In the first playoff round of the North American ice hockey league NHL, Leon Draisaitl produced an image that seemed like a reminiscence of past decades. In game five of the series against the Los Angeles Kings, the Edmonton Oilers forward, despite being pushed earlier, shot a hit while falling. Sitting on the seat of his trousers, he cheered with his fists raised, not a cool move or a rehearsed gesture, but spontaneous joy at an unusual goal. Erich Kühnhackl and Lorenz Funk used to cheer like that, in a different ice hockey era, without any ulterior motives as to what the picture might look like later on the social channels. Just joy.
Edmonton won game five and the sixth to qualify for the second round of the NHL playoffs, where the Oilers played the Vegas Golden Knights in game one on Wednesday night. And it is now almost a familiar sight that Draisaitl, 27, apparently only moves in historical contexts. The Cologne native scored four goals, his first four-pack in his 44th playoff game and the first by an Oilers player since 1987, when Finn Jari Kurri, wingman of the legendary Wayne Gretzky, scored four goals in a playoff game for the Oilers lap. Dampener for Draisaitl: Edmonton lost this opening game 4:6.
“No,” said Draisaitl succinctly, he couldn’t be happy about the four goals: “We weren’t good enough overall. It wasn’t nearly as good as we can play. It’s going on and has to get better.” The best-of-seven series continues on Saturday in Las Vegas, with game three taking place in Edmonton on Monday.
“Leon played great. He’s been playing well all through the playoffs,” said Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft. It was a singular praise, of course, because: “We weren’t even close to winning away. We have to improve a few things, especially the number of goals we conceded.”
Draisaitl once again showed his complete offensive repertoire on Wednesday evening: two power play hits, a controlled direct acceptance and a pool goal when he deliberately shot Vegas goalkeeper Laurent Brossoit and the puck dripped from his back into the net. Draisaitl gave his team the lead in the second minute and later equalized to make it 3:3 after being down 1:3. But even his fourth strike to make it 4: 5 in the third third was ultimately not enough. “We know they are a good team, but it wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen before or couldn’t handle,” said Draisaitl. “It was our fault that we didn’t play our best game.” Small consolation: With eleven goals in seven playoff games, Draisaitl extended his lead in the scoring charts while also setting a new franchise record. So far, Gretzky and Mark Messier have held the record with nine goals each in the first seven playoff games.
Now with 15 points, Draisaitl has also regained first place in the NHL scorer rankings from Matthew Tkachuk. The German national player had set a personal best in the main round with 128 points. With the best main round since club icon Gretzky’s four-title glory days, the Oilers have raised expectations among fans. In the first round, Edmonton had prevailed 4-2 in the series against the LA Kings. Last year, the Oilers lost to eventual champions Colorado Avalanche in the semifinals.
2023-05-04 17:53:16
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