VANCOUVER http://www.officialpredators.com/authentic-adidas-ryan-hartman-jersey , British Columbia (AP) Jamie McGinn and his Florida Panthers teammates were thinking about the shooting back home as they faced the Vancouver Canucks.Many of the Panther players were emotional after their 4-3 victory Wednesday night. At least 17 people were killed in the shooting at Parkland, Fla. that’s near the practice facility.”It was tough,” said McGinn, who scored a power-play goal in the win. ”You turn on the TV in the afternoon . . . and it’s close to home. This is where a lot of the guys, they have young kids now, but when they get older that’s the high school they will be going to, so it affected our team.Article continues below ...”It’s a sad world we live in right now.”Captain Derek Mackenzie’s voice ****ed with emotion when talking to reporters.”I think it goes to show the character in the room,” he said. ”We talked about getting two points and kind of dedicating this win to everybody back home.”What can I say? It’s a sad day. I wish I was there right now to talk to my family and neighbors and everyone that has been affected by this. But we can’t be there so the next best thing is come back and win.”Florida gave up a goal just 32 seconds into the game and trailed 2-1 with just over eight minutes gone in the first period. The Panthers battled back with three straight goals before the period ended, the last two just 1:11 apart.”I don’t know if it was one of our best games, but you give credit to the guys, given the circumstances today,” said MacKenzie.”I thought we had a bit of a sluggish start, probably for a lot of reasons, then kind of settled in and tried to control emotions and came up with two points.”Nick Bjugstad led the Panthers with a goal and an assist.Evgenii Dadonov and Alexander Petrovic also scored for Florida (25-23-6). The Panthers are 6-1-0 in their last seven games and are seven points behind the Carolina Hurricanes for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.Bo Horvat had a goal and two assists for Vancouver (22-29-6). Brock Boeser, on a power play, and Michael Del Zotto also scored for the Canucks, who are 1-6-0 in their last seven games.Florida goalie James Reimer Ryan Johansen Jersey , making his second consecutive start after missing six games with a groin injury, stopped 34 shots. Canuck goaltender Jacob Markstrom was replaced after allowing four goals on 14 shots in the first period. Anders Nilsson stopped all 20 shots he faced in relief.The first period saw a couple of strange goals scored.Vancouver’s opening goal came when Del Zotto took a shot that Reimer stopped. The rebound floated high in the air and appeared to deflect off Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad’s stick into the net.McGinn tied the game on another bizarre play. Ekblad took a shot from a sharp angle that hit McGinn on the back, flipped over his shoulder and into the net.It was that kind of night, said Horvat.”It was a bunch of fluke goals,” he shrugged. ”You can’t make any excuses.”It was fluky goals tonight but that’s the way it bounces.”It was a frustrating loss for the Canucks, who were coming off an impressive 6-0 shutout of the Dallas Stars Sunday night.”We have to be consistent,” said Horvat. ”We’ve had great games then the next game or two games haven’t been so good.”To find that consistency in our game will be huge.”Head coach Travis Green said his team did some things well, but didn’t play good enough for a long enough stretch to win.”They are a really fast team,” said the rookie head coach. ”If you are going to beat a fast team you have to be able to pass the puck, you have to be able to handle the puck, your details have to be good and you have to win puck battles.”As times we did that, at times we didn’t, especially in the first period. We’re not a good enough team to not play a good 60 minutes, not to be on top of our game, not have everyone playing pretty good hockey.”NOTES: There was a moment of silence prior to the game for the shooting victims. . The Canucks announced Wednesday GM Jim Benning has been given a contract extension. . Former Canuck goaltender Roberto Luongo, who missed 26 games with a groin injury, was activated off injured reserve and backed up Reimer.UP NEXT:Panthers: At Calgary on Saturday.Canucks: At San Jose on Thursday. WASHINGTON (AP) The sight of Evgeny Kuznetsov clutching his left arm and leaving the ice after a hit from Brayden McNabb isn’t as big a threat to the Washington Capitals‘ title hopes as it might seem.Not after the Capitals withstood three games without Nicklas Backstrom. Not after they missed Kuznetsov for most of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final and still beat the Vegas Golden Knights to tie the series.They’d love to have their leading scorer in the lineup Saturday night in Washington Viktor Arvidsson Jersey , but with superstar captain Alex Ovechkin and several top players producing and filling the void, the Capitals are built to handle life without Kuznetsov if it comes to that.”We’ve had some guys been out here and there these playoffs,” Backstrom said. ”It’s hard to replace Kuznetsov the way he’s been playing, but if that’s the case it is what it is and we just have to have other guys step up.”Coach Barry Trotz provided no update on Kuznetsov on Thursday other than to say the Russian center is day to day. The team practices again Friday.It didn’t look very good for Kuznetsov when he went down the tunnel in the first period Wednesday night and didn’t return. But Ovechkin scored his first career Stanley Cup Final goal on the power play, and Lars Eller, bumped up the lineup to fill in for Kuznetsov, had a goal and two assists.No one player can make up for the potential loss of Kuznetsov, who has 11 goals and 14 assists in 21 playoff games, though Washington’s depth down the middle looks solid with Backstrom, Eller, Jay Beagle and, if need be, Chandler Stephenson. Eller played a key role in two big victories against Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference final without Backstrom, and will once again be one of the most important players on the ice if Kuznetsov isn’t healthy.”Nick has gone out or Kuzy has been out, Lars has elevated his game and comes up in a more prominent role,” Trotz said. ”I think he embraces the challenge. He takes the moments very seriously that he has to step up and try to find a way to produce, and he has. He’s a veteran player who has good hockey sense Brian Gibbons Jersey , and he’s strong on the puck, and I think his game translates well in the playoffs.”It doesn’t hurt that the Capitals can lean on Ovechkin in times of need, and they have received strong performances from top-six wingers Tom Wilson, T.J. Oshie and Jakub Vrana and defenseman John Carlson.It’s the kind of production Vegas is looking for from its top line of Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Reilly Smith. Going on the road means coach Gerard Gallant can’t pick matchups, so he’s counting on his best players to play like it.”I don’t care who they play against,” Gallant said. ”We’re going to play well and work hard and compete hard. (Wednesday) night they didn’t have the offensive outburst they usually have. You’re not going to be at your best every night. I expect them to be really good for us like they have all season long.”Gallant tipped his hat to the Capitals, saying they deserved to win Game 2 based on how they performed after losing Kuznetsov. It would be more difficult to sustain that effort and adrenaline for an entire game without him, though it’s a test they passed without Backstrom earlier in the playoffs.”It’ll be a big loss, but as you saw in the Pittsburgh series when Nick went down, sometimes that kind of energizes some other guys to get in there and be able to make some plays,” Oshie said. ”So we’ll roll with the punches.”Rolling with the punches has become somewhat of the Capitals’ identity this season and into the playoffs. They got some more in the form of a ground stop at the airport after they landed on Thursday as lightning kept them from getting off the plane.Trotz considers it just another roadblock for his team to get over.”Our guys are fine,” he said. ”It’s another layer of adversity that we have to go through all the time.”—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals—