Saturday night was one where hard work defeated skill as the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames collided for the second time in a week. The Flames’ fourth line ran the Oilers’ show, as Edmonton’s bottom-six may as well have stayed at home to eat leftover Christmas dinner.

While the stars did show up for the Oilers, with Evan Bouchard and Connor McDavid getting the goals, the game ran through Adam Klapka. Scott Oake showed clips of Adam Klapka in warmups, and the tone was set from there. He put the Oilers under tremendous pressure with his physicality, which led to the first goal. He finished plus three with an assist, three shots, four hits and two penalty minutes.

Credit to Klapka, too. He has his role, and he played it well. Considering he only played 10:49 — his lowest time on ice in five games — you would’ve thought he was out there for 25-plus with the impact he had. He’s precisely what Oilers fans want to see from Trent Frederic: an agitating power forward who isn’t afraid to put his money where his mouth is.

He forced the game in one direction, and his entire team followed.

Ryan Lomberg, his linemate, was right alongside him the entire way, too. He manhandled Ty Emberson in the corner early in the game and continued from there, finishing with six hits and a goal in only 7:28 — his lowest time on ice since Dec. 13 versus the L.A. Kings, much like Klapka.

Granted, Calgary does play a much grittier game than most due to a lack of skill, but Blake Coleman, Nazem Kadri and Kevin Bahl all joined in on the physical battle, too.

The Flames’ identity last night was their fourth line, and that isn’t a shot. They played an average of 9:30, finishing with five shots, 12 hits and a plus-five. Then there was the Oilers’ fourth line. Did they even play?

Trent Frederic, Max Jones and Mattias Janmark made up the fourth-line trio last night. They all finished minus-one with zero shots registered and three hits combined (Jones 2, Frederic 1). Together, they averaged 7:52 of time on ice, significantly less than the Calgary trio.

Let’s drag the Oilers’ third line into this mess, too. Matt Savoie, Adam Henrique and Andrew Mangiapane made up that line for the most part. Individually, they averaged 11:42 of TOI but only managed to generate one shot and one hit, which is honestly incredibly pathetic.

We’ve known it for a while, but Edmonton needs more from its bottom six more consistently. If they’re not hitting, they need to score; if they’re not scoring, they need to hit. Having zeros across the board can’t be the standard.

You don’t even need to dig into the fancy stats to see how poor Edmonton’s bottom six has been this season. Just look at the basic numbers on display for everyone to see.

Here’s how they’ve performed within their division. These numbers are for all situations but are based on time on ice, resulting in what would typically be that team’s bottom six.

Edmonton are eighth in points, seventh in goals and second in games played. The Seattle Kraken, who are last in the NHL in goals for, are getting more offensive production from their bottom six than the Edmonton Oilers, who are third in goals.

There was an online debate about whether they should play more to find a better rhythm. How about they earn extra minutes by playing well? Nothing is given in the NHL, so why should Knoblauch reward more minutes after bad play?

Stan Bowman needs to make changes to that group before the playoffs, and we should all have confidence that he’ll do that. Aiming for a new third-line centre should be a high priority. Mangiapane and Savoie can score — granted, they need more consistency — but Henrique is struggling to generate much of anything anymore. They need a player who can provide more offence without lowering Ryan Nugent-Hopkins down the line.

As for the fourth line, can we at least start with some purposeful physicality? Is that too much to ask?

Connor Clattenberg, and Kasperi Kapanen can all make a difference once they return from injury, with Noah Philp getting placed on waivers Sunday. However, for now, it’s down to the veterans among that group to elevate the standard. You can’t be outplayed in every statistical department by Adam Klapka and Ryan Lomberg. It’s time to make an impact.