<p>Following his club&#8217;s <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/stanchies-tocchet-praises-pettersson-vancouver-canucks-2-1-win-toronto-maple-leafs">2-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs</a> on Saturday night, <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/combinations">Vancouver Canucks</a> head coach Rick Tocchet met with the media and, as usual, had plenty to say.</p>
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<p><a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/vancouver-canucks-thatcher-demko-exits-injury-vs-toronto-maple-leafs-not-return">Goaltender Thatcher Demko departed</a> after just ten minutes of play in the first period with what appeared to be a lower body injury. During the first intermission of the game, the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast showed some footage of Demko appearing to be in discomfort during both warmups and after a save.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Looks like Thatcher Demko tweaked something during warmups tonight.</p>
<p>🎥: Sportsnet | NHL<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Canucks</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LeafsForever?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LeafsForever</a> <a href="https://t.co/5ZCj7lTuFP">https://t.co/5ZCj7lTuFP</a> <a href="https://t.co/mCqttRAZO7">pic.twitter.com/mCqttRAZO7</a></p>
<p>&mdash; CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) <a href="https://twitter.com/CanucksArmy/status/1888393039418429464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 9, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
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<p>Post game, Tocchet clarified that the injury occurred during the game.</p>
<p>&#8220;He wasn&#8217;t hurt [pregame],&#8221; said Tocchet. &#8220;It was just something that happened during the game. I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s that serious &#8212; I don&#8217;t know &#8212; from early reports. It&#8217;s not the knee, so we don&#8217;t have to have you guys speculate. I don&#8217;t know, I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s that serious, but we&#8217;ll see.&#8221;</p>
<p>As for last night&#8217;s game, Tocchet applauded the &#8220;buy-in&#8221; that he&#8217;s seeing from his team right now.</p>
<p>&#8220;Lately, the game plan has been good, and I just see a lot of buy in. When you play 82 games, you&#8217;re going to play stinkers and you&#8217;re going to win games. Like San Jose, we obviously didn&#8217;t like our game but we grinded it out. This is another game that you have to grind it out to find different ways to win. That&#8217;s what good teams, resilient teams do.&#8221;</p>
<p>Believe it or not, Tocchet feels that the break comes at a good time for more players than just Demko. That may come as a bit of a surprise to hear about the streaking Canucks, who have gone 3-0-1 in their four games since Quinn Hughes went down with what&#8217;s believed to be an oblique injury,</p>
<p>&#8220;Part of me wants it to keep going, but I do think this team needs a bit of a reset in the sense of just get away. I think some guys just need to get away from hockey&#8230; We&#8217;re playing some pretty good hockey winning wise. I think the depth of our team has really helped our team. Our play without the puck, I don&#8217;t know, since Christmas, the shots against, the goals against, Toronto one goal, Colorado no goals, those are things you can hang your hat on.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Canucks play their next game on February 22nd when they head to Vegas to take on the Golden Knights. Elias Pettersson (Sweden) and Kevin Lankinen (Finland) will head to Boston and Montreal for the 4 Nations Face-Off, which kicks off this week. Canucks captain Quinn Hughes has not yet made an official decision as to whether or not he&#8217;ll suit up for Team USA.</p>
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Following his club's <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/stanchies-tocchet-praises-pettersson-vancouver-canucks-2-1-win-toronto-maple-leafs">2-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs</a> on Saturday night, <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/combinations">Vancouver Canucks</a> head coach Rick Tocchet met with the media and, as usual, had plenty to say.
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<a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/vancouver-canucks-thatcher-demko-exits-injury-vs-toronto-maple-leafs-not-return">Goaltender Thatcher Demko departed</a> after just ten minutes of play in the first period with what appeared to be a lower body injury. During the first intermission of the game, the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast showed some footage of Demko appearing to be in discomfort during both warmups and after a save.

https://twitter.com/CanucksArmy/status/1888393039418429464

Post game, Tocchet clarified that the injury occurred during the game.

"He wasn't hurt [pregame]," said Tocchet. "It was just something that happened during the game. I don't think it's that serious -- I don't know -- from early reports. It's not the knee, so we don't have to have you guys speculate. I don't know, I don't think it's that serious, but we'll see."

As for last night's game, Tocchet applauded the "buy-in" that he's seeing from his team right now.

"Lately, the game plan has been good, and I just see a lot of buy in. When you play 82 games, you're going to play stinkers and you're going to win games. Like San Jose, we obviously didn't like our game but we grinded it out. This is another game that you have to grind it out to find different ways to win. That's what good teams, resilient teams do."

Believe it or not, Tocchet feels that the break comes at a good time for more players than just Demko. That may come as a bit of a surprise to hear about the streaking Canucks, who have gone 3-0-1 in their four games since Quinn Hughes went down with what's believed to be an oblique injury,

"Part of me wants it to keep going, but I do think this team needs a bit of a reset in the sense of just get away. I think some guys just need to get away from hockey... We're playing some pretty good hockey winning wise. I think the depth of our team has really helped our team. Our play without the puck, I don't know, since Christmas, the shots against, the goals against, Toronto one goal, Colorado no goals, those are things you can hang your hat on."

The Canucks play their next game on February 22nd when they head to Vegas to take on the Golden Knights. Elias Pettersson (Sweden) and Kevin Lankinen (Finland) will head to Boston and Montreal for the 4 Nations Face-Off, which kicks off this week. Canucks captain Quinn Hughes has not yet made an official decision as to whether or not he'll suit up for Team USA.

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Tocchet: Demko’s injury ‘not the knee’; seeing lots of buy-in from streaking Canucks

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