So if we can’t have a doctor’s clearance (and no clarity was provided by coach Kris Knoblauch on Monday morning), a hockey writer’s eye will have to do.
After consecutive practices centring Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen, Sportsnet.ca is declaring Draisaitl as highly likely to play in Game 1 against Anaheim (Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, 8 p.m. PT / 10 p.m. ET). He looks ready, and has been skating hard since last Tuesday.
A week of pushing himself, and then being able to replicate or increase that workload the next day consistently, tells us his knee is ready for the rigours of playoff hockey.
“I feel good,” a coy Draisaitl said after Sunday’s practice. “We’ll see how it feels tomorrow, and then we’ll make a call from there.
“I know it’s going to take me a couple games to really be myself, and that’s OK,” he added. “But it’s just the best time of year. There’s nothing like it: the atmosphere, the intensity of it, the meaning of it. … The adrenaline takes a lot of pain away.”
Dickinson skated with the team on Sunday for the first time since being hit with a shot in San Jose 12 days before. He took a regular turn at 3C Sunday between Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jack Roslovic, and if he plays that means the Oilers would be 100 per cent healthy when the playoffs begin, missing only fourth-line winger Max Jones.
“Health throughout the playoffs is important, and the team that can stay the healthiest usually has a good chance,” Oilers centre Connor McDavid said. “So you want to be healthy on Day 1, and we’re getting closer and closer to that.”
Draisaitl is such a big part of this team’s DNA, and everyone knows it. He’s the power play triggerman, jumps on to McDavid’s wing when the situation calls for it, and come playoff time he produces right alongside No. 97, with 119 playoff points in the last five years to McDavid’s 132.
He’s a leader that players here have been following for some time now, especially come playoff time.
“He has an ability to raise his game to a whole other level,” McDavid said. “We see that time and time again in the playoffs, a guy who battles through anything.”
Here’s how the Oilers should set up in Game 1:
Savoie-McDavid-Hyman
Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Kapanen
RNH-Dickinson-Roslovic
Dach-Henrique-Frederic
Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Murphy
Walman-Emberson
If you could encapsulate the Oilers’ advantage in experience over Anaheim in one paragraph, McDavid provided it when he was asked how much wiser he is today than on the eve of his first ever playoff run back in 2017:
“Just knowing what to expect. Knowing what it’s going to feel like — the environment, the game, the pressures, the momentum swings,” he said. “Playoffs is really a different game. It really is, and you have to understand all of that. This group has been through plenty of runs, played in plenty of big games and tomorrow’s no different. It’s a big game: Game 1 at home. A great opportunity to get off to a good start.
“But with that being said, we’ve got a big challenge in front of us: a really good, young, skilled, exciting, Ducks team that we’ve got to play hard. That we’ve got to be ready for, and we will be.”
While Anaheim makes the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons, the Oilers have played 79 playoff games in the past five springs — with neither McDavid nor Draisaitl having missed any of them. That duo is one-two in playoff scoring over that span, but of course, there’s one goal left to be accomplished: Winning a Stanley Cup.
Is there anything different about this team, as the journey begins, than any of the previous ones?
“One extra year of experience, that always helps,” Draisaitl figured. “But at the end of the day, when the puck drops, both teams are going to go at it, both teams are going to try and establish their game. Every series, every game, every playoff run writes its own story and plays out differently.”
Earned the right to pillow fight
Yes, the Pacific was “a pillow fight,” as McDavid dubbed it a little over a month ago. And, yes, the Oilers only had 93 points this season after four years of eclipsing the 100-point mark.
But as the playoffs open, all of that and about $20 bucks will get you a beer at Rogers Place.
“We’ve earned the opportunity to be in this position. Pacific Division or not, we’re here,” McDavid declared on Sunday. “We’re in the playoffs, and we have an opportunity to play a Game 1 (Monday), and I know this group is excited for it.
“The regular season has become a little bit monotonous for this group, and I think you see that through the day to day. But this is what we get excited for.”
Knoblauch has had to remain patient as his team stumbled and bumbled through most of the season. He gets it, but it will be nice now to have everyone’s full focus and attention.
“It’s a long season for any team in the NHL, but it’s even longer when you’ve played as long as you have the last two years. To the end of June, and then a couple months (of rest), and you’re back at it again,” Knoblauch said. “I think everyone’s excited, ready for this. It’s been on their mind for a while.
“I think we’ve got another level.”
