It’s been just over a month since Leevi Meriläinen was claimed off waivers by the Vancouver Canucks. Ask anyone, and they’ll tell you he’s settling in very nicely.

Beyond getting to know his new teammates, Meriläinen’s biggest adjustment since coming to Vancouver has been learning the new system and adjusting to the Canucks’ tendencies. “There’s a lot of things, but especially how the team plays, how we defend and all that,” Meriläinen told Daily Faceoff Vancouver on Monday. “So you gotta learn those things, what the coaches want from the players, what we are willing to give up, and stuff like that.”

Meriläinen’s play in Vancouver has certainly been a step up from his final days in Ottawa with the Senators. He’s arguably been the Canucks’ most consistent and most valuable player throughout October, giving them stable netminding and a chance to win night in, night out. He’s even posted a .912 save percentage and the seventh-best Goals Saved Above Expected in the league at 4.84, despite winning just one of his eight starts so far.

Meriläinen’s head coach, Manny Malhotra, gave his goaltender a glowing review, calling him someone “making the most of his opportunity right now.”

“He’s done a really good job in his starts of just playing with a level of poise and confidence that you want out of your goaltending,” Malhotra said Monday. “I think every goalie talks about, you know, ‘I wish I had that one back’… But for the most part, he’s made all the saves we’ve expected him to make and some 10-bellers in addition to that, so that gives the guys a lot of confidence.”

The Oulu, Finland native had plenty of great Finnish goalies to look up to in his path to becoming an NHL goalie. But none had as big an impact on Meriläinen as Hockey Hall of Famer Pekka Rinne, who called Kempele home just a 15-minute drive away from Oulu.

“[Rinne’s] always been a huge inspiration. Got to skate a couple times with him before he retired, that was awesome for me,” Meriläinen said. “Just learning a few things from him and just seeing how he does things.”

It helps to have another Finn sharing the net with you as well. Having Kevin Lankinen and his experience to lean on has been a benefit to the 24-year-old. “It’s always huge,” Meriläinen said of having a good partnership with Lankinen. “I don’t remember ever having a bad goalie teammate, and certainly not here either, so it’s nice.”

His short experience with Canucks goalie coach Marko Torenius has already evolved into a good working relationship. Meriläinen feels he’s already learned a lot in his time in Vancouver, and the results seem to correlate. But he’s not going to be satisfied until the victory column starts to match.

“We’re not winning. I’m not winning, so I’m not happy with that,” Meriläinen said. “I feel like there’s always room to improve and there’s still a lot to do for my game.”

With the Canucks heading out to California for a brief, two-game road trip through California before returning home to face the Toronto Maple Leafs, Meriläinen will get all the runway he and the team need to break up the losing skid. And if he keeps playing at this level, he certainly gives the Canucks the best chance to do so.