A positive: #Canucks have technically been perfect on the penalty-kill in back-to-back games. They killed all two of the penalties taken against Florida tonight.
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The Stanchies: Brady Tkachuk’s natural hat trick extends Canucks losing streak to 6 in OT loss to Panthers
Photo credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Oct 16, 2026, 03:56 EDTUpdated: Oct 16, 2026, 04:15 EDT
You learn so much about yourself when you face Stanley Cup-calibre teams like the Florida Panthers, and you learn what it takes to win. The Vancouver Canucks got a hands-on lesson from the two-time Stanley Cup Champions on Thursday, watching in terror as the Cats clawed their way out of a 2-0 hole to win in overtime on the back of a natural hat trick by Brady Tkachuk.
Losing 3-2 to one of the best teams in the National Hockey League shouldn’t sting so much when you’re a rebuilding hockey team. But the Canucks deserved so much more than that! The Panthers dominated the shot totals and scoring chances for the vast majority of this hockey game. But up until crunch time, they frankly never looked like they’d left third gear.
With 10 minutes to go, the Panthers finally put the car in full power. And with all the expected ease of a champion going against a rebuilding hockey club, the Panthers only needed nine minutes to tie the game, and dominated overtime to win it.
The Canucks learned what playoff hockey looks like. The refs got in the way on multiple occasions, both figuratively and literally, and the whistles went away down the stretch. The Panthers’ mix of pure talent and — let’s call a spade a spade here — dirty play wore down the Canucks rapidly. Florida simply knows how to win. They know when they need to put their foot on the gas and when they can put it in neutral. They know how to get away with murder away from the puck and make opponents lose focus at crucial parts of the game.
But even despite blowing a 2-0 lead late, there was so much to like from Vancouver in the time before that. The Canucks were playing more desperate hockey and doing everything to capitalize on the chances they were getting. Linus Karlsson and Liam Öhgren teamed up for a great opening goal, and DePetey showed off a level of confidence that’s blossoming in this early season with his goal in the first.
And not to bury the lede, but Leevi Meriläinen stood on his head in this hockey game. Hockey is a game of moments and inches, and the Merilin Wall was nine minutes away from a shutout he absolutely had earned. Instead, he leaves Sunrise with an overtime loss, but not for a lack of effort or skill.
In the grand scheme of things, with a lot of hockey to go, this is a loss where the Canucks will look at the effort shown and be proud of their work. But they’re still going to be disappointed to walk away with one point. And because of a Brady Tkachuk hat trick, no less. Can he even spell ‘hat trick’?
Anyways, let’s get this show on the road.
Best Setting Realistic Expectations
Ok let’s GOOOOO #Canucks!(We gonna get rekt)
— CrankyCanucksFan 🇨🇦🏒 (@crankycanucksfan.bsky.social) 2026-10-15T23:09:39.345Z
At the beginning of the evening, it looked like this game was going to follow the same script as a lot of recent ones. They didn’t look completely in sync, but the Panthers took charge very quickly. Defenders activating, the fourth line swarming, even a two-on-one chance for Sam Reinhart. But Leevi Meriläinen was ready to go from minute one.
He weathered the early storm perfectly, and South Florida’s a hotbed for violent storms. He’ll need to pile sandbags in front of the driveway today.
Best Progress in Motion
Spoiler alert: the Vancouver Canucks are improving at penalty killing! The Panthers had two opportunities on the man advantage, and the Canucks’ vaunted PK shut both chances down. Add in their three successes against the Islanders, and they’ve gone two full games without allowing a power play goal!
The best work from the penalty kill came courtesy of EP40. The Panthers love to have a player sneak to the front of the net at the far side, but Petey read it and did a full “backyard water slide” flop to wall off any shot attempt. In the confusion, the Canucks nabbed the loose puck, and Drew O’Connor killed some clock before dumping it out.
It’s all about the baby steps.
