The Canucks probably deserved a better fate than losing to the St Louis Blues on Tuesday night, but they'll face a tougher task tonight as the defending champs come to town.

Vancouver Canucks (14-8-5) vs. Florida Panthers  (18-9-2)

7:00 pm PST; 10:00 pm EST

TV: Sportsnet Pacific

Radio: Sportsnet 650

While the Canucks deserve credit for battling back in a game where yet again there was some pretty sus officiating, overall they need to do something we've seen very little of this season so far, and that's put together a solid 60 minute effort. Yes, they've played some fantastic games, but there's been few if any that they've been dynamite from the puck drop. Slow starts and giving up the first goal have seen this team playing from behind a lot so far, and while they've had a remarkable amount of success doing so, it's not a winning formula by any stretch.

The good news is that they're almost completely healthy, as by the time we hit Saturday and a visit from the Boston Bruins, they could have both JT Miller and Derek Forbert back in the lineup, leaving just Filip Hronek as the only regular out of the lineup. The fact that the Canucks have been able to salvage so many points so far this season on games that looked like they were out of will serve them well come the stretch run, though they do need to kick things into high gear.

It's hilarious that in my last preview before the Tampa contest I raved about the much improved PK, only to have the got dang wheels fall off against them. It will need to be flawless tonight against a Panthers team that is getting healthy and looking to defend their title come the spring. These games against Florida always seem to bring out the best in the Canucks, so we should (hopefully) expect a solid effort from the boys tonight. If they sputter their way out of the gate however, it could be a long night indeed.

LINEUPS

Tonight's possible lineups were found spray-painted in an alley just off Kingsway, though it's also available on nhl dot com...

Panthers projected lineup

Carter Verhaeghe -- Aleksander Barkov -- Sam Reinhart

Jesper Boqvist -- Sam Bennett -- Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen -- Anton Lundell -- Evan Rodrigues

A.J. Greer -- Tomas Nosek -- Mackie Samoskevich

Gustav Forsling -- Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola -- Dmitry Kulikov

Nate Schmidt -- Uvis Balinskis

Sergei Bobrovsky

Spencer Knight

Scratched: Adam Boqvist, Jonah Gadjovich

Injured: None

Canucks projected lineup

Jake DeBrusk -- Elias Pettersson -- Kiefer Sherwood

Nils Hoglander -- J.T. Miller -- Brock Boeser

Dakota Joshua -- Pius Suter -- Conor Garland

Max Sasson -- Teddy Blueger -- Danton Heinen

Quinn Hughes -- Tyler Myers

Carson Soucy -- Noah Juulsen

Derek Forbort -- Mark Friedman

Kevin Lankinen

Thatcher Demko

Scratched: Erik Brannstrom, Aatu Raty

Injured: Vincent Desharnais (illness), Filip Hronek (upper body)

The return of Miller gives the Canucks a serious boost tonight, and has Coach Tocchet pulling out the Blendomatic 3000. Miller will roll with Boeser and Hoglander, while Pius Suter will drop down to centre Garland and Joshua. On defence, Desharnais is out with an illness, which allows Forbort to slot in with Friedman, who was pretty good on Tuesday night. And unlike people on Leon Munk's unusable social media cesspool, we're not at all concerned about Kevin Lankinen getting the start tonight. Lankinen has been one of the better netminders in the NHL this season, has a better lifetime record against Florida than Demko, and already has a win against them this season. For real, some of y'all are as embarrassing as shit with your purported 'knowledge' of the game and this team. And don't even get me started on why Erik Brannstrom is sitting again tonight. If he was the better defensive option, he'd be in the lineup, and after the way he got absolutely exploited by the Lightning Sunday afternoon, I am totally okay with him sitting this one out.

GAME DAY CHATTER

There's a lot of rumbling that Patrik Allvin is working the phones right now, and Vincent Desharnais' name is being mentioned... The coach has his pregame thoughts... And J.T. Miller talks about what it means to return to the lineup tonight... It's Pride Night tonight, and CDC has a look at the making of this year's design... And just to remind you how that last game against the Panthers went down...

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

Going old school today for ya. Off 'March Of The Saint', this is 'Can U Deliver' from LA metal kings ARMORED SAINT.

So good to have J.T. back tonight. And to all of you for whom this game means a little bit more, Happy Pride Night. Go Canucks Go!