Two go out, one comes back.

On a night when the Edmonton Oilers knew they would be without Ryan Nugent-Hopkins going up against the St. Louis Blues, Connor McDavid swooned into the lineup unexpectedly hours after Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said the superstar wouldn’t be back for at least a few more days.

So what changed?

“He really felt he was ready and wanted to play, especially with Nuge (being out),” said Knoblauch after McDavid put up a trio of assists in the Oilers 4-3 win.

“He felt he was ready and it was as good as it was gonna be. He really wanted to be in the lineup tonight.”

Undoubtedly, a moment of concern for many as the injury tensions heightened even more with defenceman Jake Walman a late scratch, forcing the team to play with 12 forwards and five blue liners. The Oilers just saw Leon Draisaitl miss four games, only to last a game and a half before exiting again. The same happened to Trent Frederic, whose Oilers debut lasted all of one game last Saturday against the Los Angeles Kings.

But the plan was in place. McDavid had been going through the motions in his recovery but got to a spot where he felt good. A quick spin in warmups was the plan, followed by a chat with the medical staff and getting cleared for the game, and just like that, No. 97 was back in action.

“I felt like I had missed three weeks,” said McDavid, who surely didn’t look like he did. “It’s a difficult situation for our group as a whole, guys coming in and out of the lineup sick, hurt, whatever it is short numbers.

“I wasn’t taking anyone’s spot, so I thought it was an opportunity. If you go out, (take) a couple of shifts, it’s no good — you come off. I wasn’t taking anyone’s spot. Obviously, I felt good.

“It’s a tough time of year, not many practices. I’ve been skating by myself — I don’t know how many more tight turns I can do before you just got to go. Coming back from injury sucks mentally for any athlete, but especially in hockey. It was nice to get that out of the way mentally.”

McDavid was thrust back to his usual spot on the top line, centring Jeff Skinner and Connor Brown, and the trio came up huge. Brown had a two-goal performance, with his first tying the game up 1:30 into the second period and his second being the game-winner with 21 seconds left.

“I thought that line played really well,” said Knoblauch. “It starts with the offensive zone faceoff, we were able to get a matchup we wanted after an icing. They hound the puck, create a turnover, and put the puck in the net.

“I think the three of them felt very confident with the puck, especially McDavid. Connor Brown also made some nice little plays, Skinner had some opportunities. Those three, we needed a big bump up line like that. I thought they played really well.”

When it came to the blue line, the Oilers placed defenceman John Klingberg on the Long-Term Injured Reserve, opening the door for a recall with Walman sliding out of the lineup. He was questionable coming into the game due to an injury, Knoblauch said, and evidently wasn’t able to lace up the skates.

“He’s day-to-day,” he said. “We hope he’s playing Friday, but it might get pushed back a day or two. We think it’ll be pretty soon.”

The five defencemen who did — Evan Bouchard, Darnell Nurse, Brett Kulak, Ty Emberson and Troy Stecher — all had to take on a heavier load to get through the game, but they all stepped up, Knoblauch said.

“All those five played really well, stepping up playing more minutes than they usually have, then also just the partners, switching it up pretty much every shift,” he said. “Great job by those five, put in a real good game. It’s nice to see that big goal, I believe it was that third one, that Kulak and Doc showed a lot of patience and got that puck through to the Arvidsson goal. So many good plays from them.”

With four games left in the regular season, the team will host the San Jose Sharks Friday, visit the Winnipeg Jets Sunday, host the Kings Monday and close it out with a quick trip to San Jose next Wednesday. Then, the real games get played.

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.