The Day After: The best German there ever has been, Leon Draisaitl
By Zach Laing
3 years agoIt’s easy to sit and look at the tremendous showing Connor McDavid had last night. Three goals and an assist have now pushed him 19 points away from the 100-point mark with only 10 games left to go. I say he does it.
McDavid really took the game over in last night’s 6-1 dominating win over the Winnipeg Jets as he continues to play the best hockey of his career, but somehow he wasn’t the biggest story of the night.
His friend, Leon Draisaitl, may have truly stole the show in terms of a historical night. His second point of the night, a goal, launched him ahead of Marco Sturm to become the highest scoring German-born NHL player with his 488 career point.
“It’s a big honour,” said Draisaitl, who highlighted he feels there’s even more good players coming from the country of 84-million. “I’m not the biggest fan of talking about myself, but we’ve had a lot of great hockey players coming out of Germany. To lead that list is very special to me — I take big pride in that.”
For Draisaitl, the NHL was never the goal. He just wanted to be able to play in his home country getting to grow up following German NHL’ers in Sturm, Christian Ehrhoff, and Marcel Goc, to name a few. But as he grew and his talent flourished, he had a chance to play at higher levels.
He made the jump to North America in 2012 when the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders took him second overall in the CHL import draft. Just like that, he was on a new path — one that has led him to NHL stardom.
“It’s an amazing feat,” said Oilers head coach Dave Tippett. “You look at a young German player that grows up over there, he’s got to change cultures, change the style of play a little bit and come over and succeed like he has, he’s a superstar.
“He’s a legitimate superstar in the league and (the record) is not a surprise. He’s the best player I’ve ever seen from Germany over here.”
His impact as an international player is already being felt with young German’s like Tim Stützle looking up to him.
“I really like the way he plays and the way he (conducts himself) on and off the ice,” Stützle said in January. “That helps a lot of young players. He’s an idol for every German hockey player. Right now, he’s getting (well) known (throughout) the (hockey) world and everybody knows him. It’s a great thing for German hockey.
“We’ve texted a couple of times, so he just wanted to wish me the best of luck, and, if I had any questions, he said I can reach out to him.”
Now, Draisaitl will have the chance to continue to build on his point total, something McDavid sees standing strong for a long time. That’s a great thing, too, and he’s there for everybody who has questions. He’s having a great season again and he’s going to have a very good NHL career for sure.”
And now, Draisaitl will have the chance to continue to grow the record, something that McDavid sees standing for a very long time.
“It’s a mark that I don’t think too many German kids will be able to chase down so that should be something that hangs around for a long time,” said McDavid. “It’s really something he should be proud of.
“What he’s done in this league, even at a young age, is pretty amazing. To think he’s already the scoring leader in German hockey history is a pretty special thing.”
In the Monday win, the Oilers have furthered helped to secure their spot in the post-season further building their lead on the Vancouver Canucks, the last team that could truly contend for a post-season spot.
They’ll stick around in Winnipeg to close out the season series Wednesday against the Jets, before heading to Calgary Thursday for the second last game against them of the year.
The Oilers control their own destiny at this point.
Backhanders…
- Solid debuts for Dmitry Kulikov and Ryan McLeod last night. I have another piece coming at 9 a.m. digging deeper into their first games as I felt it deserved it’s own article.
- Mike Smith was solid, as always, in net for the club last night. He stopped 36 of 37 shots and made some big early stops to keep the Oilers in the game. In the dying minutes, he looked like a fish out of water fighting to keep every puck out of the net. You love to see that.
- How about Connor Hellebuyck? I don’t know if there’s a player in the league whom Edmonton’s has their number more than him. This year vs. the Oilers he has a 2-4 record with a .870 save percentage and a 4.29 GAA. Over his whole career, it’s not much better with a sub .900 save percentage.
- It’s looking more and more like the Jets are the Oilers dancing partner in the first round of the playoffs. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but of the other big three clubs in the North race (Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg), the Jets scare me the least. On paper they maybe the deepest up front, but the Oilers sure don’t seem to struggle much with them this year.
What they’re saying…
The Winnipeg Jets hoped to put a three-game losing streak behind them and begin gearing up for the playoffs when they hosted the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.Instead, the oil leaking from their crankcase became a gusher, steam began billowing from the rad and a wheel fell off.Facing the team they’ll most likely see in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Jets were flattened, 6-1, extending their season-high losing streak to four and dropping them into third place, behind Edmonton, in the NHL’s North Division.Head coach Paul Maurice says opponents have begun to play playoff-style hockey, but his team hasn’t.“We missed the gear change coming off the road,” Maurice said, lamenting decisions that led to blatant turnovers. “We need to make a decision based on the game that is being played now, not the game that was played two weeks ago. So that gear change happened and it’s happened with the two teams ahead of us in the standings in the division, and tonight it blew up on us.”The Oilers hold two games in hand, suddenly making second spot a longshot for a team that had its eyes on first just a week ago.Halting the downward momentum won’t be an easy fix, forward Andrew Copp acknowledged.“Dig deep, strap on your balls and go to work,” Copp said. “Obviously it’s frustrating losing four in a row. But we feel like we’ve got a good hockey team in there and we’re not playing to our potential. You’ve just got to go straight through the adversity and straight through the wall and work through it.” – Paul Friesen, Winnipeg Sun
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.
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