There wasn’t much that went right for the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday afternoon.

In their 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, the team moved to 5-10 in matinee games over the last two seasons. They came out flat, once again, and while the Oilers had their moments that included a nice play that sparked a Connor McDavid breakaway goal, it was nowhere near the performance they needed.

The struggles were apparent up and down the lineup. The Kid Line of Matt Savoie, Isaac Howard and Quinn Hutson were outshot 7-1 and outscored 1-0 in 7:42, while the second line — which saw Jack Roslovic moved back up alongside Leon Draisaitl and Vasily Podkolzin — was a black hole, getting outshot 7-3 and outscored 2-0 at five-on-five.

And when the Oilers hit the ice Sunday morning for practice, all but the top line had a new look.

Draisaitl centred Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen on the second line, while Adam Henrique was flanked by Isaac Howard and Roslovic. The fourth line, meanwhile, saw Curtis Lazar up the middle with Andrew Mangiapane and Matt Savoie on his wings. Trent Frederic and Quinn Hutson, meanwhile, weren’t skating on a line.

For many Oilers fans, this was what they were most concerned about when it came to the recalls of Howard and Hutson from the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors late this week. While the showing was rough for the Kid Line, they’ve been split up after playing less than 10 minutes of ice-time together.

Is that an adequate way to get a feel for how they could perform, especially considering that the entire Oilers team were virtual no-shows in Saturday’s game? Knoblauch skirted around the line change, indicating the reason for it was because of Kapanen nearing a return to the lineup.

“With Kapanen coming back, that would change the lineup a little bit, and just certain guys coming out so we’d have a new look,” said Knoblauch Sunday. “There’s some good things, some bad things. It’s not that it didn’t work out, it’s just because of the guys coming in and making some changes.”

The Oilers next play on Tuesday when they welcome the Nashville Predators to town.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s managing editor, 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.