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.