Best DAWG
1 shot, 1 goal#Canucks PDO machine has hit Florida
— Adam Kierszenblat (@adamkblat.bsky.social) 2026-10-15T23:19:07.459Z
There’s nothing quite like a goal scored against the run of play. And the Canucks picked their moment perfectly, thanks to some great work by Linus Karlsson. He forces Boko Imama into a turnover, and the puck bounces to a wide-open Liam Öhgren.
Öhgren corrals the puck, sets up his shot, and fires the puck right through Akira Schmid’s five-hole. The Canucks’ have a lead and one goal on one shot, just like everyone predicted.
Öhgren’s shot was great, but you especially gotta love the efforts of Karlsson here, a total DAWG on the Panthers’ fourth line trying to exit the zone. Without his tenacious forechecking, the puck doesn’t make it over to Hutty.
They don’t ask how, just how many.
Best ‘we’ll talk about this in the car’
Brutal turnover from Hronek there. Had the option to just send it along the boards behind the net to Buium, instead fires a backhand pass to the circle with a Panther coming in hot? He’s lucky Meriläinen saved his bacon there… #Canucks
POP QUIZ! You have the puck in the corner behind your own goal line. Do you:
A) Take the puck yourself and skate it out of the zone,
B) Send the puck around the boards to a defensive partner or forward waiting to receive it,
C) Throw a blind backhand pass right into a high danger scoring area?
As a goaltender, a friendly word of advice to any of you skaters or hockey beginners. NEVER throw a blind pass up the middle of the ice from behind your own goal line, unless you want your netminder to tear you a new one in the locker room.
Fil Hronek’s start to the year has been… a struggle, to say the least. But this is the type of decision you just shouldn’t make at this level. Instead, Leevi Meriläinen is forced to bail out his teammate at a really key juncture. Thank god he was ready.
Best Show Em How It’s Done
Remember on Saturday when Evan Rodrigues decided spearing Marco Rossi in the neck was a totally cool and reasonable thing to do after headbutting him in the faceoff dot? Well, Max Sasson and Garnett Hathaway are here to give you a crash course in a more civilized way to discuss a faceoff headbutt.
Notice how they merely push, shove and say a few rude words to each other instead of using their hockey sticks like swords. THIS is pure class. (For legal reasons, this is all a joke.)
Best Shot & Chaser
General Manager Ryan Johnson announced today that F Filip Chytil has been activated from IR.
Does DPetey score any ugly goals?#Canucks
Filip Chytil’s skill is obvious every single time he’s healthy and in the Canucks’ lineup. Sure, there’s the constant fear in the back of your mind that the next shift could be his last, but until it happens, he’ll be putting on a show.
With both Sasson and Hathaway in the box and more open ice at 4-on-4, Elias “DePetey” Pettersson took full advantage of Chytil’s work as if he were prime Cale Makar.
The back camera shows off just how great this play was. EP25 bides his time as Brock Boeser pokes the puck out from along the boards and Chytil draws in the defender. Right as he sees the puck heading to Chytil, DePetey makes a beeline for the net, and Chytil whips a perfect pass to the hash marks. Schmid and the Panthers never see it coming.
DePetey is quickly becoming one of the best stories of the Canucks season. It’s amazing what even nine games free of Adam Foote’s strategies(??) can do for a young player.
Best Poking the Bear
Mancini is a big boy #canucks
Victor Mancini’s stock has dropped a fair bit since his rough training camp and preseason. But tonight he put together what was arguably his most impactful shift of the entire season, hounding Brady Tkachuk in the corner boards with zero relent.
When Meriläinen smothered the puck later in the shift, the Boss Baby used every wrinkle in his brain to remember what number Mancini wears and swung his stick at Vittorio’s leg.
Now, hindsight is 20/20, and this might’ve been a case of mistakenly poking the bear. But in the heat of the moment, it was cool.
