Vancouver Canucks coach reflects on season so far [Video]

There have been days this season when walking into the office was a bit like walking into a minefield for Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet.

The Canucks have experienced a string of unexpected absences early in the campaign — and Tocchet has been greeted with bad news more than once.

“Sometimes you walk in the morning and it’s ‘Hey, this guy can’t play, this is happening,'” the coach said Wednesday.

“I can’t go in there and start like, ‘Oh my god, what am I to do?’ The players need to see that I’ve got a next-man-up mentality. That’s really what it comes up to. And then you deal with the other situations as they come.”

Vancouver’s all-star goalie Thatcher Demko missed the first two months of the season recovering from a knee injury. Winger Dakota Joshua didn’t get into the lineup until mid-November as he worked his way back …