BLOG: Draisaitl a warrior in scintillating playoff performance

EDMONTON, AB - The recent playoff performance by Leon Draisaitl should be something engrained in the minds of Oilers fans for a long time.
When asked about the post-season performance of the former Hart Trophy winner, his teammates all used the same superlative.
"Absolute warrior," Mike Smith said. "To have one of your top players, one of the best players in the league compete through an injury as severe as he has is something that is special. He deserves a lot of credit for pushing through."
Every time the Oilers centre found himself hobbling to the bench, it wouldn't have been unreasonable to expect him to walk down that tunnel for the final time in the playoffs, but Draisaitl kept coming back.
The 26-year-old is still second in scoring during the Stanley Cup Playoffs with 32 points (7G, 25A) in his 16 games - 10 of those played at well under 100 per cent. Disregard all his goals and the
league's best passer as voted by his peers
would still be second in post-season scoring prior to tonight's Game 5 between the Lightning and the Rangers.

After getting injured in Game 6, Leon went on an eight-game point streak (2G, 18A) as the Oilers bounced both the Kings and the Flames from the post-season.
"[Draisaitl] was playing with a high-ankle sprain. He got hurt in Game 6 in LA when Mikey Anderson body-slammed him. It was a struggle, but you guys saw him," Oilers General Manager Ken Holland said. "The shift during a game he goes down and then he'd come back. He was playing with a lot of pain. For me, watching what he went through, obviously he couldn't practice and he only could play in games but he got 32 points. It was unbelievable the level he played at with what he was going through."

Playing on that injured ankle, Drasaitl went on to pile on playoff points at a rate not seen since the 1980s. His list of accomplishments from this post-season has him saddled alongside some of the game's all-time greats.
The 17 points he registered in the Oilers 4-1 series victory in the Battle of Alberta were the most in the illustrious matchup's history and the third-most in a single playoff series in NHL history.
The only players to average more points per playoff game in NHL history with a minimum of 30 games played are Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. Draisaitl is the only player without the surname Gretzky to record seven three-point games in a single post-season.

Leon wasn't the only player fighting through an injury during the post-season, with Darnell Nurse's hip flexor injury being a constant source of consternation for the Oilers defenceman. For the guys in the locker room, watching Draisaitl and Nurse lay it all on the ice for the good of the team was a wellspring of motivation during the playoff run.
"They're both warriors. They're both two of our best players. It's kind of crazy in playoffs. Those guys have been in the league for a while, they're still young guys, it's crazy the amount of pain and energy that they play through to help the team out," Ryan McLeod said. "It's really motivating, you want to play well for them because of you know how much they're battling and how much they want to win. We were pushing for those guys."
Unfortunately for the Oilers, the herculean effort from the German wasn't enough to drive Edmonton to the promised land.
Leon would go down swinging, recording four assists - all of the primary variety - in their Game 4 elimination game against the Avalanche. In the end, Draisaitl wrapped up his '21-22 season with 142 points, trailing only his teammate Connor McDavid, Evgeni Malkin, and Joe Sakic for the most combined points in this millennium.

Despite all the personal accolades, the elusive trip to the Stanley Cup finals is what drives Leon. The Oilers superstar believes this incredible year is just a building block on the road to that ultimate goal.
"I think we showed this season that there is a lot of heart in our group, a lot of no-quit mentality. I think even in that regard there is still another step that we can take and a lot of things we can learn still and be better at when we do get to that point," Draisaitl said. "I'm really proud of our team and the way we handled things this season. At times it wasn't easy or perfect, but I thought we battled all season and stuck together."
"At the end of the day, that's most important. We knew that we had it in the group," he added. "I'm proud of the guys and it was a good step, but we're looking to take the next one."