Thatcher Demko returns but 2 big names are missing for the Canucks.

Fans of the Vancouver Canucks were expecting some bad news on Sunday morning after some key players left Saturday's game against the New York Rangers due to injury. While that bad news did indeed arrive on Sunday, it wasn't all bad news for the Canucks during their morning skate.

I'll start with the good news. For the first time in well over a month the Canucks saw number one goaltender Thatcher Demko participate in a full practice, a welcome sign for a goaltender that has been limited to only 17 games all season long. There are of course some concerns from fans that Demko may be returning too early, but those seem to stem more from Demko's controversial injury history than anything specific to this latest injury.

Unfortunately as I mentioned the bad news did come for the Canucks on Sunday morning as well with two very important players notably absent from the ice. Both Elias Pettersson and Nils Hoglander, who left Saturday's game against the Rangers due to injury, remained sidelined on Sunday.

Pettersson left the game after spending much of the latter half of the second period on the Canucks bench, while Hoglander simply did not return for the third period, and at this time it remains unclear what exactly has happened to cause injury to either player.

When it comes to Monday's game against the New Jersey Devils it seems likely that the Canucks are anticipating that at least one of the two forwards will be absent, with the team calling up 22 year old centerman Aatu Raty from the American Hockey League on Sunday.

Head coach Rick Tocchet has himself suggested that he believes both players are "doubtful" for that game against the Devils, which of course is yet another tough bit of luck for the Canucks at the worst possible time in the season.