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

First up, there will be a big Hockey Night in Canada game with the Edmonton Oilers. This will be the first battle of the season between the two Pacific Division adversaries. 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 is sure to be full of fireworks as these two teams look to establish their dominance in the division.

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

McDavid scored three goals and added seven assists for 10 points in 11 games this season. He is second on the team in scoring, behind Leon Draisaitl, who has nine goals and seven assists for 16 points in 14 games.

The Canucks return home with momentum and will look to kick off 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 final two matches over a six-day period.

Jake DeBrusk was the Canucks’ top scorer during the road trip to California. He scored in all three games on the trip and now returns to Vancouver hoping to continue his momentum.

In California’s three games, DeBrusk was on the ice for four goals and just one block at five-on-five. The Canucks did a great job preventing goals on the road trip and seven Canucks were not on the ice for a goal against at 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 of five-on-five during the trip to California and scored no goals on the ice. against.

Quick hits on the competition

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

• Recently, Draisaitl aligned with Viktor Arvidsson and former Canuck Vasily Podkolzin.

• To complete the top six, McDavid centers a trio with Jeff Skinner and Zach Hyman.

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

• In net, the Oilers have worked with Stuart Skinner for most of the season. Skinner is 3-5-1 with a .885% save percentage.

• The Oilers have been horrible on special teams this season. They currently rank 27th in the league in power play with a 14.3% conversion rate. Things get even worse on the penalty kill, where they are the worst team in the league and have only knocked out 59.5% of their shots on goal this season.

• Somewhere the Oilers do well is in shots on goal. They are second in the league with 33.1 shots per game.

• The Oilers have struggled early, allowing 13 first-period goals this season while scoring seven. They have scored first in five of their 14 games and if they don’t score first, their record is 3-6-0 on the year.

The story: let’s talk a little about Quinn Hughes

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

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

In Hughes’ 70 minutes, the Canucks had 54 scoring chances and only allowed seven scoring chances against. The Canucks captain controls the game at a pace that is starting to become unusual. In those 70 minutes of ice time, Hughes only scored one goal on the ice while his Canucks scored seven times with him on the ice.

He had six points on the trip and now ranks third in the NHL in points by a defenseman. The most impressive stat is that Hughes has only been on the ice for four goals allowed at five-on-five this season.

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

Among defensemen who have played at least 10 games, Hughes leads the league in scoring chance control, with his Canucks controlling 67.5% of scoring chances when he is on the ice.

Another interesting stat is how often Hughes hits the net with his shots. His career high for shots per 60 minutes was achieved last season when he hit the net 5.9 times per 60 minutes.

This year, Hughes is shattering that number and taking shots on goal at a ridiculous rate of 9.1 per 60 minutes played.

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

The Canucks’ best players over the last five games

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

When and where to watch

Saturday night’s game kicks off at 7 p.m. and you can watch the All-Canadian game on Hockey Night in Canada or listen to the soft-spoken Brendan Batchelor on Sportsnet 650 and the Sportsnet Radio Network.