Takeaways: Canucks can find positives despite sixth straight loss

The great injustice in the Vancouver Canucks’ 3-2 overtime loss Thursday to the Florida Panthers is that goalie Leevi Merilainen deserved a win.

Well, that injustice plus whatever Brady Tkachuk got away with when his team was down 2-0 before Merilainen’s former teammate with the Ottawa Senators scored his second consecutive natural hat trick, capping it with the OT winner at 2:23.

We’ve long maintained that Brady, the younger of the bruise brothers Tkachuk, could be one National Hockey League’s most impactful players if he focussed entirely on trying to help his team win. He was unstoppable at the end with two goals from the right-wing circle in the final nine minutes of regulation time before dragging the puck inside Canuck defenceman Zeev Buium and beating Merilainen glove-side at three-on-three.

The blown lead and sixth straight loss were another gut-punch for the Canucks, who were battling hopelessness as much as their opponents while getting embarrassed in the first half of this six-game road trip that ends Saturday against yet another Stanley Cup contender in the Tampa Bay Lightning.

But although the Canucks were outshot 39-17 by the Panthers, Thursday was actually a positive step forward for a team that looked shattered after a 6-2 collapse Sunday in Manhattan against the New York Rangers put them 0-3 on the trip while getting outscored 17-5.

The Canucks were better, more competitive and physically engaged, in Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to Matthew Schaefer’s New York Islanders. And they followed that in Florida with a game in which they battled, competed for pucks and were resilient defensively. 

At least they got their first point in nearly two weeks, although Merilainen deserved two. The goalie claimed on waivers from Ottawa got a second straight start and rewarded Canucks coach Manny Malhotra with his best performance yet, making 36 saves. And the 24-year-old has looked good or better in all six of his Canuck appearances.

He made a pile of big stops at the start, when the Panthers tried to overrun the Canucks, and looked impenetrable until Tkachuk’s quick release off the rush fooled him blocker-side to start the Florida comeback with 8:49 remaining in regulation.

The tying goal came with just 13 seconds to go in the third period as Tkachuk somehow lasered a bouncing puck post-and-in.

The Canucks blocked four shots in the final two minutes, were outhit only 21-16 by the NHL’s most intimidating team and often looked dangerous on the counter-attack. Panthers goalie Akira Schmid made his best saves early in the third period when Jake DeBrusk and Jonathan Lekkerimaki had glorious chances alone in front of the net to make it 3-0.

Canuck centre Elias Pettersson was also denied what would have been a clean breakaway late in the second period when referee Francois St. Laurent failed to get out of the way as Vancouver’s best forward angled himself to take Lekkerimaki’s pass.

Liam Ohgren and defenceman Elias Pettersson (Junior), at four on four, scored first-period goals for the Canucks after nice plays by Linus Karlsson and Filip Chytil, respectively.

Now 2-6-1, the Canucks are searching for things to build upon. There were a bunch of them on Thursday.

CHYTIL RETURNS

His line got crushed in its five-on-five matchup against Panthers Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe and Lars Eller, but Filip Chytil’s return to the Canuck lineup — and survival of Game 1 — can be nothing but good news for Vancouver.

The fast, skilled centre had played only 27 games in 21 months since his trade to the Canucks from the Rangers in the J.T. Miller deal. After overcoming a series of serious head and neck injuries, Chytil hurt his shoulder in the pre-season tripping over referee Riley Brace.

Chytil centred the Canucks’ second line between wingers Paul Cotter and Brock Boeser and made an excellent play to set up defenceman Pettersson with a pass to the slot from the corner as the teams skated four-on-four. It was Chytil’s first NHL point in 364 days. He was concussed last Oct. 19 by Tom Wilson’s open-ice hit in Washington.

The centre’s return provides a morale boost when the Canucks really need one.

“He's been through lots,” general manager Ryan Johnson told Sportsnet during the first intermission. “Obviously unfortunate with the fall he takes (in the pre-season) and kind of bangs up his shoulder. Thankfully, it was just muscular.

“But just to see a guy come all the way back and have such a great summer — he became a dad — just to have him, he's got such a presence around our group. Everybody's shoulders kind of go back a little bit. He's had a bad run of luck, and I think he's ready now for some good luck to come his way.”

So are the Canucks.

RATY TRADE

The pre-game trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs of Aatu Raty, who had cleared waivers to make room for Chytil on the Canucks’ 23-player roster, was as much about finding Raty another NHL opportunity as it was about boosting Vancouver’s prospect pool. But in acquiring recent college free agents Jacob Quillan and Brandon Buhr, Johnson hopes he will achieve both objectives.

“It wasn't a knee-jerk reaction on our roster decision or anything like that,” the GM said of the trade. “When it came to making this decision, I sat with Aatu and said, ‘Look, I know you're disappointed, and it's not where you saw this going.’ But I said if he cleared waivers, I was going to be very aggressive in finding him a fresh start and a fresh opportunity, and just doing right by the player and a really good person. Going to Abbotsford (and returning to the American Hockey League), you know, he'd been there and done that and been through it already. So I promised him if he got through, I would aggressively find him an opportunity. I wish him nothing but the best. He's a great player and a great kid.”

At the time of Bo Horvat’s trade to the New York Islanders nearly four years ago, Raty was the centrepiece among players coming back to Vancouver, although former general manager Patrik Allvin soon flipped the Isles’ first-round pick to the Detroit Red Wings for top-pairing defenceman Filip Hronek.

Raty split his 3 ½ seasons with the Canucks between their AHL and NHL teams. And although he has become a faceoff ace, the 23-year-old simply hasn’t built up the rest of his game enough to become an everyday NHL player. And his notable lack of footspeed was going to make it difficult for him to play for Malhotra who believes speed is essential through the middle of the ice.

In 106 games with Vancouver, Raty had 12 goals and 27 points.

Quillan, 24, a highly coveted free agent from Quinnipiac University in 2024, had three points in 23 NHL games for the Leafs last season but was a point-per-game player in the minors. He will start with the Abbotsford Canucks.

Vancouver assigned Brandon Buhr, a winger from Burnaby, B.C., whom they tracked last season as a free agent from Union College, to the East Coast League to start his development with the Canucks.

BUIUM BOUNCEBACK

Zeev Buium was caught on the ice for nearly two minutes in overtime before he leaned outside as Tkachuk went inside with the puck to beat him. It spoiled what was a solid game for the organization’s top blue-line prospect after Buium had perhaps his worst game as a Canuck in Tuesday’s loss to the Islanders.

On the third pairing with Victor Mancini, Buium still spent too much time in his own zone — like many Canucks did — as Panthers coach Paul Maurice dictated matchups. But the 20-year-old looked far more confident and decisive with the puck, used his speed in the offensive zone and was back on the second-unit power play. He finished with 19:24 of ice time, about three minutes more than he logged during his season-low on Long Island.

D-PETEY DELIGHTFUL

After a difficult sophomore season last year, defenceman Elias Pettersson continues to grow in confidence and impact by the game. The powerful 22-year-old, deployed again with Hronek on the top pairing, scored his third goal in seven games — matching his total from 70 games last season — while registering two shots, two hits and two blocks in 22:35 of ice time.

QUOTEBOOK

Malhotra to reporters in Florida: “We continue to grow and get better. That’s the positive. A much more complete game. Aside from the last 10 minutes, I thought we did a much better job of weathering the storm that we expected.”