4-3 Edmonton victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cWhen you get somebody like Leon Draisaitl back in the lineup and you get to play with him, good things usually happen,\u201d Kapanen said.<\/p>\n
As it turns out, that\u2019s even the case when he\u2019s without his most dangerous weapon.<\/p>\n
Draisaitl has so often been the trigger man throughout the Oilers\u2019 back-to-back trips to the Stanley Cup Final, uncorking one-timers while scoring some of the biggest goals during those playoff runs.<\/p>\n
It was telling that he fired 11 shots in the direction of goalie Luk\u00e1\u0161 Dost\u00e1l during Game 1 and only managed to put two on the Ducks\u2019 net. That included a rare whiff from his bread-and-butter spot in the right circle and eight other attempts that either sailed wide or hit a defender\u2019s shin pads.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt OK,\u201d Draisaitl said. \u201cCertainly going to take a couple games to really be myself and really trust myself again. But, for a start, I thought it was OK.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fact he was even in uniform was a small victory in itself.<\/p>\n
The German superstar sent the Oilers\u2019 fan base into a mild panic when he showed up pitchside for a Bayern Munich game on March 21, delivering a cryptic message in an interview with Sky Sport: \u201cI hope we go far enough so I can help the team again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Draisaitl had gone to Munich to seek specialized treatment before returning to Edmonton and getting to work. That included solo sessions in the gym and on the ice while his teammates had to buckle down without him just to officially secure their ticket to the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cFive or six weeks ago, it was a little bit dire,\u201d captain Connor McDavid said.<\/p>\n
Only in the last few days did it become clear that Draisaitl would be ready for Game 1, as he pushed himself through extended conditioning skates at Rogers Place. Still, coach Kris Knoblauch refused to confirm he\u2019d be in uniform when he met reporters on Monday morning, and Draisaitl made it sound as though no official decisions were made on his status until the last possible moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou kind of take these day by day,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously, I was skating a couple days and testing it out. It ramps up in terms of intensity and whatnot. Yeah, take it day by day and see how you feel.\u201d<\/p>\n
He got around the ice surprisingly well in Game 1 given the length of his layoff. Draisaitl picked up an assist on Kapanen\u2019s first goal with a touch pass into the slot late in the first period, adding two more points to his ridiculous total of 143 in 97 career playoff games.<\/p>\n
That 1.47 points-per-game mark is fourth best in NHL history, behind only Wayne Gretzky (1.84), Mario Lemieux (1.61) and McDavid (1.56).<\/p>\n
The line of Vasily Podkolzin, Draisaitl and Kapanen tilted the ice in Edmonton\u2019s favor on Monday, creating 71 percent of the expected goals in nearly 13 minutes of play at five-on-five. They, along with the contributions of Jason Dickinson\u2019s checking line, helped the Oilers pick up their first victory of the season when McDavid was held off the scoresheet.<\/p>\n
With Draisaitl back healthy and playing, the Oilers are once again a two-headed monster that leaves opponents with an unenviable choice when deciding on defensive matchups. And for as much skill as Edmonton\u2019s superstars have, it has been their will that dragged this team through eight series the last two springs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has an ability to raise his game to a whole other level, and you see that time and time again in the playoffs,\u201d McDavid said of Draisaitl. \u201cHe\u2019s a guy who battles through anything. Really impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jumping directly into the intensity of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Draisaitl helped carry his teammates through a game when they didn\u2019t have their best. The Oilers turned over too many pucks, blew a 2-0 lead and went 0-for-2 with the man advantage.<\/p>\n
Still, when the game was on the line they knew they could on No. 29.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously not our best, not our sharpest,\u201d said Draisaitl. \u201cThere\u2019s a couple looks there that, you know, if we didn\u2019t or I didn\u2019t miss a couple weeks, I\u2019m much more clean on those and there\u2019s a chance to connect on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly we\u2019ll chip away at it and be better next game.\u201d<\/p>\n
A scary proposition for the Ducks to consider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2014 Leon Draisaitl vowed to find a way. After all of the hours he spent grinding his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[2210,233,5292,1739,146,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-557207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim-ducks","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-ducks","10":"tag-anaheimducks","11":"tag-ducks","12":"tag-edmonton-oilers","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116442464484409916","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}