FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- It takes a special player to do everything Leon Draisaitl does for the Edmonton Oilers. A special person too.
You must be able to play center or wing. You must be able to lead your own line and make your teammates better, and you must be able to join Connor McDavid at a moment’s notice on the power play and in key situations at even strength. To an extent, you must swallow your ego.
We saw it all in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, a 3-0 loss to the Florida Panthers on Saturday in which the Oilers had a 32-18 advantage in shots, and we’re likely to see it throughout the best-of-7 series.
Game 2 is at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS, CBC).
“We rely on Leon quite a bit,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said Sunday. “Leon has had a lot of linemates. If you look around the League, he’s probably had the most time spent with so many guys, and I think he’s been very flexible.”
McDavid receives so much attention, for good reason. He’s the Oilers’ captain and No. 1 center, and he’s the face of the NHL, a five-time scoring champion and three-time MVP. He leads the Stanley Cup Playoffs with 31 points (five goals, 26 assists). Among players who have appeared in at least eight playoff games in NHL history, he’s third in points per game (1.56) behind Wayne Gretzky (1.84) and Mario Lemieux (1.61).
Draisaitl often is in McDavid’s shadow or lumped together with him, but he has a scoring title and an MVP trophy of his own. He’s second to McDavid in the playoffs with 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists). He and McDavid have played the same number of playoff games (68) in their NHL careers, and he’s right behind him in points per game (1.54).
“You have become desensitized to how good those two players are, and I understand why,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Sunday. “You see it every night, and they are so dynamic and so special. But after a while, you get used to it to the point that you start to say, ‘Why doesn’t it happen every shift?’ It almost does.
“They are truly, truly special players, because in all aspects of the game, you can do all things right and still not stop them.”
The Oilers began Game 1 with McDavid centering Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman. Draisaitl was between Evander Kane and Dylan Holloway.
Big difference.
Nugent-Hopkins is tied for fourth in the playoffs with 20 points (six goals, 14 assists). Hyman leads the playoffs with 14 goals.
Holloway is a 22-year-old with four points (three goals, assists) in his first full playoff run, and Kane has eight points (four goals, four assists) at less than 100 percent.
“He’s playing through things,” Draisaitl said. “He’s obviously dealing with some things, and he wants to be able to do it. He wants to help our group. He’s giving it everything he’s got.”
Knoblauch said players elevate their game with Draisaitl.
“It’s an opportunity for them to really step up and show what they can do, because when you get to play with him, you want to stay with him,” Knoblauch said. “You want to be at your best.
“But also for Leon, it’s not always easy, because you’re always getting new linemates. You try to build some chemistry, and then I’m uprooting that. I’m changing that up. But for a player like Leon, to be able to be as productive as he has and play with so many different linemates, that says a lot about the player. He’s a tremendous talent.”
Draisaitl also played with McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman and defenseman Evan Bouchard on the power play, and he played spot shifts with McDavid and Hyman immediately after the Oilers killed a penalty or when they needed a goal playing from behind, as he often does.
“Obviously, him and Connor are very dangerous together, but I think overall, we’re a better team when he’s driving his own line,” Knoblauch said. “We’re always trying to find the right mix on what our lines should be.”
Either mix can be toxic for opponents.
“I don’t know which is more difficult, when the two big fellas are split up or they’re together,” Maurice said. “It’s just an awful lot to handle.”
Draisaitl has played with McDavid for nine seasons in Edmonton. They train together in the summer in the Toronto area. They’re teammates, friends, fellow elite players on the same mission. What might be a big deal for someone else is no big deal to him.
“We’re so used to it that we can go shift to shift, period to period, game to game, whatever it is,” he said.
Draisaitl was held off the score sheet Saturday for the third time in the playoffs. It’s no coincidence Edmonton is 0-3 in those games. Although he had four shots and the Oilers had a lot of chances, he was unsatisfied.
“We’re a really good hockey team that, believe it or not, can play better than last night too,” he said. “We’ve got more. We know that. We can still play better. They’re going to be better, and I expect us to be better as well.”
