Oliver Ekman-Larsson will play his first game against the team that bought him on Saturday night when the Vancouver Canucks visit Sunrise to play the Florida Panthers. The veteran Swede opened up about his brief time in British Columbia ahead of the game.

“It's always special, right? Going against guys you battled on the ice with,” Ekman-Larsson said after practice on Friday, according to NHL.com's George Richards. “It is special and will feel a little weird. But when the game starts, all of that sort of goes away.”

Ekman-Larsson has been great in his first four games as a Panther; the smooth-skating D-man scored his first goal of the season in a 3-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday, and has two points while averaging a team-high 25:30 in his 14th NHL season.

The 32-year-old was acquired by the Canucks from the Arizona Coyotes in July of 2021, but was shockingly bought out the following June. He admitted he was not prepared for that.

“I was surprised,” OEL admitted, per The Athletic's Thomas Drance. “We had exit meetings, and I didn't see it coming…You reflect on your time there and your play and everything. Then you go out and try to be a better player. You try not to read too deep into it.

It's easy to put a little bit too much on yourself and I’m a guy that cares a lot, wants to make everybody happy and please everybody, so you go over things and then after you look at yourself in the mirror, you try and take the positive out of it. You’re disappointed, and look, you want the answers. Then you move on and look for a new opportunity, and I found a good fit.”

In the early going, it looks like Ekman-Larsson and the Panthers are a great fit, especially with Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad on the shelf. He's playing like a No. 1 defender, eating up huge minutes and manning the first powerplay unit with the defending Eastern Conference champions.

“At the end of the day, it's a business,” Ekman-Larsson said about his short time in Vancouver. “I'm not mad at anybody, I'm just disappointed with the way it turned out. And I wish them all the best — just not tomorrow.”