The Canucks face the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight before heading into the All-Star break

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TAMPA BAY (NEWS1130) – The Canucks five game road swing comes to a conclusion tonight. It is possibly the toughest game of the trip, against a very good Lightning team. Tampa Bay has won seven straight games at home and Coach Willie Desjardins says his team has to be ready.

“They are a good team. They are a quick team. They will come hard at the start so we are going to have to come out with some energy. You look around the league and see how tight it is, so you have to find away to compete and we have to be ready tonight.”

Tampa Bay enters the game fourth in the league in points, and tops in the Atlantic Division. The high flying offence of the Lightning has landed three players in top 15 in the NHL in scoring. Tyler Johnson has 48 points, Steven Stamkos has 44 points and Nikita Kucherov has 43 points. Canucks rookie Bo Horvat says the Canucks will have to shut down Stamkos to get the win.

“It is definitely going to be tough every night that anybody goes against him. He is a great hockey player and he has been putting up goals in this league for a while now. If we can shut him down and keep his chances to a minimum it is going to benefit us.”

The teams met early in the season, with Tampa Bay walking away with a 2-1 victory at Rogers Arena. Jason Garrison was traded by the Canucks in the offseason, and the Bolts defenceman wants to go a perfect 2-0 against Vancouver this year.

“They have some dynamic players and they play a good puck moving game. We have to make sure we come out hard and skate with them. We need to try and limit their opportunity out there.”

The puck drops at 4:30 p.m. You can watch it on Sportsnet Pacific. Listen for game updates every 10 minutes on the fives.

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