From life on the road to returning home, the meals are always better when made in your kitchen.

After spending the last week on the road, going 2-2 on a road trip that included visits to Buffalo (3-2 loss), New Jersey (3-2 loss), Long Island (2-1 OT win) and the Big Apple (3-1 win), the Edmonton Oilers kick off a stretch that will see them play five of their remaining six games in March on home ice.

The Oilers host the Utah Hockey Club tonight, the Winnipeg Jets Thursday, the Seattle Kraken Saturday and the Dallas Stars a week from Wednesday. They’ll spend next Thursday on the road with a brief trip to Seattle, before returning home to host the Calgary Flames on the 29th.

They open April with a four-game road trip visiting the Vegas Golden Knights, San Jose Sharks, and Anaheim Ducks, before hosting the St. Louis Blues and San Jose Sharks. The final week of the regular season, beginning on Sunday, April 13th, sees them visit the Jets that night, host the Kings on Monday, and close the regular season against the Sharks on the road on the 16th.

If you were paying attention you’d notice an important trend: each of these 15 games are against other teams in the Western Conference, making this upcoming stretch incredibly important for the Oilers. Heading into Tuesday, just four of those teams are in playoff spots: the Jets, the Stars, the Golden Knights and the Kings, though the Blues (tied), Flames and Utah (two points out) are nibbling at a Wild Card spot.

For the Oilers, the good news is they return to home ice hot, winning back-to-back games against the Islanders and Rangers. Their win over the Islanders saw them grind out a game that went to overtime, while they played one of their better games in a while against the Rangers, with a full sixty-minute effort featuring goals from three lines.

Edmonton is looking to carry that into tonight’s game against the Utah Hockey Club, who also enter Rogers Place feeling good, going 6-2-2 in their last 10.

The Oilers are getting a boost, however, with both Zach Hyman and Mattias Ekholm returning to the lineup. Hyman missed the game against the Rangers with an undisclosed injury or illness, while Ekholm had missed five games dating back to the start of the month dealing with a lingering illness that’s impacted him since January.

Head coach Kris Knoblauch adjusted the blue line with Ekholm returning to his spot alongside Evan Bouchard, putting Darnell Nurse and Jake Walman on the second pair, and Brett Kulak and Ty Emberson on the third pair.

Up front, Jeff Skinner gets a noticeable elevation to the top line alongside Hyman and Connor McDavid. His game has started to come around more as of late, continuing to provide consistent five-on-five offence no matter where he’s been in the lineup.

A big reason for his elevation was his play against the Rangers on Sunday, Knoblauch said.

“Rewind back to the Rangers game, the first period, especially,” he noted. “Had a couple scoring chances, drew two power plays. I think he’s been unfortunate with his goal scoring this year, he’s at a lower rate than he usually is, but he’s a player that when you talk about secondary scoring, and guys who can put the puck in the net, he’s a guy we expect can do that, given the opportunity.

“Tonight is a great opportunity for him playing with Hyman and McDavid, obviously, but we don’t want him to get away from the way he’s been playing. He’s been tenacious. He’s been getting into the opposition low where he’s winning those battles for pucks. Keeping pucks alive, that’s important, I think. He’s been doing a lot of good things.”

The changes in the bottom-nine come solely on the fourth line with Max Jones sliding out, and Adam Henrique going from McDavid’s wing to the fourth line centre spot. That means Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will remain on the third line centring Vasily Podkolzin and Viktor Arvidsson, who were great against the Rangers accounting for a big goal in the third period.

With this upcoming stretch it’s going to be important for the depth to continue to find ways to contribute. There’s been too much reliance on Draisaitl and McDavid carrying the team, and if the team can continue to find offence from this third line, that would be huge for the team.

J. Skinner – McDavid – Hyman
Perry – Draisaitl – Brown
Podkolzin – Nugent-Hopkins – Arvidsson
Janmark – Henrique – Kapanen

Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Walman
Kulak – Emberson

Pickard

The results haven’t been great for Jeff Skinner on McDavid’s wing, as in 74 five-on-five minutes, they’ve been outscored 8-1. Much of that came earlier this season when Skinner’s game wasn’t where it is today. It’s going to be critical for him to continue to play his game, as Knoblauch spoke highly of where he’s been at as of late.

Keller – Kerfoot – Schmaltz
Cooley – Hayton – Guenther
Crouse – McBain – Doan
Carcone – Stenlund – Bjugstad

Sergachev – Marino
Maatta – Durzi
Cole – Kesselring

Vejmelka (Likely)

Utah is rolling with this lineup for the second straight game. The big change here is that Logan Cooley has been centring the top line this season, while Kerfoot has found himself on that second line with Barrett Hayton and Dylan Guenther, both of whom have been red hot as of late.

Game Day Prediction: Leon Draisaitl gets his 50th goal of the season.

Obvious Game Day Prediction: Edmonton wins their third in a row, beating Utah 5-2.

Not-So-Obvious Game Day Prediction: After putting up his first three point night of the season against the Rangers, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins puts up another pair of points tonight.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.