{"id":350771,"date":"2025-12-17T09:15:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T09:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/350771\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T09:15:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T09:15:13","slug":"oilers-draisaitl-grateful-after-notching-1000th-point-on-emotional-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/350771\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers’ Draisaitl ‘grateful’ after notching 1,000th point on emotional night"},"content":{"rendered":"

PITTSBURGH \u2014\u00a0Emblazoned on their t-shirts was that picture of Leon Draisaitl<\/a> from his wedding day, with a lit cigarette in his mouth. The smoke rings billowing off that dart were shaped like Oilers logos.<\/p>\n

And the caption, \u201cSmokin\u2019 his way to 1,000 points,\u201d was the fine work of Oilers equipment man Brad Harrison, who is always on milestone watch and has just the right touch, it seems.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up in Germany,\u201d reminisced Draisaitl, who collected four assists including point No. 1,000 in a 6-4 win at Pittsburgh, \u201cit seems like a long way. I\u2019m extremely proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It takes a village, they say. Or several villages, when your career began in Cologne, Germany, stretched to junior stints in Prince Albert and Kelowna, then a pit stop in Bakersfield before one of hockey\u2019s greatest players could even call himself an NHLer in Edmonton.<\/p>\n

Today he\u2019s a 1,000-point player with one foot in the Hockey Hall of Fame, the fifth fastest European to ever hit four figures, the 21st\u00a0fastest overall.<\/p>\n

Draisaitl makes the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> the first team in NHL history to have five players crest the 1,000 point plateau: Gretzky (1,669), McDavid (1,138), Jari Kurri (1,043), Mark Messier (1,034) and Draisaitl (1,003).<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of hard work, a lot of people who helped along the way,\u201d said the 30-year-old son of German hockey legend Peter Draisaitl. \u201cThese accomplishments are always directed at the single player, but there are so many people who play such a big a part in it. I\u2019m highly aware that I have a lot of people in my life who kept everything off my plate and let me do what I do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super grateful, thankful, and a little proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Draisaitl\u2019s game, as we wrote about\u00a0here<\/a>, has become the epitome of a power forward. He commands the puck, slows the game down or speeds it up at his whim, and has the ability to bury you in goals one night, and kill you with assists the next.<\/p>\n

On a Tuesday in Pittsburgh he chose the latter, ringing up four assists in a tour de force that was as effective \u2014\u00a0if not as flashy \u2014\u00a0as the four-point night authored by Connor McDavid<\/a>. The Oilers captain is on a signature tear, with 20 points in his last seven games.<\/p>\n

McDavid, sporting the same t-shirt, chuckled, \u201cI remember when this photo was taken, at his wedding. It\u2019s funny how it comes full circle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just such a special player,\u201d McDavid continued. \u201cHe does it each and every year, both sides of the rink\u2026 For him to get there so fast (824 games), I can\u2019t say enough good things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The one-two punch of McDavid centring his line followed by Draisaitl running his, is like a pitcher with a 100-m.p.h. fastball and a 85-m.p.h. changeup.<\/p>\n

Who does a coach assign his top defensive pairing to? His best checking line?<\/p>\n

Where McDavid skates around you, Draisaitl skates right on through you. Where McDavid speeds the game up to his advantage, Draisaitl slows it down to his.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s really not fair that one team has them both, and this was one of those nights where their total was greater than the sum of their parts.<\/p>\n

Of course, poor Stu Skinner\u2019s goals against average was the poorer for it.<\/p>\n

That Draisaitl\u2019s 1,000th point came against a long-time teammate like Skinner is, well, something no one saw coming a week ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cBittersweet,\u201d was the word Skinner chose, post-game. \u201cI was his teammate for a long time, and whenever anybody gets 1,000 points, you’re going to congratulate them. But I would\u2019ve rather it not be on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just 14 seconds after Draisaitl\u2019s milestone point \u2014\u00a0on an extended power play with (ironically) Brett Kulak in the penalty box \u2014\u00a0McDavid blew down the centre of the sheet and deked Skinner, depositing the 2-0 goal into an empty net. It was vintage McDavid, and for Skinner, a save that almost no goalie ever gives his team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI faced so many in practice, so it was a little bit of a mental game. I’m going to talk to him after this and ask him how he felt,\u201d said Skinner, who was out of sorts on this night, understandably. \u201cAs he came in close I just felt like he was going to go five-hole, because he\u2019s done that to me a few times in practice. So, I just kind of played it safe where I think next time, I won’t be playing it as safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was one of those nights, with Skinner opposing Tristan Jarry, Draisaitl chasing 1,000, and Sidney Crosby pulling to within a point of Mario Lemieux for the Penguins’ all-time scoring lead, that fans and media love.<\/p>\n

But with the trade still so fresh, families still in flux, these are nights that players just want to make it through.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always advocate for the human side of it,\u201d began McDavid, who has grown up so much since he and Draisaitl arrived a year apart, a decade ago.. \u201cThe storylines were endless for the media and the fans tonight, but as people \u2014\u00a0and that’s what we are at the end of the day \u2014\u00a0it’s emotional.<\/p>\n

\u201cStu has got a young family, Kuly has a young family, moving across the continent. Jarry, the same thing. They build relationships with guys \u2026 so I\u2019m sure was an emotional night for all three of them. And I’m sure they’re glad it’s over.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the hallways outside the dressing rooms Tuesday, the Oilers’ players gathered to catch up with Skinner, while Jarry was seen chatting with his former teammates as well.<\/p>\n

Then the Oilers boarded a plane for Boston.<\/p>\n

On nights like this one, everyone is happy for that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014\u00a0Emblazoned on their t-shirts was that picture of Leon Draisaitl from his wedding day, with a lit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-350771","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}