The Canucks may have blown another lead at home and nearly the shootout too, but they also may have found a new hope.

Hands up if anyone thought after three games the Canucks best player would be Zack Kassian.

Here's where we call anyone with their hands up a liar.

Heading into this season, the narrative about Kassian was all about what he wasn't. He wasn't a help in last year's playoffs. He wasn't able to dominate in the AHL. And he wasn't Cody Hodgson.

But a few more games like the past two, and it'll be "Cody who?"

Actually, who are we kidding? It will take months of good games for that Kassian to make that happen. But Wednesday was a great start.

Kassian scored the game's first goal with some power forward moves, and played hero in the shootout with finesse, sealing a 3-2 win over Calgary.

Kassian overcame his critics and Alain Vigneault, too. The coach passed over Kassian in the first three rounds of the shootout, inexplicably for Daniel Sedin, who has a better chance of succeeding as a stand-up comedian than in the shootout. At least as a stand-up, Daniel can just show tape of his shootout attempts.

But Cory Schneider, who finally arrived this season sometime in the third period, made three saves in the skills competition to give Kassian his moment.

It was well earned. Kassian got promoted to the Sed-in line because of his performance against Edmonton Sunday. He should be staying there for a while after that effort against Calgary.

"He's got a lot of will, and he has all the tools, he just has to believe in himself," Alex Burrows said of Kas-sian.

"He's so strong. He's a big body, and it's just a matter of making the right reads with the twins to find that open space."

The Sedins helped Kassian with that to start the game. They went over some of their plays via the whiteboard. Kassian played like a quick study.

But on Kassian's goal, he didn't need the twins. He scored that one all on his own.

With the puck at the side of the net, Kassian faked a shot, then bulled his way around the back of the net. He just about scored on a wraparound but banged the puck into the post.

When Mark Giordano picked up the puck with his glove in the slot, he tossed it right back to Kassian, who took one more shot before rifling in his own rebound for a 1-0 lead 6: 20 into the second.

"The puck kept coming back to me," Kassian said. "If the one a little later didn't go in, I'd probably be kicking myself in the head (for missing the wrap."

Kassian said part of the reason he's making it look so easy with the twins traces back to the first couple of weeks of the offseason, when the Sedins asked to train with him for a week.

"You grow closer to them, you're with them every day," Kassian said. "You see their work ethic. You talk to them. You go out for lunch with them. You just get comfortable with them. As a player, when you're comfortable with your surroundings, you just do better."

Good thing for Kassian, because the Canucks were outshot 18-8 in the third period and overtime. This after blowing a 2-0 lead.

For the third straight game, the Canucks blew a lead.

It took a village to over come that on Wednesday.

It took goaltending that looks so sloppy and unconfident that it made a Jay Bouwmeester shot from his own blueline look like a scoring chance.

It took a defenceman backing up, kindly clearing the way for Alex Tan-guay to put the puck on a tee and fire it by Schneider. And it took a penalty-killing unit so exhausted it couldn't do much more than watch as Jarome Iginla nearly go coast-to-coast before setting up Mikael Backlund.

Starting his first game since the opening night debacle, Schneider wasn't comfortable in his hoped-for bounce back game. At least not for the first two periods.

He settled down in the third and made a sensational stop on Tanguay in overtime. twitter.com/@botchford