The Edmonton Oilers’ road trip had so many chapters that it read like a Russian novel.

But after they punted Sergei Bobrovsky out of the game in the second period on Saturday night, and then hung on to seal the victory, I’m guessing they felt equal parts satisfaction, relief, and sore muscles on the flight back home to Oil Country.

Their fifth regulation victory was easily the most satisfying win of the season. It’s exactly the type of win that can galvanize a group, especially at the tail end of a trip where the walking wounded kept piling up. They’ll finally get more home games than road before Christmas, but barely.

Major contributions showed up throughout the lineup. Jack Roslovic scored two early goals, Mattias Ekholm went 1-2-3 with a +5 in 20:37, and Evan Bouchard posted 0-3-3 with a +5 in 22:12.

Connor McDavid had just an empty-netter, but the diving defensive tie-up he made on a near equalizer was one of the biggest plays of the game. Especially considering how he didn’t engage with Nick Paul on Tampa’s 1-1 tying goal on Thursday.

Stuart Skinner was doing his usual Skinner thing, but he made enough saves for them to secure two points.

The injection of Connor Clattenburg, the excitement of a first NHL game, and the glimmers of life he provided were great evidence of a team binding together.

AJ Greer’s cemented-on gloves are embarrassing, and honestly, that tackle on Frederic should be looked at by the league. You start something like that, refuse to drop them like the time-honoured tradition of hockey dictates, and then pick him up and slam him down? Drop the mitts.

The Oilers radio broadcast suggested Greer is dealing with a hand injury, which must have been suffered while he was applying Elmer’s glue to his mitts before the game.

With all that, the road trip ends 3-3-1. NHL .500. They can turn the page. For the first time in weeks, they can actually practice.

Have the Oilers played that well this season? Overall, no. Is the way they’re playing sustainable? No, I don’t think so.

But the first 24 games have been about survival as much as excellence. No one has played more hockey than they have, and their tendency to play overtime just logs another mile or two on the odometer.

This team is flawed. They aren’t generating nearly what we’re accustomed to at five-on-five. They’re prone to lax defensive errors. Goaltending is a coin flip any given night, to put it mildly.

With that said, I don’t think they’re as bad as they’ve shown. The concern is the team’s baseline performance on an average night. That seems to be down. Their ceiling games have been few and far between.

I’m curious what having six of their next seven games at home will do for them. This is the hinge part of the season.

I won’t draw any hard conclusions on this team yet after that war-crime-worthy schedule. No one will travel more than Edmonton this year.

But there are times when the team seems completely disinterested in playing hockey, and other times when they look like an upper-echelon NHL team. Which game will be a dialed-in effort, and which game will look like they met in the parking lot 20 minutes before warmup? That’s anyone’s guess.

The Oilers have just two games this week: hosting the Stars on Tuesday and visiting the Kraken on Saturday.

December begins with a five-game homestand, followed by a five-game road trip, because of course it does. Then it’s home, home, road, road, home to finish the calendar year.

The stretch between January 1 and the Olympic break is the breakaway moment. This is the chapter of the season where the Oilers must excel to solidify meaningful standing in the Pacific. They have 12 home games and five road games, including an eight-game homestand.

After that, since this turned into a deep analysis of the schedule, it’s an even 12 home and 12 away games, with no random one-off trips.

Much may have changed by then. Hell, there could even be a new Oilers goalie, if you can dream of such a thing.

To clarify a goaltending joke that wasn’t really a joke…

There are games where Stuart Skinner plays well enough to win. But there are also times he just isn’t any good. Even in most of the games where he delivers what Liam Horrobin would call a “quality start”, there are the rebounds, the lackadaisical stretches, and the occasional softie.

More than anything, I’m sick of the Skinner topic and would welcome a new goaltender for that alone. Every start becomes a referendum on the player, with pro and anti-Skinner factions arguing endlessly. Exhausting.

Here’s the full opinion: Skinner was never really pegged as a legitimate starter, but because the Jack Campbell signing was so disastrous, and Skinner played well for stretches, he took the net by default and at a cheaper cost.

The Oilers rolled the dice and maximized skater depth at the cost of inconsistent netminding. That was the wager they chose.

They got to the Stanley Cup Final twice. It nearly worked. But I don’t think they can keep getting away with it.

The question is whether this problem can be fixed mid-season. I don’t think so, not in a way that moves the needle for a Cup run.

A vaguely serviceable fringe starter can be found, another Skinner-tier goalie, but at what price? I’d welcome a refresh for its own sake, but I don’t believe it changes the ceiling.

GM Stan Bowman and Connor McDavid must have talked about goaltending during contract discussions. There had to be an organizational plan.

At points during the road trip, it seemed the team’s play was a message to management that a major change was needed. But then a massively engaged performance like the one against Florida happens, and everything gets murkier.

The Oilers are an enigma game-to-game. And if there’s one thing the McDavid era consistently delivers, it’s that nothing is ever easy.