By most accounts, you couldn’t ask for much more from the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.

They played in the second half of a back-to-back, arriving in Tampa Bay in the middle of the night, taking on the Lightning hours later. It was one of those games you look at on the calendar and say, “Yeesh.”

And for 50 minutes, the Oilers had the Lightning right where they wanted them. Trent Frederic scored his second goal of the season just a minute and a half into the game, while many Oilers fans were either just getting home from work, or were in the kitchen making dinner.

They established that much sought-after early lead, and they managed to hold onto it all night long. Through 50, the Oilers were well in control of a tight 1-0 game. Tampa Bay chances were stymied, and Calvin Pickard — who has posted some of the worst goaltending numbers in the league this year — was making saves.

But then the tired legs showed up for the Oilers. Playing their seventh game in 11 days, the Lightning began to pour it on, getting enough looks that they were finally able to capitalize, as Nick Paul snapped Pickard’s shutout with two and a half minutes left in the third period.

The game was sent to overtime, where on one end of the ice, Andrei Vasilevsky’s big toe stopped robbed a would-be Jack Roslovic game-winner, only for the Bolts to go down the other end of the rink and bury the game-winner. Jake Guentzel didn’t want the game to go on any longer.

“We’ve been talking about how to play better defensively and better awareness and just digging in on those areas,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch after the game. “I saw a lot of good defensive plays tonight.

“Picks had a heck of a game, especially in the third period, but you can see a fragile group in the third period. We (were) just a shell of ourselves, not wanting to make a mistake and holding on. And when you hold on, you just have to defend over and over again.”

Read that quote, then read it over again.

Trips to the Western Conference Final in three years, two wins, and back-to-back trips to the Stanley Cup Final and the Oilers are a “fragile group in the third period” in a game they looked good in. That quote might be the largest indictment of where this Oilers team is at, because a long road trip aside, that was a game the team needed to find a win in.

Once the Oilers get through their final game of the road trip, taking on the Florida Panthers Saturday night, they’ll play just three games in 10 days. They host the Dallas Stars next Tuesday, visit the Seattle Kraken the following Saturday, then on December 2nd, kick off a five game home-stand.

It’s time for the Oilers to dig in.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the Daily Faceoff DFS Hockey Report. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.