Best Controversy
Refs clearly fans of the tank plan and trying to help the #Canucks out
— Jackson604 (@jackson604.bsky.social) 2026-10-16T00:28:10.191Z
“I SAID YOU CANT JERSEY TUCK”
This game might not matter in the long run, but man, did the referees screw the Canucks in this game. And one particular play might’ve been the full turning point of the hockey game.
For some reason, referee Francois St-Laurent found himself right near one of his linesmen in the wrong place on the ice. Right as he realizes his error, Elias Pettersson is positioning himself for a breakout pass from Jonathan Lekkerimäki after he’d stolen the puck from Sam Bennett.
That’s when St-Laurent, in his infinite wisdom, decided to grab onto the back of Pettersson’s jersey in order to keep himself from falling and pulling EP40 to the ice instead.
In all my years of watching hockey, I have NEVER seen a referee interfere with a player like this. An accidental collision is one thing, even mistakenly getting in the way of a clearing attempt or zone entry. But this was a bona fide breakaway and scoring opportunity for Elias Pettersson, straight up taken away by a referee in the wrong position on the ice.
We make a lot of jokes about the Panthers always getting help from the referees, but it was quite literal today. And considering how this game turned out, it’s hard not to look back on this play as the moment that could’ve sealed a Canucks win.
Best Goalie Corner
Akira Schmid has been thrust into a starting role for the Panthers ever since former Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom got hurt earlier this week. Markstrom’s injury history was no secret when they brought him in to replace the legendary Sergei Bobrovsky, and if Florida has any aspirations of winning their third Cup in four years, they need to keep Marky healthy and have a quality backup behind him eating a lot of regular season minutes.
Schmid has found moderate success over the years as a second or third option for both the New Jersey Devils and Vegas Golden Knights. But I’m not so sure he’s the guy for the job in Florida, behind a starter with as big an injury concern as Markstrom. In this game, Schmid will have his moments, but he largely looked a step behind the play, and his reaction time looked rather slow moving across the ice. Against a tougher opponent than the Canucks, this game is probably out of reach for the Panthers earlier.
Max Sasson came the closest to taking advantage when Schmid layed down to cover a puck that wasn’t there, but he slid the shot juuuuuust wide of the net.
The second period was a particularly low-event 20 minutes, which tells you why this is one of the only plays worth highlighting from it.
Then in the third period, on one of the Canucks’ power play opportunities, Jonathan Lekkerimäki got a great chance set up by Petey, but Schmid saved his best work for late. The Canucks couldn’t get control of the rebound in time to take advantage of Akira sitting flat on his butt, in yet another moment of ‘What If…?’ that would haunt us all later.
Best Close Call
We don’t like injuries here at Stanchies, Inc., regardless of the team. And tonight, Eetu Luostarinen had a scare when he tried to get around EP25 and ended up crashing into the boards with force.
This incident was no one’s fault; DePetey was holding his ground fairly, and Luostarinen just lost his balance at the worst possible time. He left the game briefly, but was back on the Panthers bench by the end.
Either way, this seemed to be the moment that woke the Panthers up.
Best leaked footage
can some1 nuke brady tkachuk already
Let’s fast forward to the postgame for a second.
Sportsnet Central usually doesn’t present anything groundbreaking from the game before it airs. But today, they showed off some damning footage on par with Pablo Torre finding the footage of Kelly Clarkson asking about buying the mechanical bird at Art of Play.
In the third period, we started to see Brady Tkachuk come alive. By which I mean, we see him blatantly slash DePetey in the back of the leg away from the play and then line up Liam Öhgren for a high hit longgg after the puck had left his stick.
Those types of cheap shots are par for the course for both the Tkachuks and the Panthers. The refs letting him get away with it was the worst part. BOTH of those were penalties, and he got called on neither. But the refs will simply tell you, “we don’t want to influence the game by making calls!”
Uh huh, sure, guys.
