On Saturday night, the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks will duke it out on Hockey Night in Canada in the two sides’ first matchup since game seven of the 2024 Western Conference semifinal.

Here’s what the Oilers can expect from the Canucks.

Just like the last time these two squads faced off, the Canucks will be without Brock Boeser and Thatcher Demko. While Boeser has long since recovered from the blood clot scare that held him out of game seven, the 27-year-old exited Thursday’s contest against the LA Kings after Tanner Jeannot delivered a blindside hit to Boeser’s chin. The NHL Department of Player Safety suspended Jeannot for three games for the hit.

Thatcher Demko has been out all season after experiencing a setback in his recovery from a knee injury that Demko categorized as “rare and unique.” He’s back practicing with the group but is keeping his workload at those practices relatively light, meaning he likely won’t be back for at least a couple of weeks.

Demko’s absence hasn’t mattered all that much, however, because Kevin Lankinen, signed at the 11th hour (what else do you call the third day of training camp?) has been absolutely stellar for the Canucks this season. Lankinen owns a .923 save percentage through nine games this season and is largely responsible for the Canucks’ record to this point of the season. Arturs Silovs has struggled this season, and it’s become Lankinen’s crease in Vancouver.

Like the Oilers — but not quite to the same extent — the Canucks haven’t quite yet found their A-Game just yet. Their star players have yet to find their footing, and the team’s new systems designed to help create more rush offence has led to plenty of Grade-A chances against; Lankinen has been there to bail them out time and time again.

There is one Canucks star who has been rock solid all season long, and that’s Quinn Hughes.

Somehow, Hughes is playing even better hockey than he was last year when he was named the NHL’s best defenceman and took home the first Norris Trophy in Canucks franchise history. And no, I’m not kidding. He’s legitimately somehow playing better hockey even though the Canucks as a whole have been a bit of a mess defensively when he’s not on the ice.

Now, the non-Hughes minutes have been a real problem for this team so far this season, so if you’re an Oilers fan, that’s something to watch for. The Carson Soucy-Tyler Myers pairing that the Canucks used to hard match Connor McDavid’s line in the playoffs has been inefficient at best this season, and a lot of the blame seems to lie with Soucy, who was clearly the Canucks’ third-best defenceman last year behind Hughes and Filip Hronek. He’s struggled this season and has yet to find his game.

Speaking of defence, I know Oilers fans want their Vinny Desharnais update.

After a rocky start to his two-year $2 million contract with the Canucks, including multiple healthy scratches to begin the year, Desharnais’ game has seemingly stabilized playing next to Erik Brännstròm. The Canucks acquired Brännström as a throw-in on the cap dump Tucker Poolman trade with the Colorado Avalanche at the start of the season, and thank God they did.

Brännström has lovingly been referred to as Hughes-lite in Vancouver thanks to his smooth skating and puck-moving ability that really, only he and Hughes possess on the Canucks’ blueline. Brännström has given Desharnais a partner who can move the puck out and is calm under pressure, which seems to have rubbed off on Desharnais.

It’s no secret that Desharnais’ best minutes as an Oiler came when he was paired with Brett Kulak at 5v5, and I’m a massive fan of Kulak. It seems the key to 5v5 success for Desharnais is to be paired with a competent puck mover, and that’s exactly what Brännström is, even if he’s not quite as good as Kulak. Desharnais has also emerged as one of the Canucks’ better penalty killers, which is something they hoped for when they signed him this past offseason.