{"id":402617,"date":"2026-01-11T13:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T13:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/402617\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T13:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T13:20:12","slug":"oilers-happy-to-celebrate-draisaitls-milestone-despite-shootout-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/402617\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers happy to celebrate Draisaitl\u2019s milestone despite shootout loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON \u2014\u00a0If it\u2019s true that even a journey of 10,000 miles starts with but a single step, Leon Draisaitl<\/a> walked out of old Rexall Place a few nights wondering if he was on the wrong path altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of nights where I didn\u2019t know if I could play in this league,\u201d Draisaitl said Saturday, a few hours before receiving a silver stick in commemoration of his 1,000th NHL point, notched last month on an assist in Pittsburgh. \u201cThis league is really hard when you\u2019re 18. It\u2019s really, really hard. The game is different than juniors, and you\u2019re not really ready. You\u2019re not as strong as you need to be, and you\u2019re not as fast as you need to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of nights where I came home and I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t know if I can play in this league,\u2019\u201d he repeated. \u201cI needed to become a better player in every facet \u2014\u00a0a better athlete. I put in the work and it helped me immensely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, in a National Hockey League that has seen exactly 10 50-goal, 100-point seasons posted in the last decade, Draisaitl has authored four of those. (Auston Matthews has two, four players have one each.) After a recent slump he\u2019s a bit behind a 50-goal pace this season, but well on his way to his seventh 100-point campaign in 11 NHL seasons.<\/p>\n

And on the night he was feted for his 1,000-point milestone, Draisaitl delivered two goals \u2014\u00a0No. 22 and 23 on the season. However, his team lost 4-3 in a shootout to the Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton\u2019s eighth attempt at winning three games in a row, and the eighth time this season they\u2019ve fallen short.<\/p>\n

The St. Louis Blues are the only other team in the NHL not have to have strung three wins together this season.<\/p>\n

Connor McDavid<\/a> scored to extend his points streak to 18 games, the longest such streak in his distinguished career. He has 19 goals and 41 points during his skein, and his goal Saturday was his 30th of the season.<\/p>\n

But this night was about the other head in the two-headed monster that is the Oilers, as McDavid tried in vain to set his close friend up for the hat trick, with his entire family in the seats at Rogers Place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fun night for him, an exciting night, celebrating his 1,000 points and having his family in town,\u201d a subdued McDavid said after the loss, in which both he and Draisaitl failed to score in the shootout.<\/p>\n

Kasperi Kapanen<\/a> set Draisaitl up for the game\u2019s first goal, a nifty feed for Kapanen\u2019s fourth point in three games since returning from injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all knew (Draisaitl) was going to score tonight, right?\u201d Kapanen said. \u201cHe’s had such an amazing career thus far, and he’s going to keep on scoring. Whenever you can get the puck to him that close to the net, it usually has a good chance of going in.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Oilers Dads\u2019 trip lifting off on Sunday \u2014\u00a0a two-game excursion through Chicago and Nashville \u2014\u00a0Draisaitl\u2019s father Peter was in town, accompanied by Leon\u2019s Mom, grandmother and sister. A long-time German national teamer, Leon grew up in the many dressing rooms that his father Peter inhabited during an 18-season stint in Deutschland\u2019s top league.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery grateful for the insight that I\u2019ve gotten from my Dad, the hockey knowledge that he has instilled into me. He\u2019s a huge reason that I am where I am today,\u201d said Draisaitl, 30, who was asked if his Dad influenced him in other ways. \u201cHe used the exact same blade, in fact. He was a very similar player too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pre-game video montage belied a group of players who were baby-faced when scoring those first few goals, but look today like the veterans they are, all approaching 1,000 games in the NHL with the scars of two Stanley Cup runs in the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all grew up together in this room, the core (players),\u201d Draisaitl said. \u201cWe all started when we were young kids, 18, and you don\u2019t know how your career is going to go at that point. To be able to witness Connor getting 1,000 (points). Nursey doing his thing. Nuge getting to 1,000 games (next week).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes a little bit more special, just because you\u2019ve seen every stage of their career. You\u2019ve been there for all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2014\u00a0If it\u2019s true that even a journey of 10,000 miles starts with but a single step, Leon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-402617","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\/402617","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=402617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}