BOSTON — Although the Boston Bruins realize they returned home from Vancouver with a daunting series deficit in the Stanley Cup finals, they already know an 0-2 hole isn’t necessarily a grave.

After all, this isn’t even the biggest jam they’ve faced in these playoffs. The Bruins were down 0-2 in the first round against Montreal — and both of those losses were at home.

“You’ve played 102 games up to this point,” forward Milan Lucic said Sunday after the Bruins’ cross-continent flight. “We’re not going to give up now. We haven’t given up. If we would have given up, we would have gave up against Montreal in the first round, so we’re definitely not going to give up now.”

The Bruins will make history in Game 3 on Monday night just by stepping on the ice for the Original Six franchise’s first home game played in June. They’ll get a rowdy reception from fans who are grateful to see their first finals game since 1990 — and eager to boo Vancouver’s infamous Green Men superfans, who found a sponsor to send them to Boston.

Yet the Bruins must overcome a whole lot more than two Canadian yahoos in neon-green bodysuits to come back against the surging Canucks, who defended their home ice by dominating late in a pair of one-goal victories last week.

“Now is not the time to squeeze your stick and to panic,” Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron said. “It’s time to go back to what’s been giving us success.” ...