The Oilers were in Philadelphia on Wednesday to kick off their seven-game road trip and the first half of a back-to-back set that wraps up tonight in Columbus. The boys squeezed out a 2-1 overtime win over the Flyers to get the trip started, and while it took until the extra frame to get the job done, it was a result they desperately needed. Despite the Oilers controlling the bulk of the first half, Philly kept it a one-goal game until eventually picking up the tying goal late in the second period. From there, getting to the win was anything but a straight line.

The Flyers scored what looked to be the game-winning goal with 23 seconds left in the third period, but the goal was called off after Owen Tippett was found to be offside after failing to drag his foot at the line. While Tippett was clearly offside, it’s hard to say that the Oilers didn’t get lucky with such a small mental gaffe being enough to wipe out what would have been the sure game-winner. Instead, Edmonton went from being a spot to lose in regulation to stealing two points in overtime in the blink of an eye. Shout out to official game reviews late in the third for bailing us out. The crowd in Philly went from elation, thinking they’d won, to having the air sucked out of the room just as quickly. The call left the door open for the Oil to steal two points, and even though they probably deserved the win anyway, it took some love from the Hockey Gords and a booth review to make it happen.

As for the finish, Jack Roslovic buried the winner at 1:19 of the bonus period after he and Matt Savoie broke in on a breakway and finished the game off with a perfectly executed passing play. Roslovic tapped home his second straight OT winner, something we haven’t seen around here since Andrew Cogliano pulled it off with three straight — March 7-11th, 2008 — during the Rebuild 1.0 days, and it was the perfect response after the chaos that ended regulation. The Flyers looked like they had the game put away with under a minute to go until a few inches of white ice ruined the night and wiped the goal out, turning a sure loss into a second chance. The building went dead quiet, the Oilers got a lifeline, and the boys actually made good on the opportunity. It wasn’t the smoothest path to two points, but after the way this season has gone, no one in Edmonton is going to complain about cashing in on a little good fortune.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Evan Bouchard over the years, it’s that his overall game starts to pick up in a real way the more points he gets on the board. I don’t have a metric to prove it, but I’d bet all of Gregor’s money that there’s a correlation. Not that I have to explain how confidence works, but he really does seem like a guy who needs it for more reasons than one. I’m not making excuses for the bad games early on, but this is a trend I’ve noticed over the last few years. The good news is that Bouchard is starting to turn it around offensively, and if my theory is correct, we should see larger stretches without any major controller disconnections. Last night’s goal was a rocket ship that Vladar had no chance of stopping, and we haven’t seen many shots like it from him yet this season. Good omen? I hope so.

Bouchard has now picked up three goals and seven assists for 10 points over his last 10 games, effectively erasing the slow stretch he had to start the year. I’m not saying there won’t still be bumps in the road with his game or that he’ll ever turn into some big bruiser that we love in this market, but he’s looking more like the guy who consistently puts points on the board. Maybe I’m just drinking the Kool-Aid again, or maybe getting benched was what he needed to snap back to reality, but I thought he played a much more controlled game in the 23:45 of TOI against the Flyers. Bouchard is a high-risk, high-reward kind of player, but that only works when he’s feeling good about the puck on his stick. From my side of the TV screen, Dad looks like he’s turning a corner.

Wednesday’s matchup in Philly marked the first of the Oilers’ seven-game road trip that features a pair of back-to-backs, hops across multiple states, injuries in the lineup, and another early-season hole to climb out of. That’s a tall order to fill for an Oilers team that started the 2025-26 season with a 2-5-2 record on the road. It’s not that we don’t think the Edmonton Oilers can’t win on the road, it’s just that they haven’t been very good at it through the first nine tries. The good news is that they looked solid against the Flyers, even if the mostly consistent pressure and healthy dose of shots on goal didn’t pay off in the goals you’d want to see. I know there are items to nitpick in the second and third periods, but this was a game they deserved to win, even with the wild road it took to get there.

The nice part is that the Oilers found a way to get the job done on the first night of this trip. With stops coming in Columbus, Carolina, Buffalo, Washington, Tampa Bay, and finally Sunrise, this is a tough stretch to say the least, but there are also some games sprinkled in that should be expected wins. What they need now is to build on what they did against the Blue Jackets and in Philly and start stacking points instead of letting opportunities slip away. A road trip like this can either pull a team together or expose every crack in its foundation, and it is on the Oilers to decide which direction they want it to go. If they can bottle up even a piece of what worked on Wednesday night, there is no reason they can’t come home with a successful run in their pocket. It just might be nice if they didn’t always have to win the hard way.

Wake up with Ryder and Lisa on The Sauce! Your new chaotic morning show streaming live from 8-10AM MST every weekday on Oilersnation YouTube starting Monday November 3rd. It’s unpredictable, unfiltered, and totally them. Like, follow and subscribe to never miss an episode!