If you turned that game off after the first period, you might be surprised by that final score. But for all the bounces the Canucks got in this game, they definitely earned them, battling back from two goals down thanks to a final 30 minutes where they went toe to toe with a good Tampa squad.

Vancouver Canucks (9-9-2) vs. Florida Panthers (9-8-1)

Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise, FL

4:00 pm PST; 7:00 pm EST

TV: Sportsnet Pacific

Radio: Sportsnet 650

If you were watching yesterday's game, I wouldn't blame you if you flipped over to watch the Grey Cup after seeing that first period. Apart from the initial rush of seeing Conor Garland take down Darren Raddysh in this season's most unexpected fight, there wasn't anything to feel good about, apart from Kevin Lankinen holding the fort. The Lightning threw everything they had at the Canucks in the first, and damn near came away empty handed if not for the Nikita Kucherov goal with less than a minute to go in the frame. The Canucks looked outmatched, and it felt like we were in for a long afternoon.

But from the second period on, the Canucks were as good, if not better than the Bolts, and after going down 2-0, started the comeback halfway through the second, with Jake DrBrusk hammering home an Elias Pettersson rebound, and it felt like, if they could just get one more, they might have a shot.

Cue the craziest third period of the season.

The Canucks exploded for five goals after mustering just seven shots through the first forty minutes. With Tampa's backup in net, that old proverb of "just get some pucks on him" turned out to be the way to go, as deflections and bounces led to three goals in 1:40 to give the Canucks a 4-2 lead. It looked like the Lightning had made it 4-3, but a crafty Canucks challenge on the play, alleging that the puck had been played with a high stick and should have been blown down, overturned the goal. It was the first time they'd used the new rule this season, and it probably killed any hope of a Tampa comeback. After Mackenzie MacEachern got his first as a Canuck to make it 5-2, the fans started heading for the exits.

What an absolute monster game from Quinn Hughes. After missing the Carolina game, that gave Hughes 7 assists in his last two games. Kevin Lankinen was outstanding, shutting the door after the second goal and giving them the chance to pull off the comeback. And another strong performance from Elias Pettersson, continuing his strong two way play along with a two assist night.

Naturally, there was a downside, and that was Conor Garland not returning to the game after his tilt with Raddysh, yet another challenge for the Canucks as they prepare to take on the Florida Panthers tonight. Fortunately, they at least have a body to put in the lineup as David Kampf, signed by the Canucks last week.

Kampf is a center, and while he's not the center they need, he's gonna do a couple things that are going to help. First, he can take defensive zone draws and take some of the pressure off EP40 to take all of the draws.

Second, he's going to make the utterly embarrassing penalty kill better (though credit where credit is due, the PK came up big yesterday, especially in the second).

As far as the Panthers, they have, like the Canucks and Lightning, been struggling with injuries to key players this season, and so far aren't looking quite like the two time defending champs they are. That's not any reason at all to take them lightly, though, and this is still gonna be a hell of a tough night for the Canucks in the back end of a back to back. That being said, the Canucks have performed well in back to backs so far this season, and with the confidence boost of two strong games on this road trip so far, maybe they actually can return to Vancouver with five of a possible six points?

LINEUPS

From the nhl dot com thingy...

Canucks projected lineup

Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Kiefer Sherwood

Brock Boeser -- Max Sasson -- Jake DeBrusk

Drew O'Connor -- Aatu Raty -- Arshdeep Bains

Mackenzie MacEachern -- David Kampf -- Lukas Reichel

Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek

Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers

Elias Nils Pettersson -- Tom Willander

Kevin Lankinen

Jiri Patera

Scratched: P.O Joseph, Linus Karlsson

Injured: Thatcher Demko (lower body), Conor Garland (undisclosed), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)

Panthers projected lineup

Mackie Samoskevich -- Anton Lundell -- Brad Marchand

Carter Verhaeghe -- Evan Rodrigues -- Sam Reinhart

A.J. Greer -- Sam Bennett -- Jesper Boqvist

Noah Gregor -- Cole Schwindt -- Luke Kunin

Gustav Forsling -- Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola -- Seth Jones

Uvis Balinskis -- Jeff Petry

Sergei Bobrovsky

Daniil Tarasov

Scratched: Donovan Sebrango

Injured: Eetu Luostarinen (lower body), Matthew Tkachuk (lower body), Tomas Nosek (knee), Jonah Gadjovich (upper body), Dmitry Kulikov (shoulder)

So it's Kampf with MacEachern and Reichel, and Arshdeep Bains will be with O'Connor and Raty. Karlsson will sit tonight, and Max Sasson continues to get rewarded for his efforts seeing second line duties between DeBrusk and Brock Boeser. It looks like Lankinen might go in goal tonight, and Florida, after seeing Tampa's backup get lit up last night, isn't taking any chances, as they'll start Sergei Bobrovsky. And as expected, the Canucks sent Victor Mancini down to Abbotsford, which I am sure the AHL Canucks will gladly welcome him back.

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

Released on this day in 1986, 'Darkness Descends' was the album that put Dark Angel up with many of the upper echelon thrash contenders. Just an absolute beast of a record, with relentless riffing and drumming from the legendary Gene Hoglan make this one a must listen. Here's the title track for ya!

Enjoy the game, folks. Fuck fascism! Go Canucks Go!