Just days after making his triumphant return to the Vancouver Canucks' starting lineup — and in the midst of the team's first playoff series in four years — Thatcher Demko will be unavailable for Game 2 of the team's Western Conference first-round series against the Nashville Predators at Rogers Arena on Tuesday night.

And he could be out for the remainder of the series, Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli confirmed after the morning skate.

“Thatcher Demko is out for Game 2,” Seravalli reported, adding “his status for the series is questionable.”

It's a devastating blow for the Canucks, especially with star goaltender Juuse Saros at the other end of the rink. The task will now fall to Casey DeSmith, who played admirably while Demko is out but will have a tough time filling the large shoes of the star American.

Demko didn't seem to injure himself at all in Sunday's Game 1 win — the first home playoff victory at Rogers Arena since 2015 — but he was not seen or heard from after the triumph.

“The Canucks goalie was supposed to speak following Game 1, but wasn’t made available, with Canucks PR saying he was getting ‘treatment,'” wrote Daily Hive's Rob Williams on Tuesday.

“That’s not an infrequent explanation by the team for players that don’t speak after games, though it seems to happen less often after a big win. The Canucks held an optional practice on Monday that was sparsely attended. Demko was one of many players absent.”

The task gets much harder for Canucks without Demko

Demko was an absolute brick wall in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, leading the Canucks to a qualification victory over the Minnesota Wild before backstopping the squad to a thrilling Round 1 win over the defending champion St. Louis Blues.

He was equally as potent against the Vegas Golden Knights in Round 2, dragging Vancouver from a 3-1 series deficit to an eventual 3-0 loss in Game 7. The Canucks were not at all the better team in that series, and Demko almost stole it for them. He proved he can be one of the best goaltenders in the world in the postseason, although that was his last taste of playoff hockey until Sunday night.

And after backstopping the Nucks to a Game 1 win, he'll be watching from the press box for at least the final game in British Columbia this week.

The hope around downtown Vancouver is that Demko will be able to return a little later in the series — ideally as soon as Game 3 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville — but considering he just missed a good chunk of the second half due to injury, it's not looking great.

It's unclear whether the star netminder's new ailment is a re-aggravation of the last one, but that should become clear over the next few days. One thing is for sure: it'll be all hands on deck as Vancouver looks to make it a 2-0 lead on the Predators before the series shifts to Tennessee.