You know, a night where the guy who took a puck in the head but didn’t spill his beer, and the woman who gave birth at Rogers Place were both more dedicated to the cause than the Oilers seemed to be, in a 5-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.

It was the kind of night where the best quote had nothing to do with a goal or a save, but about a post-game yack fest between the benches by two teams that are destined for their second playoff meeting in as many springs.

What do they say in those scrums?

“It’s just bickering back and forth, everyone telling everyone they make too much money. Which is all true,” said Edmonton winger Trent Frederic, who is being paid $3.85 million this season and has produced six points thus far. “Sounds like a lot of people are jealous.”

There are certain games that have ‘L’ written all over them. For Edmonton, we thought walking into the rink Saturday, this was one.

Edmonton had won five straight games, nicely securing their spot in the post-season — whomever their opponent might turn out to be. They’d won their past five meetings with Vegas, and if you throw in a playoff series, the Oilers had beaten their toughest divisional rival in nine of the past 10 meetings.

This was a chance to bury the Golden Knights five points into the rearview mirror. Instead, with Anaheim’s loss to Calgary, the Oilers (87 points), Ducks (87 points) and Vegas (86 points) have formed a tight pack atop the Pacific with five games each to play.

The Division winner will play the wildcard Utah Mammoth. The other two will face each other in Round 1.

Was this a missed opportunity for Edmonton?

“They could have been, what, five points (back)? Now it’s one, right?” Frederic said. “So, yeah, pretty big.”

“We were going against a team we are probably going to see down the line, so showing up like that…” said defenceman Jake Walman, whose pair alongside Ty Emberson was a combined minus-5. “We’ve got to kind of step back and regroup. We’re a team, so the standings separation doesn’t bother us as much, Getting back to the way that we can play is probably the biggest thing.”

Are the Oilers a better hockey team than Vegas? When fully healthy, we think so.

Are they faster than Vegas. Undoubtedly.

But are they win-six-straight-and-10-out-of-every-11 games better than Vegas? No.

“They got the better of us tonight, we got the better of them earlier in the year,” said depth forward Curtis Lazar. “A little fuel to the fire at the end of the game. I’m sure it’s not the last time we’ll see them.”

The Oilers have become fairly accustomed to playing without the injured Leon Draisaitl. The power play has not produced, but the team is 8-4 since Draisaitl’s injury, which is better than respectable.

But with Zach Hyman out as well with an undisclosed injury, that’s two top-six forwards gone missing. Edmonton will win some games without those two, but winning five straight with a power play that kicked in just one goal over that span is a trait with a short shelf life.

Like it or not, this team has had the best power play in the NHL for about five years now. You become dependent on that production, and right now the power play is a three-gear race car, missing the production that comes from the office space of both Draisaitl and Hyman, a pair of players who’ll combine for 80 goals, most years.

“It’s not the same team without them,” Walman admitted. “There are guys who have been stepping up and we’ve been doing a great job in their absence — it gives more opportunity — but at the same time there are spots where you can’t replace certain guys. Like the one-timer on the power play, and possession of the puck. So we miss those guys for those reasons.”

Edmonton’s lone goal came off the stick of Evan Bouchard, his 21st of the season and 88th point. He’s 10 points ahead of Zach Werenski among defencemen scoring. The Oilers posted a season-high 34 hits in the game, led by Max Jones (six).

It’s known that Draisaitl will not attend the Oilers three-game road trip through Utah, San Jose and Los Angeles that departs Monday, but after the game head coach Kris Knoblauch confirmed that Hyman will not travel either.

“Zach will stay at home and hopefully he will be able to join us for that Monday game, or at the latest Vancouver (in Game 82),” Knoblauch said.