DeSmith was well below average when Demko was out earlier.
He was barely below average. 2.89 isn’t bad at all and .896 save percentage while not great, only has to up that a little more to above .900 and make some saves. The league average was .904. You are grossly exaggerating his play. He really hasn’t been that bad at all. He doesn’t need to be super human. just average and that’s pretty much what he was in the regular season. I think he can do it.
What TruKnyte was referring to was when Demko was hurt earlier. Demko was hurt on March 9, DeSmith came in and mopped up, then was the starter until Demko came back. He was good for a while but then had a bad stretch shortly before Demko returned. His last game, after Silovs had played a couple of games giving him a break and it was reported Demko was close to returning and when he was expected to play, was excellent, but in the stretch of 4 games before that he had a 4.36 GAA and 0.847 save percentage.
It was a too small a sample to necessarily mean anything, but the concern from Canucks fans was that DeSmith was ok in occasional games as backup but not good after a stretch as starter. Through the year DeSmith has had times being really good and times being pretty poor. A game against Minnesota in mid to late February in which the Canucks blew a late second period 5-2 lead and lost 10-7 shook Canuck fans' confidence in him.
DeSmith is a pending ufa and if Demko is gone for the rest of this round or longer, DeSmith's play is going to affect his next contract, wherever it is, in a major way.