After falling behind 3-0 to the Florida Panthers in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, the Edmonton Oilers have roared back to win Games 4 and 5 of the best-of-seven championship series. Connor McDavid has led Edmonton’s resurgence, recording consecutive four-point games as the Oilers defeated Florida 8-1 at Rogers Place on Saturday (June 15) and 5-3 at Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday (June 18).
Related: McDavid Sets 5 Records as Oilers Score 5 Goals in Game 5 Win
Edmonton’s captain has played sublime in the last two games, setting numerous records including the most points while facing elimination in an NHL championship series. McDavid now leads all players in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs with 42 points, the fourth most ever in a single NHL postseason.
Since being drafted first overall by the Oilers in 2015, McDavid has spent nine years trying to reach the championship round, and now that he’s here, the five-time Art Ross Trophy winner has taken his game to a level that hockey fans didn’t even know existed.
That, however, can’t be said of the other half of Edmonton’s dynamic duo, the Batman to McDavid’s Superman, 28-year-old centre Leon Draisaitl.
Draisiatl and McDavid Have Been on Journey Together
From Day 1, Draisaitl has been right next to McDavid. He’s gone through all the trials and tribulations that McDavid has endured. He’s won all the honours and awards that McDavid has received. He’s been widely acknowledged as one half of the best duos ever in hockey, and heard the whispers that they couldn’t carry the Oilers to a championship.
After a decade in the NHL, Draisaitl is also playing in his first Stanley Cup Final. But unlike McDavid, he has been a non-factor on the NHL’s grandest stage. He has zero goals and two assists in five games against the Panthers, with both points coming in Edmonton’s Game 4 blowout victory. In 22:19 of ice time on Tuesday, he was held pointless, had no hits, managed just one shot on goal, and went 8-for-20 in the face-off circle.
The five-time NHL All-Star, who has tallied at a rate of virtually 50 goals per 82 games over the past six regular seasons, hasn’t scored a goal in three weeks. He’s got just six points since the start of the Western Conference Final.
Draisaitl Was Dominant in First 2 Rounds
What makes Draisaitl’s disappearance most conspicuous is how brilliantly he performed in the opening two rounds of the postseason, during which he led the league in points. He had at least one point in Edmonton’s first 13 games of the 2024 NHL Playoffs, tied for the fifth-longest point streak from the start of a postseason in NHL history.
In Edmonton’s 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings in Round 1, Draisaitl had five goals, five assists, 23 shots, and was a tremendous 62/108 on face-offs. He even blocked nine shots in five games against the Kings, second most among all NHL forwards in the playoffs’ opening round.
Against the Vancouver Canucks in the second round, Draisaitl racked up 14 points as the Oilers rallied from trailing in the series on three separate occasions (1-0, 2-1, and 3-2) to ultimately prevail in seven games.
Injuries Could Be Hampering Draisaitl
Many have speculated that Draisaitl is playing hurt. He hasn’t said nor have the Oilers reported anything to that effect, but nobody is going to reveal anything about injuries at this time of year.
There was the situation in Game 1 of Round 2 when Draisaitl missed most of the second period and appeared to be in pain when he returned to play in the third period, but Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch chalked that up to “cramping and equipment issues”, and Draisaitl went on have a spectacular series, appearing no worse for wear.
Then there’s that splint that Draisaitl has been spotted wearing on his finger, which might explain why the player with one of the best one-timers in the league suddenly seems unable to raise the puck with any regularity.
It is possible, too, that Draisaitl is just in a slump. That wouldn’t be entirely unheard of. He had a stretch of 15 games early in Edmonton’s 2023-24 schedule where he scored just twice, and has a streak of seven games without a goal in each of the last two regular seasons.
He also failed to score a goal in the Oilers’ final seven games of the 2022 Playoffs, when they advanced to the Western Conference Final. But that was while playing with a high ankle sprain. So he has persevered through postseason pain before.
It would have been a shame if Edmonton had finally reached this point, only to be unceremoniously swept aside without getting any contributions from Draisaitl. But now the Oilers have life, and he has a chance to write a different ending to what would have been a very disappointing story, by performing like the superhero he’s shown himself to be so often over the last several seasons.
Even with McDavid in full-on Man of Steel mode, it’s hard to see the Oilers winning two more games against a great Florida team if they don’t get at least one big night from the other half of their dynamic duo. Does Draisaitl have it in him?
