Canucks star goalie Demko working through rare muscle injury

Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he's been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season's playoffs.

The 28-year-old all-star says the rehabilitation process has been frustrating, but he has made good progress in recent weeks and is confident he'll be able to return to playing.

He says he and his medical team have spent the last few months talking to specialists around the world, and have not found a single other hockey player who has dealt with the same injury.

Demko missed several weeks of the last season with a knee ailment and played just one game in Vancouver's playoff run last spring before going down with the current injury.

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He was not on the ice with his teammates as the Canucks started training camp in Penticton, B.C., on Thursday, but skated on his own before the sessions began.

Demko posted a 35-14-2 record with a .918 percentage, a 2.45 goals-against average and five shutouts for Vancouver last season.

Tough season ahead: coach

Demko isn't the only player to miss training camp: Winger Dakota Joshua wasn't present as he recovers from surgery for testicular cancer.

The team has also announced that veteran centre Teddy Blueger and defensive prospect Cole McWard will also miss the start of training camp after each had "minor lower-body surgery."

But head coach Rick Tocchet says he has plenty to work with on the team, and he plans to switch his lines up a lot in Penticton.

"Nothing's set in stone,"he said. "I think it's important that you have different puzzles at different times."

Tocchet also said he has warned his team of a tough season ahead.

TheCanucksfinished atop the Pacific Division with a 50-23-9 record last season, then ousted the Nashville Predators from the playoffs in a gritty, six-game first-round series. Vancouver then fell to the Edmonton Oilers in a seven-game second-round set.

"To get to the next plateau, there are higher expectations, and it's going to be hard. We know that," Tocchet said.

Last fall, Jim Rutherford, theCanuckspresident of hockey operations, said everything would have to go right for the team to make a playoff push. That doesn't change this season, he said, despite last year's success.

"The challenges will be greater, certainly. But I believe the team that we started with last year, we have just as good a team to start the season this year and probably better,"he said.

"As long as the team builds off what they did last year, stick to what the coaches tell them, stick to the system, stick together in good times and bad times, this team has a chance to do pretty well."