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The NHL’s Department of Player Safety didn’t think Leon Drasisaitl deserved a suspension or even a fine for his high hit on Aleksander Barkov in Game 2, and neither did Draisaitl.
“Yeah, I mean, I looked at it (on video),” said the Edmonton Oiler centre before the team’s optional skate Thursday morning.
“First of all, I think we all know I’m not a player who plays with an intent to injure anybody by any means. I have no track record of that. I’m not a player who enjoys that part of the game, injuring other players or anything like that.”
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Draisaitl caught the Florida captain in the face with a forearm along the boards and got a two-minute penalty which the Panthers converted to go up 3-1 when Evan Rodrigues scored on Stuart Skinner.
“I caught him in an unfortunate spot. So, yeah, I’ll leave it at that. (I) can’t stress enough I’m not someone who plays the game of hockey wanting to injure anybody,” he said.
Barkov didn’t play the last half of the third period Monday but he did skate Wednesday morning in Florida before the team managed to find their way here on their charter, very late because of a storm in Fort Lauderdale. They didn’t get here until about 8 p.m. so only 22 hours before game time, and had a full, all hands on deck, morning skate for the 6:20 p.m. face-off because of their long travel day.
Everybody expects the raucous Rogers Place crowd to be a huge advantage with the Oilers down 2-0, but Draisaitl cautions that the players have to do their part.
“It’s going to be special but we have to give them a reason to be special, right? We have to come out and put our game in order and find our game early and just be better, really, than last (game). But we’re excited to be back at home in front of our fans,” said Draisaitl.
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This is only the second time since January, the Panthers have been outside their Eastern time zone. They had a March 12 game in Dallas and before that a Jan. 22 game in Nashville, both central time zones.
So an advantage for the Oilers maybe, on a player’s internal body clock?
“I’m probably the wrong guy to ask,” said the German-born Draisaitl, used to flying back and forth to Europe.
“I’m sure it plays a factor in some type of way, but you know when the game starts, your adrenaline kicks in and you’re just playing the game. So I don’t know how much the time change at that point really matters. Maybe your sleep rhythm a little bit. Not sure it’s a positive or a negative for either team.”
While it appears Evander Kane won’t play after gutting it out through the 20 playoff games with a sports hernia, Draisaitl, who played on a high ankle sprain in the 2022 playoffs says everybody’s tired and hurt through the playoffs and it’s magnified when you get to the Stanley Cup Final.
“It’s hard to recover because you play every other night, right? There’s not a lot of time for rest. A lot of injuries, a lot of things that are going on,” he said.
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“The only thing that helps is rest and you just don’t get that. I’ve got a lot of respect for really everyone in the playoffs, everyone in the league, what everyone plays through. I’ve been there, unfortunately, and it’s really hard. Things you do for the love of the game,” he said, with a smile on his face.
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