Leon Draisaitl playing like he's tired of losing

Leon Draisaitl is the clear favourite for the Conn Smythe Trophy through one round and a bit of the Stanley Cup Playoffs but after Edmonton fell in the conference finals last season, the German star looks determined to take the Oilers all the way this year.

Video Transcript

OMAR: He's just nuts. He is nuts. Like, he's such-- like there's seeing the stats and there's watching the game. Like he's a frickin' force, man. It's like, you want to talk about a person who is tired of losing? How envious, how-- oh gosh, I wish I had that--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: You could put-- Avry brought up a good point with the run that they went on last year.

OMAR: Yeah.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: It's one thing for people in that market to enjoy seeing their team do well and have all the good stuff coming around it. But could you imagine if the Oilers didn't get out of the second round last year? Could you imagine all the different narratives we'd be spewing about them now-- a guy like Leon Draisaitl, a guy like Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Evander Kane, all those guys, Ken Holland too. When's the last time we talked smack about Ken Holland on this podcast?

OMAR: It's true.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: It's been a minute since that's happened. But all that to say, like that run, even if it did not culminate in a Stanley Cup Final appearance, it changed so much about that core. We don't look at them as like Leafs West and the fact that they can't go as far as they can go with the pieces that they have. This is a team that people still expect to win the whole trophy. And people have felt that about this team from the beginning of the year.

So when you hear Leon Draisaitl step to the-- after a four-game performance, say, hey, this is not the way that we play, like you don't take that and think like, oh wow, like he's just saying the same stuff. It's like no, you believe him when he says that. And you have every right to think when that series is over, if the Oilers lose, he's going to throw a fit. Maybe less so on Connor, but on everybody else.

Maybe he wouldn't do that, but all that to say like he wouldn't have to say he didn't do his part, as far as I'm concerned. I know we're only a few games in and I know by the time you get this, we will know the results of game 3. But like if there's one guy, one guy, who we do not have to worry about him stepping up-- and he is healthy this year, he is not on one leg like he was last year.

OMAR: I was literally just about to say. Like imagine you're in that locker room last year and you're watching this man play on one leg. Yeah, you want to talk about like trying to find like an extra like force of effort or an extra motivation? And now you're seeing it this year where he's healthy and he's literally-- like it's not, it's by far not just McDavid. They have a complete team. We've got to shout out. Shout out to Holland. That Mathias Ekholm trade was wicked. Was wicked for them.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: That was a move they needed to make. And they made it.

OMAR: Yeah.

ARUN SRINIVASAN: And Evan Bouchard's like, coming.

OMAR: Yes. And he's stepped up his role.

ARUN SRINIVASAN: Bouchard has been so good. He's been really, really good. So like that helps, yeah.

AVRY LEWIS-MCDOUGALL: It's an indictment on Dave Tippett that he held back Evan Bouchard for so long and wouldn't let him play power play 1. Held back with his minutes. You see Evan Bouchard step up now, he's got 10 points in the postseason. Got a shot from a point that is one of the best ones in the league. Defensively, he helps the puck in the zone on power plays.

Like this Edmonton team-- remember, last year they made the Conference Final last year with a much weaker team and Mike Smith as the number-one option in net. This Edmonton team now, with a solid 9- to 10-forward core and then Stuart Skinner, who had a great bounce-back game in game 2, that is a very dangerous team. Now it's a solid four-line team with a couple of solid d-men and Stuart Skinner finding ways to bounce back after a loss. That's very terrifying if you're Vegas.

OMAR: Yeah.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: That's a team that realized that they were knocking on the door. We said that all last year about how they needed to maximize the players that they had. And you know what, fine, it didn't work out for them last year.

But I think we've got to give them props. I don't know how it's going to end for them this year. I think they did a lot of good work. And that's just what happens sometimes, man. Sometimes you're a GM, you try to just make your little tink-- your little adjustments here and there and it works. Sometimes you go all in at the deadline, it doesn't work. Like, I don't know. Like it's just, I don't know. Like it's just the weirdness of this sport as it is. But we have to give the Edmonton Oilers props. And you have to give Leon Draisaitl props.