The long night of the rebuild soul begins

CANUCKS (0-0-0) at OILERS (0-0-0)

Rogers Place, Edmonton, AB

10 p.m. ET; SN

It has started. The long, long march of 84 games towards picking 1st. Or 10th. NHL rules.

Will be fun interesting to watch how this game, this season unfolds. Thursday has previewed both HERE. No need to speculate more. This is no time for speculation, this is the time of stoic indeterminate patience.

Canucks projected lineup

Jake DeBrusk -- Elias Pettersson -- Jonathan Lekkerimaki

Liam Ohgren -- Marco Rossi -- Brock Boeser

Drew O'Connor -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson

Arshdeep Bains -- Paul Cotter -- Brendan Gallagher

Zeev Buium -- Filip Hronek

Jamie Oleksiak -- Tom Willander

Elias Nils Pettersson -- Luke Schenn

Kevin Lankinen

Leevi Merilainen

Scratched: Aatu Raty, Guillaume Brisebois, Victor Mancini

Injured: Thatcher Demko (hip), Filip Chytil (shoulder)

Oilers projected lineup

Isaac Howard -- Connor McDavid -- Zach Hyman

Vasily Podkolzin -- Leon Draisaitl -- Kasperi Kapanen

Alex Formenton -- Colton Dach -- Mathieu Joseph

Max Jones -- Owen Michaels -- Trent Frederic

Mattias Ekholm -- Evan Bouchard

Jake Walman -- Connor Murphy

Ryan Shea -- Shakir Mukhamadullin

Tristan Jarry

Devon Levi

Scratched: Ty Emberson, Spencer Stastney

Injured: Frederik Andersen (undisclosed), Jason Dickinson (undisclosed), Mattias Janmark (undisclosed), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (lower body), Alec Regula (undisclosed), Matthew Savoie (undisclosed)

Status report

DeBrusk is expected to play after missing practice Monday because of a lower-body injury sustained while blocking a shot by Boeser in a preseason game against the Seattle Kraken on Saturday. “Everyone is available,” Canucks coach Manny Malhotra said. … Nugent-Hopkins, a forward, was injured at the end of practice Monday and will not play; Draisaitl was moved to second-line center after he’d been practicing with McDavid. Jones is expected to take Nugent-Hopkins’ spot in the lineup.

GAME DAY CHATTER

We know it's going to be a difficult season for #Canucks fans. It's the nature of the game - especially when your team is FINALLY doing a rebuild with all the white-collars in agreement. So how do we survive the year with our minds intact? I made a handy guide: nucksmisconduct.ca/how-to-watch...

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— Erin Butler (@eleighbutler.bsky.social) September 29, 2026 at 11:21 AM

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

Gotto go with a Canadian artist who cares not of wet coast Canuckian struggles against the NHL and CoTU... but what if he did?

Go Canucks Go.