3 Standouts From Game #5: Hurricanes 7, Canucks 2

Welcome to this edition of the Vancouver Canucks “3 Standouts From The Game." In this recurring series, The Hockey News' Canucks team will do a deep dive into three standouts from Vancouver's last game. This article will focus on the Canucks' most recent 7-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. 

Leevi Meriläinen may have only been in the net for one period, but boy, was he impressive. The 24-year-old stopped 14 of the 15 shots he faced, which pushed his save percentage to .941 for the season. According to Natural Stat Trick, Meriläinen faced six high-danger shots and was able to stop them all. 

How Vancouver manages their goaltending moving forward will be interesting to watch. Based on his play, Meriläinen deserves more starts as he has been excellent in a limit sample size. Ultimately, how the Canucks split the final five games of this road trip will be a discussion point over the next few days. 

Jonathan Lekkerimäki is looking more and more comfortable every game. On Thursday, he recorded a primary assist and finished the night with three shots on goal. Lekkerimäki also set a new career high in ice time, logging 17:20. 

One of the positives to come out of Thursday's game was the play of Lekkerimäki. He seems to be developing chemistry with Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson, while his defensive play is slowly improving. It is still early, but Lekkerimäki is showing that he can be an impactful top-six player. 

Welcome back Jake DeBrusk. After missing two games with an illness, the 29-year-old scored his first two goals of the season. More importantly, both came at even strength, which was an issue for DeBrusk last year. 

DeBrusk showed no signs of rust on Thursday. He led the team with four shots on net and recorded an additional three attempts. With a young team around him, DeBrusk needs to lead by example, including by delivering impressive performances, as he did against Carolina. 

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