After a successful road trip in California, the Vancouver Canucks are back on home ice and will be here for the next two weeks as they embark on a six-game road trip.

First up is a big Hockey Night in Canada matchup with the Edmonton Oilers. This will be the first battle of the season between the two Pacific Division foes. The Canucks went 4-0-0 against the Oilers last season but ultimately fell in the playoffs, losing in seven games in the second round.

Saturday night’s game will definitely be full of fireworks as these two teams try to dominate the league.

When talking about the Oilers, start with Connor McDavid. Edmonton’s captain suffered a lower-body injury on Oct. 28 but returned to the Oilers lineup in a 4-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.

McDavid scored three goals and added 7 assists for 10 points in 11 games this season. He ranks second in the team’s scoring list, after Leon Draisaitl, who produced 16 points with 9 goals and 7 assists in 14 games.

The Canucks return home with momentum and will look to start this homestand with an impressive performance against a team they will see three times this season. The two teams will not play again until mid-January and will play their last two games in six days.

Jake DeBrusk was the Canucks’ leading scorer throughout the trip to California. He scored in all three matches on the trip and now returns to Vancouver hoping to continue his scoring ways.

Through three games in California, DeBrusk allowed four goals on the ice and just one goal at five-on-five. The Canucks did an excellent job of preventing goals on the trip, and there were seven Canucks not on the ice for goals against five-on-five during the trip.

Daniel Sprong, Brock Boeser, Pius Suter, Elias Pettersson, Conor Garland, Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek were among the players who played at least 25 minutes at five-on-five and were on the ice with zero goals during the trip to California. against.

Quick Hits in Competition

• Draisaitl leads the Oilers in scoring this season with nine goals and has done most of his damage away from the power play, scoring eight of his nine goals at even strength.

• Lately, Draisaitl has been on a line with Viktor Arvidsson and former Canuck Vasily Podkolzin.

• McDavid centers Jeff Skinner and Zach Hyman to round out the top six.

• On the back end, the Oilers rely heavily on Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm. Bouchard is playing on average 24:20 per game this season, while Ekholm is playing 23:30 on average.

• The Oilers have clearly been running back Stuart Skinner in net for most of the season. Skinner has a 3-5-1 record with a save percentage of .885%.

• The Oilers have played very poorly on special teams this season. They currently rank 27th in the league with a 14.3% conversion rate on the power play. Things get even worse in penalties, where they are the worst team in the league and have killed just 59.5% of their penalties this season.

• One area where the Oilers perform well is shooting on net. They rank second in the league with 33.1 shots per game.

• The Oilers had trouble early in the matches, scoring 13 goals in the first periods of this season and 7 goals at their own goal. They have scored the first goal in 5 of the 14 matches they have played and if they fail to score the first goal their record this season is 3-6-0.

Story: Let’s Talk About Quinn Hughes for a While

Last year’s Norris Trophy winner has somehow found another level in his game this season. The 25-year-old defender broke down in tears in California during the club’s latest road trip.

Hughes played 70 minutes and 13 seconds in his last three games. And I want these statistics to be as easy to understand as possible.

In Hughes’ 70 minutes, the Canucks had 54 scoring chances and gave up just seven. The Canucks’ captain is controlling the game at an unusually declining rate. In those 70 minutes of ice time, Hughes scored just one goal on the ice, while the Canucks scored seven goals with him on the ice.

He has collected six points on this trip and currently sits third in the NHL in points by a defenseman. The more impressive statistic is that Hughes has scored just four goals against five-on-five this season.

Hughes has played 232 minutes at 5-on-5 this season, and his defensive numbers might look even better than his prolific offensive stats. Among defenders who have played at least 10 games this season, Hughes ranks seventh in goals per 60 minutes played.

Among defensemen who have played at least 10 games, Hughes leads the league in scoring chance control. The Canucks control 67.5% of their scoring chances while on the ice.

Another interesting statistic is how much Hughes hits the goal with his shots. His career record for the number of shots per 60 minutes was achieved last season, when he hit the net 5.9 times per 60 minutes.

This year, Hughes is dropping that number to zero, putting shots on net at a ridiculous rate of 9.1 times per 60 minutes played.

The Canucks’ captain leads the offense as the team looks to string together wins and build their confidence for the next part of the season. Hughes is playing the best hockey of his career and the stats show us that he is opening up even more in his game.

Canucks’ Best Performers in Last Five Games

Quinn Hughes: 2g-6a-8p
Brock Boeser: 2g-2a-4p
JT Miller: 1g-3a-4p
Conor Garland: 1g-3a-4p
Jake DeBrusk: 3g-0a-3p
Pius Suter: 3g-0a-3p

When and Where to Watch?

Saturday night’s game kicks off at 7pm and you can watch the All-Canadian game on Hockey Night in Canada or listen along with sweet-voiced Brendan Batchelor on Sportsnet 650 and the Sportsnet Radio Network.