Best Consequences
Ruh roh#canucks
— Terry & dog 🦮…🇨🇦🍁 (@aweebitdaft.bsky.social) 2026-10-16T01:20:34.317Z
Fun fact: contrary to the NHL and the refs’ beliefs, not calling penalties is still influencing the game!
That’s how come Brady was on the ice and wide open to score on a shot from distance that Meriläinen wasn’t ready for, cutting the Canucks’ lead in half.
This is the first time this season that Leevi has looked human on a goal, misreading where Tkachuk’s shot was coming from by a slight bit and oversliding. But hey, you’re playing as well as he has; you’re entitled to a questionable goal every now and then.
Best Brady Brady
on my life brady tkachuk is the devil
Once the Panthers cut the lead to one, they smelled blood in the water. The last eight-and-some odd minutes were spent almost exclusively in the Canucks’ end, and as they iced the puck for the upteenth time in the dying minutes, the writing seemed on the wall.
The Canucks hung on until the final eleven seconds! But it was another ripper from Brady Tkachuk by the left faceoff circle that did them in.
Naturally, none of the refs noticed the blatant wrestling takedown his brother Matthew was using on DePetey in front of the net. Or when he fully stepped on EP25 after the goal. But them’s the breaks when you’re Daddy’s current favourite franchise. (In this case, Daddy is the NHL.)
We all know where this is going, right?
Best Of Course
🥹😭🫡 ... tank!
By the time the Canucks got to overtime, the team looked gassed. The Panthers had conserved energy through the first 40 minutes, emptying only part of the tank in regulation and having plenty left for 3-on-3. They dominated overtime, nearly scoring right out of the gate thanks to a bad pass by Paul Cotter that left Zeev Buium under pressure in his own end. Buium gave the puck up to Matthew Tkachuk, who set up a wide-open Sam Bennett, but he just couldn’t put it on goal.
The Cats took the puck back, controlled play for the next few minutes, then pounced. Game over.
Now I’d like to preface this by saying Zeev Buium had a better game today than any of his recent outings. BUT… he did bite way too hard as Brady cut towards the net and toe-dragged the puck away from Buium’s outstretched stick. Seth Jones got in front of Max Sasson to screen Meriläinen, and the arena littered the ice with a mixture of rats and hats as the Canucks left the ice in dejection.
But look on the bright side: This won’t be a pointless road trip!
Best Farewell
have canucks fans not suffered enough today???
General Manager Ryan Johnson announced today that the #Canucks have acquired Jacob Quillan and Brandon Buhr from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Aatu Räty. DETAILS | vancanucks.co/480Kn3C
Aatu Räty’s departure from the Canucks didn’t come out of nowhere. Go right back to the preseason when they put him in the first two games with all the Abbotsford regulars, and it’s clear they never saw Räty as anything more than a fringe NHLer. His reputation as a faceoff specialist is well known, but his lack of foot speed and scoring touch is what consistently kept Räty out of the lineup. Jacob Quillan represents that difference as a faster skater who may crack the NHL roster as a depth option sooner rather than later.
But the biggest aspect of the Räty trade is cementing just how badly the previous Canucks’ front office bungled the Bo Horvat trade. Two of the three pieces of the trade with the Islanders are gone, and unless Ty Mueller goes on a massive tear, they couldn’t have lost that trade harder. Imagine where the Canucks would be if Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin had chosen Bo over J.T. Miller.
Farewell Aatu. You had a great name to say, and your faceoff skills will be the stuff of legend.
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Breaking News
- The Stanchies: Brady Tkachuk’s natural hat trick extends Canucks losing streak to 6 in OT loss to Panthers
- Instant Reaction: Brady Tkachuk scores late hat trick in Canucks’ overtime loss to Florida
- Canucks trade Aatu Räty to Maple Leafs for forwards Jacob Quillan and Brandon Buhr
- What’s behind the early struggles from Canucks’ Zeev Buium and Filip Hronek?
- Canucks’ Räty clears NHL waivers, will report to AHL Abbotsford
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