‘Greatest on the planet’: Demko leads new-look Canucks to second straight win

NEW YORK — In this courageous, new world for the reason that Vancouver Canucks traded one of the best participant in franchise historical past, they’ve constructed their first profitable streak in practically two months, all three of their new gamers have contributed, and the workforce is two-thirds of the way in which to a Metro New York sweep regardless of producing 32 pictures on aim in 120 minutes.

“Yeah, you know, trying to impress them a little bit,” goalie Thatcher Demko joked in regards to the guys who arrived from the Minnesota Wild. “Obviously, vibes are higher when you’re winning and guys are feeling good. I mean, I don’t have to spell that out for you guys; it’s more fun these last couple of games.”

Predicting that sensation, enjoyable, would have been as surprising as Friday’s commerce of Canucks captain Quinn Hughes.

Fourth-line winger Liam Ohgren, one of many three under-25 gamers despatched to the Canucks by the Wild, scored his first National Hockey League aim since final March as Vancouver shut out the New York Rangers 3-0 Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.

Newcomers Marco Rossi and Zeev Buium have been on the scoresheet Sunday when the Canucks edged the New Jersey Devils 2-1.

The grim actuality of Friday’s commerce has evaporated, for now, with the keenness of the brand new Canucks, desirous to please and grateful for better alternatives in Vancouver, in addition to the readability the transaction has supplied to a last-place workforce.

And regardless of their wrestle to create offence with out Hughes carrying the puck everywhere in the ice and establishing teammates, Vancouver has continued to enhance the defensive sport that sharpened up considerably during the last 4 weeks.

But, actually, the largest distinction on this street journey up to now is that Demko, three video games again from a month-long absence attributable to his newest harm, is already creeping near peak type. And there aren’t many goalies who play at a better degree than the veteran Canucks starter.

Demko is the human tank-buster, the goalie who is just too good for the workforce to be the worst within the NHL. If the 30-year-old stays wholesome, particularly if gamers proceed to use coach Adam Foote’s defensive rules, the Canucks can’t presumably stay the place they’re within the standings.

They might not transfer up a lot, might by no means get inside two time zones of the wild-card playoff race, however they are going to complete above some groups with the 2024 Vezina Trophy runner-up of their web.

“He’s the best in the world,” teammate and buddy Conor Garland, who’s admittedly biased however not far off, mentioned after his 160-foot empty-netter clinched Monday’s win. “I don’t think that’s even a dispute, really. He’s just so sound and so big and his reaction time. . . that tip Millsy (ex-Canuck J.T. Miller) had late in the third, you tip that as a forward and you think that’s in every time. So it’s fantastic to have him back. I think his presence in the room is something really important. He’s a competitor, he’s a winner. His focus and preparation is good for some guys to see what consistency looks like.”

Demko tracked and caught Miller’s redirection. The goalie stopped all eight pictures by Artemi Panarin, together with a few point-blank possibilities, and foiled Vincent Trocheck twice from the slot.

He stopped 24 pictures for his first shutout of the season. He made it look straightforward.

“I mean, it’s a hard league,” Demko mentioned. “There’s no straightforward video games, so I’m not going to sit down right here and say the sport was straightforward by any means. But, you already know, quite a lot of that is simply form of how we’re taking part in, too. I feel we have really been taking part in rather well the final 10 days right here. So it was good to do my job tonight, and guys did theirs.

“We’ve won two in a row. It feels good. You know, we’re trying to win every time we go on the ice. That’s been the focus all year, and that’ll be the focus in a couple days on Long Island.”

The Canucks cross the midpoint of their five-game pre-Christmas journey Friday towards the New York Islanders.

“When a goalie is seeing it like that, the D just do their job,” Foote mentioned. “They let him have the strong-side shot because they know Demmer’s there. It gives all our players a lot of confidence.”

Evander Kane took benefit of an unintended choose by linesman Devin Berg to open scoring Tuesday on a breakaway simply 1:46 into the sport. With Kane dashing down the right-wing, Berg swung away from the boards as defenceman Matthew Robertson was closing and picked the Ranger, permitting the Canuck to skate in alone and outwait goalie Jonathan Quick to make it 1-0.

Berg was as a lot a sufferer as Robertson and, in equity to the revered official, Robertson later toe-picked himself to the ice to permit Ohgren one other breakaway, so possibly the Ranger has an equilibrium difficulty.

Ohgren was stopped on his free cross, however not earlier than the brand new Canuck scored his first NHL aim in practically 9 months by firing one-on-one from the highest of the circle and rattling the puck via Quick to make it 2-0 at 3:24 of the second interval.

The 21-year-old former first-round choose didn’t have some extent in 18 video games for the Wild this season.

“Yeah, it feels really good,” he mentioned. “I’ve been working hard for that one, and it’s nice to get two out of two wins here in Vancouver.”

In attempting to maneuver previous the Hughes commerce, the timing of this surge couldn’t be higher for Vancouver.

Like Demko mentioned, profitable is enjoyable. And it has been some time for the reason that Canucks had enjoyable.

“We lost our captain, and I think for us as a group, it’s important to come together and play these kinds of games,” veteran defenceman Marcus Pettersson mentioned. “They’re tight games, maybe not a ton of offence. But you know what? We’re battling for each other, and we know that if we’re going to win games, we’ve got to do it together. It’s nice to string a couple (of wins) together. But especially when a major turnover like that happens — I’ve never gone through it myself where a key player like that gets traded — it’s a new challenge, and I think we’re coming together as a group.”

Foote mentioned: “It’s a bonus, for sure, if you can get off to a good start with the new guys and get them feeling good about themselves as well. You lose your captain, a guy that’s been here a long time and, you know, it’s hard on a lot of our guys. It’s a big thing. But you have to move forward and play hockey; that’s your job. It’s good to get those two wins.”