, in the end, we had the goaltending to save us," Boudreau 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."

The Canucks haven't excelled as a team this season. Vancouver is 4-7-3 through 14 games, and the club entered Friday's action ranking third-worst in the league in goals allowed per game.

Demko went 33-22-7 with a .915 save percentage while playing a career-high 64 games last season. He finished seventh in Vezina Trophy voting and would've surely earned many more votes had the Canucks not missed the playoffs. Demko, who'll turn 27 on Dec. 8, led the NHL in GSAA at five-on-five and ranked third in GSAx in those situations in 2021-22.

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