The Edmonton Oilers went 3-1-1 on their recent five-game homestand. After their last win against the Detroit Red Wings, fans were waking up on Friday feeling good about the 4-1 victory and the upcoming road trip… but then, bam!

Stuart Skinner, Brett Kulak, and a second-round draft pick were traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins, with Tristan Jarry as the main piece coming back to the Oilers.

It was a trade that shocked Oil Country, and rightfully so, putting even the best homestand performances on the back burner. But we’re here to get you back on track. As shocking as the trade was, below we highlight some of the impactful performances from a few Oilers on the homestand, setting the stage for the upcoming five-game road trip.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever yelled at your TV or even in person at Rogers Place for Connor McDavid to shoot… the… puck. Now, please take a moment to feel a little guilty for telling the best player in the world how to do his job.

But I get it, we’ve all been there. There are times the Oilers’ captain passes up chances in prime scoring opportunities. However, on the last homestand, the former Rocket Richard Trophy winner finally unleashed his shooter’s mentality, that killer instinct he’d been hiding within him. From Dec. 2–11, he fired 23 shots on goal (third in the NHL) and recorded 12 points, the most in the league, which included scoring a hat trick against the Seattle Kraken on Dec. 4 and scoring the game-tying goal with one second left against the Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 9.

Alongside his rising shooter’s mentality, he showed the world he’s still a playmaking wizard, recording four primary assists in the Oilers’ last win over the Red Wings. That said, we’ve seen McDavid raise the stakes when playing against elite talents like Auston Matthews and Sidney Crosby, who he’ll be facing in the upcoming games. So buckle up — if you thought we’d seen the best of the Oilers’ captain on the last homestand, I have a feeling we’re in for an even bigger treat on the upcoming road trip.

With all the line shuffling throughout the season up until this point, the five-game homestand showed that the Oilers might have found a staple at the 4C spot, with Curtis Lazar.

He averaged 9:48 of ice time over the last five games, playing very dependable defensive hockey and scoring a laser of a goal against the Winnipeg Jets on Dec. 6. He also finished +2 on the homestand. He tilted the ice in the Oilers’ favour at 5v5, with his high-danger chances at 7-4 according to Natural Stat Trick. Yet, the most impressive stat was his faceoff work, going 23-8 for a 74.19% success rate on the dot on home ice.

Taking a deeper dive into his faceoff work, against the Sabres on Dec. 9, the centerman played the second-most minutes on the penalty kill (2:31) and went 5-1 in the faceoff circle while shorthanded, including winning back-to-back draws on the PK that led to crucial clears.

That said, after undergoing major surgery last season, it seems Lazar has found his legs and timing. Combined with his very positive and resilient mindset, it appears the Oilers now have a solid, dependable right-shot faceoff guy at 4C — their Derek Ryan replacement, if you will. On that note, Lazar’s faceoff prowess will be crucial in the next game versus the Toronto Maple Leafs, who lead the league in faceoffs at 57.2%.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins returned to the lineup on Nov. 22 after missing nine games due to injury, recording two points (1G, 1A) in his return, and he was one of the hottest Oilers during the Oilers’ five-game home stand, tallying six points (1G,5A).

While Nugent-Hopkins was also an ace in the faceoff circle over the last five games, going 17-9 (65.38%) at home, he reunited with an old line as a winger — a line that had seemed to run out of magic over the past year and a bit — teaming up once again with McDavid and Zach Hyman on the top line for the first time this season on Dec. 4 against the Seattle Kraken. The trio stayed together for the remaining home games, and they were dominant at times, outscoring the opposition 4–2, outshooting teams 28–12, and holding a 13–7 edge in high-danger chances.

Overall, the ‘McHuge’ line — as Ryder from The Sauce coined the trio — showed they can take over games during the homestand, with Nugent-Hopkins playing a big role on the top line. Having said that, with a difficult road schedule ahead against elite talent like  Matthews, Crosby, David Pastrnak, and Kirill Kaprizov, it’s comforting to know the Oilers have a go-to line they can lean on to generate offence.

Watching Vasily Podkolzin develop and evolve as an Oiler has been very fascinating.

Over the last couple of months, we’ve seen him grow into a leader, stepping up for his teammates and having their backs. On the homestand, he tallied three points (2G, 1A) in five games, but another trait has emerged, one where he’s becoming a menace in front of the net. Against the Sabres, he bullied his way to a goal, whacking away at a rebound, which earned the coaches’ trust, as he was one of six Oilers sent out to try to tie the game late, which they did, with Podkolzin battling for space in front like a bulldog protecting its territory.

On top of that, Podkolzin played like the physical powerhouse he always is. Over those five games at Rogers Place, he led the team with 22 hits, many of them crushing, and that total ranked seventh in the entire league for most hits during that span. With dates with the Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins — two of the league’s top five teams in hits — on the upcoming road trip, the Oilers will be counting on Podkolzin to match their physical intensity on the road.

Before the five-game homestand started, I wondered who might step in to replace Jack Roslovic’s offence while he’s out with an injury. One name that naturally came to mind was Zachary Martin Hyman.

He’d just scored his first goal of the season right before the homestand, and I couldn’t help but wonder if that tally, where the puck deflected off his skate and in against the Kraken, would be the catalyst to kickstart his scoring touch.

Spoiler alert, it absolutely was.

Hyman finished the five games played on home ice with the second-most goals (four), just behind the Oilers captain — thanks in large part to the three goals he scored against the Detroit Red Wings, capped off by an empty-netter that sent the hats flying to the ice at Rogers Place.

On that note, Hyman is catching fire at just the right time — not only for the Oilers, but also because it could boost his chances of playing in the upcoming Olympics, with Team Canada still having time to finalize their roster before the Dec. 31 deadline.

McDavid, of course, is Team Canada’s go-to offensive dynamo, having scored the gold medal–clinching goal last February at the Four-Nations Faceoff. In a short, two-week tournament, chemistry is a must, as teams don’t exactly have a lot of time to mix and match to see which combinations work. That said, over the past few seasons, especially with Hyman scoring 54 goals two seasons ago alongside his captain, history shows that the McDavid-Hyman combo works. More importantly, with Hyman’s most recent hat trick, where all three goals came off primary assists from McDavid, it was proof that the chemistry is glowing just like the festive lights over at Candy Cane Lane.

That said, I’d imagine there will be plenty of attention when two big hockey markets collide in the upcoming Oilers vs. Maple Leafs matchup on Hockey Night in Canada on Dec. 13. With Hyman on a heater and riding full confidence against his former team, it’ll be a high-profile stage to give Hockey Canada a glimpse of how well his chemistry with McDavid can click at the Olympics in Italy.