We’re so spoiled. For the past decade, we’ve watched the best hockey player on earth nightly, and we’ve watched him make magic in the most unlikely situations. But this season has been a quarter-turn slower for Connor McDavid. Even though he’s still pacing for another 100-point campaign, he hasn’t looked the same for whatever reason. On the one hand, it’s ridiculous to say that a guy in the top 5 of league scoring is having a down year, but on the other, it’s exciting to know that he still has another gear left to hit.

McDavid hit that next gear on Saturday night against the Stars. He was buzzing around the ice from the moment he stepped on for his first shift, and it was only a matter of time before he got something to go. Then, almost on cue, McDavid put down a goal-of-the-year candidate at the expense of Ilya Lybushkin when he blew past him at full speed and roofed the puck over Oettinger on the glove side. It was one of those goals we’ll be seeing for the rest of the season, but on a larger point, I hope that goal can be the start of another run of McDavid March magic. With two points against the Stars, McDavid’s point streak moves to seven games, where he’s produced two goals and 10 points.

A GREAT NIGHT FOR ZACH HYMAN

You can’t get a much better start to a hockey game than picking up your team’s first two goals. That’s what Zachary Martin Hyman brought to the table, scoring a pair of vastly different markers that erased the Oilers’ early deficit and wrestled away the lead. The first goal resulted from crashing the net and cleaning up the garbage in the crease, a Zach Hyman specialty we’ve grown to love and cherish. The second was a breakaway goal that started with a very tough pickup on Jake Walman’s bomb of a pass before eventually sliding the puck through Oettinger.

While I don’t think anyone expects Hyman to get back to the 54-goal heater he posted last season, we do need him to score some goals down the stretch. In Saturday’s GDB, I wrote about wanting the Oilers to play a simple game because the greasy goals are just as beautiful as the pretty passing plays, and Hyman is a guy who can excel in this department. Hyman has been a little cold over the last month, and I couldn’t think of a bigger gift for the stretch drive than if he could heat up and start filling the net.

A FINE FIRST IMPRESSION FOR JAKE WALMAN

I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t know much about Jake Walman when the Oilers traded for him, other than remembering he’s done the Griddy after a shootout winner. After asking about him on Twitter/X and cruising around the Internet to see what I could find from his past stops, I was excited to see how he’d be able to help the Oilers. Gord knows we needed another puck-mover on the back end, and to see him contribute almost immediately on the bomb pass to Zach Hyman was like a breath of fresh air. Talk about making an impression in an area where the team desperately needs help.

Walman also made just as much of an impact at the other end of the rink. Despite landing in Edmonton on Friday, Walman found himself on the ice in all situations as Kris Knoblauch and Paul Coffey clearly showed a healthy trust in their newest defencemen. Starting with a massive hit on Mikko Rantanen that got the building buzzing, Walman worked his way into 24:40 of TOI, which trailed only Darnell Nurse on the Oilers’ back end. The coaching staff even chose to use Walman in the dying moments of the game when Dallas had the empty net, and if that’s not a vote of confidence from your new team, then I don’t know what is.

I thought Walman looked fantastic in his first game as an Oiler, and I look forward to seeing how good he can be once he starts to settle in.

THIRD PERIOD COLLAPSE

We don’t need to talk about it too much because the Oilers won the game, but seriously… what the hell was that? The Stars scored three goals in under four minutes, including two in 11 seconds to kick off the frame. Yikes.

OTHER THINGS WORTH MENTIONING

1. After registering only one goal in 17 games, Viktor Arvidsson found the back of the net for his 8th goal of the year on a blast from near the wall that beat Jake Oettinger just inside the post. It was almost like Arvidsson bundled up all of his rage into that slapshot, and you could see the relief on his face when he realized that the puck wound up in the net.

2. You’ve gotta love how the Oilers responded only 24 seconds after Wyatt Johnston opened the scoring for Dallas early in the first period. It was a massive dose of pushback for a group that is still searching for the resilience that helped them so much a season ago.

3. Leon Draisaitl picked up an assist on Arvidsson’s goal to give him 21 points (11-10-21) on what is now a 14-game point streak.

4. Make it two games in a row where Maximum Jones gave the Rogers Place faithful a notable play that got the building buzzing. This time, it was a big hit on Mikko Rantanen behind the net that sent the new Star tumbling to the ice. But over and above that one hit, Jones was moving his feet, doing what he could to get involved, and truly making a case to stick in the lineup down the stretch. It won’t take long for Edmonton to fall in love with this guy if he keeps playing like this.

5. Connor Brown game winner! Brown got a lucky bounce on the goal as his pass attempt essentially bounced right back to him with an empty net to shoot at. Brown had been very quiet offensively over the last while, and a big goal like this should do him a world of good.

6. I don’t know how it’s possible that the Oilers didn’t earn a single power play, but I guess that’s game management for you. To make matters worse, the penalty kill gave up two goals on three shorthanded situations to complete the special teams win for Dallas.

7. You’ve gotta think about Roope Hintz after taking a puck to the face midway through the second period, after a shot ramped up of his stick right into the eye area. Hintz left the game with a towel on his face, and it was unfortunate to see that he wouldn’t return.

8. Your weekend wouldn’t have been the same if I hadn’t told you that the Oilers won only 47.2% of the faceoffs. You may now proceed with your day.

9. Up next on the schedule, the Oilers hit the road for four games to square off against the Buffalo Sabres, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, and New York Rangers.