I'm sure some of you will want to complain about the Canucks 4-3 win in Washington, because they almost lost that 4 goal lead, but given all the circumstances surrounding that game, that might be one of their most impressive victories of the last few years.

Vancouver Canucks (4-2-0) vs. Pittsburgh Penguins (4-2-0)

PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh, PA

4:00 pm PST; 7:00 pm EST

TV: Sportsnet Pacific

Radio: Sportsnet 650

Complain all you want, but you're not gonna hear much in the way of criticism from me about that 4-3 win over the Capitals in Washington on Sunday morning. There were a ton of reasons why the Canucks could have and should have lost that game, but they didn't, and that's pretty freakin' awesome.

Let's take a look at the giant steaming pile of adversity they had to face. As was pointed out on the broadcast, the puck was dropped about 64 1/2 hours after they dropped the puck in Dallas Thursday evening. Three games in that short period of time, you can imagine any team being tired (especially with over 6000 miles of air travel for these three games). Add in that the Friday game in Chicago went to a shootout, and you could reasonably expect a sluggish start from the Canucks.

Then let's look at personnel: They were already without Brock Boeser for this game, and by the middle of the third period, were without Filip Chytil, Jonathan Lekkerimaki, and Teddy Blueger. And still, with a serious depletion of veteran forwards, they managed to hang on.

And they won this game by being tenacious on their forecheck, and using speed and skill to their advantage. The Elias Pettersson goal was a great example of this.

Great work outhustling the Caps players, a nice read from Hronek to read the play and keep the puck in the zone, and a sweet set up from Conor Garland, who seems to be gelling with Petey quite nicely. And that shot? Vintage EP40.

And let's not forget the heroic defensive work late in the third, where he blocks Alex Ovechkin twice!

So, that brings us to the fourth game of this five game swing, a date with a team sporting an identical record, and like the Canucks, leaving people scratching their heads. Weren't they supposed to be tanking this season? Of course, a lot of people who aren't Canucks fans probably didn't have Arturs Silovs getting an opening night shutout against JT Miller and the Rangers, but no one on this side of the continent was that shocked.

The Penguins could end up looking very different come the trading deadline, but the way they're playing to start the season, maybe it's a touch early to be announcing their demise.

LINEUPS

The nhl dot com thingy has once again provided us with an estimation of what expect on ice tonight:

Canucks projected lineup

Jake DeBrusk -- Elias Pettersson -- Conor Garland

Arshdeep Bains -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson

Evander Kane -- Aatu Raty -- Kiefer Sherwood

Drew O’Connor -- Nils Aman -- Joseph LaBate

Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek

Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers

Elias Pettersson -- P.O. Joseph

Thatcher Demko

Kevin Lankinen

Scratched: Tom Willander, Brock Boeser

Injured: Filip Chytil (undisclosed), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (undisclosed), Derek Forbort (undisclosed), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Teddy Blueger (undisclosed)

Penguins projected lineup

Rickard Rakell -- Sidney Crosby -- Bryan Rust

Anthony Mantha -- Evgeni Malkin -- Justin Brazeau

Tommy Novak -- Ben Kindel -- Filip Hallander

Connor Dewar -- Blake Lizotte -- Noel Acciari

Parker Wotherspoon -- Erik Karlsson

Ryan Shea -- Kris Letang

Caleb Jones -- Harrison Brunicke

Arturs Silovs

Tristan Jarry

Scratched: Philip Tomasino, Mathew Dumba, Connor Clifton

Injured: Kevin Hayes (upper body), Rutger McGroarty (upper body)

Okay, there's a lot to go through, so let's break it down. Chytil and Lekkerimaki have returned to Vancouver for further evaluation. It's especially frustrating to see Chytil once again suffer an injury from a less than clean hit, especially that a guy like Tom Wilson was given a pass on a hit that was clearly late. The injuries, plus Boeser likely missing another game for personal reasons, meant a number of callups from Abbotsford (and the sending down of Victor Mancini in order to remain cap complient). So the fourth line tonight will be Drew O'Connor with Joseph LaBate and Nils Aman. The line of Bains, Sasson and Karlsson gets a much deserved promotion to second line duty, and we'll also see Pierre-Olivier Joseph make his Canucks debut paired with Elias Pettersson as the third D pair. As expected, it's Thatcher Demko vs Silovs in goal, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Lankinen back in goal on Thursday night in Nashville.

GAME DAY CHATTER

Also, fuck him (and Conor Garland, too!) for posing for pics with a member of the fascist regime in the US. I knew he would disgrace the team at some point. I just didn't see it happening this quickly.

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

Feelin' angry today, so this song absolutely works. Off the album 'Unholy Retribution' from Brazilian thrash beasts VIOLATOR, this is 'Chapel Of The Sick'.

Enjoy the game, everyone. Fuck fascism! Go Blue Jays Go! And... Go Canucks Go!