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Oilers Notebook: Leon Draisaitl ‘gladly’ doing whatever it takes to win
The true goal for the Oilers is the Stanley Cup, and that’s the reason that Leon Draisaitl will take on the assignment of checking centre with no quarrels. Mark Spector has that and more notes ahead of Game 5.
LAS VEGAS — Is Leon Draisaitl the first ever 50-goal, 100-point checking centre?
It may deviate somewhat in Game 5 tonight, with the Edmonton Oilers not having last change here in Vegas, but a big part of Edmonton’s win in Game 4 was the deployment of Leon Draisaitl’s line — with wingers Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen — against Vegas’s top line of Jack Eichel between Ivan Barbashev and Mark Stone.
The Draisaitl unit held Eichel’s line to four shots on goal and zero points, and the remainder of Edmonton’s roster outscored Vegas 3-0.
“I’d like to think that I can play any role you give me. A challenge like that excites me,” Draisaitl said after Wednesday’s morning skate. “I’m very capable of scoring goals, and on the other side, defending really well and shutting someone down. So whatever it is I’m needed to do at this time of year, I’ll gladly do it.”
No NHL player has more playoff goals than Draisaitl’s 35 over the past four springs, while only Connor McDavid (112 points) has more points than Draisaitl’s 96.
There is no mistaking what the true goal here is however, and that’s the reason that Draisaitl will take on an assignment like this with no quarrels.
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“Because I want to win,” he said. “And I know sometimes that’s what it takes to win.
“I can put my own stats on the back burner for a couple of months, if that means that we’re going to be the last team standing. Obviously, we’ve got a long ways to go, but whatever it takes, I’ll gladly do that.”
An Oilers team that already has received more depth scoring this spring than in four rounds a year ago may have found something here. A high-end shutdown line that, on home ice at least, frees the McDavid line to play against the opponent’s second or third unit.
“We’ve got a good combination of everything,” Kapanen said of his new line. “Certainly, Leon is one of the better players offensively and defensively. And for me and Pods, we’re trying to use our speed and physicality to get pucks back to him. It’s a good combination of a lot of things.”
The Jugular
The first “clinch game” of this series presents a scenario the Oilers have plenty of experience in, in this, their 11th playoff series over the past four springs. Edmonton has won seven of their last eight potential series-clinching games since 2022, their only loss coming in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final last spring in Sunrise, Florida.
Here are a few more nuggets to take you into Game 5, as Edmonton looks to reach the Conference Finals in back-to-back years for the first time since doing so in three straight years from 1990-1992.
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• Corey Perry leads the way for the Oilers in games played (38) points (22) and goals (10) in potential series-clinching games. He turns 40 on Friday.
• Starting goalie Stuart Skinner is 4-1 with a 2.41 GAA & .912 save percentage in five career potential series-clinching games. Vegas starter Adin Hill is 1-1 with a 1.02 GAA, .957 save percentage & one shutout in two career games when facing elimination.
• Vegas is 3-5 all-time when facing elimination, while Reilly Smith and current Oiler Mattias Janmark lead the Golden Knights in goals in those games, with three apiece.
• No team has won more playoff games at home since the Golden Knights entered the NHL in 2017-18 than Vegas, with 34. They’re 0-2 at T-Mobile Arena in this series so far.
Lining ‘Em Up
Edmonton’s lines are expected to be the same as they were in Game 4 tonight:
Nugent-Hopkins McDavid Hyman
Podkolzin Draisaitl Kapanen
Kane Henrique Brown
Frederic Janmark Perry
Kulak Bouchard
Nurse Stecher
Walman Klingberg
Skinner
At Vegas’ morning skate, however, there were some unknowns, as injuries mount with the Golden Knights.
Mark Stone, Brandon Saad, Alex Pietrangelo & Brayden McNabb all did not take part in the morning skate, which is meaningful considering neither team held a practice on the travel day Tuesday. Generally, players who miss a skate under these circumstances do so because of injury, rather than making the choice to rest.
Reporters at the Vegas skate — which takes place a half-hour away from T-Mobile Arena at the Golden Knights’ practice facility in Summerlin — came away with the educated guess that Pietrangelo and McNabb will both play tonight, while former Calgary Flames right-winger Cole Schwindt will be replacing a forward, quite likely Stone.
Saad (lower body) is not expected to rejoin this series.
Barbashev-Eichel-Schwindt
Olofsson-Hertl-Dorofeyev
Howden-Karlsson-Smith
Pearson-Roy-Kolesar
McNabb-Theodore
Hanifin-Pietrangelo
Hague-Whitecloud
Hill
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The Production Is Real
While Jets fans lament the fact that Winnipeg has one player (Kyle Connor) among the top-25 scorers in these playoffs, and Maple Leafs fans beg for some more goals from quiet stars Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews (two apiece), the one thing you’ll never hear out of Northern Alberta is complaints about the playoff production of Draisaitl and McDavid.
McDavid takes an eight-game assist streak into play tonight, second only in franchise history to Draisaitl’s nine-game skein in ’22 and Glenn Anderson’s in ’85.
It’s playoff game No. 85 for both McDavid (134 playoff points) and Draisaitl (123) tonight, and their respective points-per-game totals of 1.60 and 1.46 rank them third and fifth in NHL history among players with at least 15 playoff games. Wayne Gretzky leads at 1.84, followed by Mario Lemieux with 1.61 points per playoff game.
McDavid (1-5-6) and Draisaitl (2-3-5) lead all players (both teams) in this series in production, as they did in Round 1, though Adrian Kempe’s 10 points tied Draisaitl and came within a point of McDavid.
