Stop me if you've heard this one before, but the Canucks probably deserved a better fate than they got on Friday night. Full marks for battling back after spotting a three goal lead to the Devils, though.

Vancouver Canucks (17-29-5) vs. Pittsburgh Penguins (25-14-11)

Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC

3:00 pm PST; 6:00 pm EST

TV: Sportsnet

Radio: Sportsnet 650

Another day, another one goal loss for the Canucks. I would be shocked to discover they weren't leading the NHL in that stat. Again, it's the way they allow early goals and oftentimes multiples, forcing them to play from behind from essentially the opening whistle that is once again their downfall. It's not a recipe for success. Not that scoring first has been any kind of a guaranteed win this season, but it's far better odds than trying to pull off a multi-goal comeback.

So they face another Metropolitan team tonight, this time it's the Pittsburgh Penguins, who currently sit second in their division. But are they as good as their place in the standings would suggest? With 11 OT and SO points, they have less actual wins than the Islanders and New Jersey, and the same number as Washington. The Islanders and Devils have both feasted in extra time though, garnering 9 wins a piece, so there's that. Still, without the Bettman points, the Pens would likely be out of a playoff spot.

And as if things couldn't get any worse, Sidney Crosby comes into this game on an absolute heater, with 3-5-8 in his last 5 games. It has the makings of a long afternoon if the Canucks don't find a way to kill some bloody penalties and tighten up defensively. They're also gonna need a better performance from today's likely starter Nikita Tolopilo. With Lankinen getting off the ice early for what the Canucks called 'load management', they recalled Tolopilo and sent Jiri Patera back to Abbotsford.

LINEUPS

From the nhl dot com thingy... here's the lowdown:

Penguins projected lineup

Rickard Rakell -- Sidney Crosby -- Bryan Rust

Egor Chinakhov -- Tommy Novak -- Evgeni Malkin

Anthony Mantha -- Ben Kindel -- Justin Brazeau

Connor Dewar -- Blake Lizotte -- Noel Acciari

Parker Wotherspoon -- Erik Karlsson

Brett Kulak -- Connor Clifton

Ryan Shea -- Jack St. Ivany

Stuart Skinner

Arturs Silovs

Scratched: Kevin Hayes, Ilya Solovyov, Ryan Graves

Injured: Filip Hallander (blood clot), Kris Letang (upper body)

Canucks projected lineup

Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Jake DeBrusk

Drew O’Connor -- Filip Chytil -- Brock Boeser

Liam Ohgren -- Teddy Blueger -- Conor Garland

Nils Hoglander -- David Kampf -- Linus Karlsson

Elias Nils Pettersson -- Filip Hronek

Zeev Buium -- Tyler Myers

Marcus Pettersson -- Tom Willander

Nikita Tolopilo

Kevin Lankinen

Scratched: P.O Joseph, Aatu Raty, Max Sasson

Injured: Thatcher Demko (lower body), Marco Rossi (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)

There's a chance that Willander sits tonight as he's reportedly battling an illness, and that would see Joseph get back in tonight. Other than that, it doesn't appear there's any changes, but I wouldn't be too shocked to see one of Raty and Sasson get back in tonight.

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

We outnumber them. And we will defeat them.

Enjoy the game, folks. Fuck all fascists! Go Canucks Go!