PRE-RAW | Leon Draisaitl 12.02.25

PRE-RAW | Leon Draisaitl 12.02.25

Leon, this little uh stretch of schedule for you guys where you’re, you know, you have some practice time, you can, you know, get some work on some things and just a little bit of an ease up in the sheer volume of games. How much can that do for just the mood of the group and kind of how you’re feeling dayto day? Yeah, it’s nice sometimes. Uh obviously sometime it’s nice to be in a rhythm of of playing games, but um I think obviously we we’ve played a lot of hockey. So um you know sometimes you you lose a little bit of the puck touches in in games, right? So when you don’t get the chance to practice so um it’s nice to get some of those touches in and and keep the energy high and um comes at the right time, I think. How would you describe where you think your guys team game is at right now? Well, I think last game was a step in the right direction. certainly uh more felt like looked like more the group that we want to be and and how we want to play. So um but one game is one game. You you got to do it over a span of time and um yeah, tonight is obviously good opponent and great chance to to follow it up. Stiff opponent on home ice, right? You guys had a couple of bobbles in this situation this year. How important is it tonight to above all make sure you’re you’re bringing a good game tonight? Yeah, we don’t we don’t need to overthink it. We’ve certainly laid a couple complete eggs here at home, but um you know, just go out and and and you know, keep it simple. It’s a cliche, but just get to our game. You know, just make it feel like um playing the game that we want to play and and and have that intensity and um then then we’ll be fine. More and more of the top scorers around the league are becoming pKers. uh you know when you’re in that situation are you thinking like as power play are you defending through your offensive instincts? Uh a little bit certainly. Yeah. Um I think for me personally I think it’s more just the reads. Uh just the anticipation a little bit and the instincts. Um I think a lot of times the offensive guys are really good penalty killers. Uh at least when you’re out there on the power play, you know, those are the guys that you’re aware of. They’re picking off pucks. they they they make the right reads and stick position, things like that. So, um yeah, I would say why do you think they embrace that role? Like why do you think guys want to be in that situation? because it’s an important part of the game and and the best players in the world, they want to be part of important parts of the game and um you know, you want to play as much as possible and um you know, if if that’s another way of adding, you know, importance to your game or or to the group, uh I think any top player will gladly do that. So, speaking of important parts of the game, overtime. You guys play overtime sort of in the spirit it was intended. You push to score. You’re not taking it back defensively all the time, but watching around the league, it’s becoming a thing where it’s becoming a defensive period of hockey and teams are backing off and backing off. Do you think it’s any kind of an issue? And if it was, or if you do, would you do something about it? What would you do? No, I I don’t know. I um I think teams are just reading situations a certain way and and you know, trying to keep puck possession, not give up the puck. And um I personally I wouldn’t change anything. I think it’s fine. Um I think teams have just have it figured out by now, right? Like the threeon three on on how to not give up looks, not to give up chances. So um yeah, that’s all I got. There’s been a lot of focus on the the defensive side of your guys game and making some improvements. I know you’ve been practicing along those lines a little bit. Like how how big a key to turning this the direction you want to is that working? Well, it’s the start of everything really. It It starts there. It creates uh your work ethic. It it creates, you know, the details in your game. And um from there on, you’re going to get your looks. You’re going to get your chances. So, it’s it’s really important. Every team will tell you the same the same thing. You know, it starts from your end out. And um you know, it’s no different for us. Yeah. Is is the fact that you guys have done this twice before? Started poorly, fixed your issues, came out flying, went to the cup. Is the fact you’ve done it twice before make it, you know, shape how you’re doing it this time? Does it make you feel like it’s going to be easier or harder or what do you think? Um I I don’t know. I try not to, you know, read too much into, you know, the last every every year writes its own story and and and, you know, constantly falling behind in in these situations. It’s not ideal. It’s not the way that you want to go into a year. Uh, with that being said, we do know the situation that we’re in. We have been here before. We have been in worse situations than what we’re in right now. So, that should give you a little bit of confidence. But, um, at the end of the day, this is a new year. This is a new league with new teams and and and and they’re built different and and better teams. So, we just Yeah, we got to get going. We got to get on a roll a little bit. Leon X is a guy you probably see a lot in the ice in match ups like that. What stands out to you about him as a player in terms of a guy who tries to shut down? Yeah, I think he’s just good at what he does. Uh, you know, he plays plays the game uh very simple. You know, obviously he’s a big body. He he does all the little things, all the little details that um are the hard part of hockey. Uh seems to take them very serious and and um seems to want to do it every night. So, um, yeah, he’s he’s hard player to go up against.

Leon talks prior to the first game of a five-game homestand as the Oilers host the Wild.