{"id":544302,"date":"2026-03-18T10:36:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T10:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544302\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T10:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T10:36:17","slug":"oilers-must-step-up-collectively-in-draisaitls-absence-with-lower-body-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544302\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers must step up \u2018collectively\u2019 in Draisaitl\u2019s absence with lower-body injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers will have to adjust accordingly without Leon Draisaitl<\/a>, who is expected to be out for the rest of the regular season and possibly into the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a lower-body injury.<\/p>\n

Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said the star forward will be reevaluated at the start of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, the timeline we\u2019re using is the end of the regular season,\u201d Knoblauch said following a 5-3 win<\/a> against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday. \u201cOnce the playoffs start, then we\u2019ll reevaluate and that\u2019s where we\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Draisaitl sustained the injury<\/a> in a 3-1 win against the Nashville Predators on Sunday. He took a hit from Predators forward Ozzy Wiesblatt<\/a> along the boards at 4:20 of the first period and briefly left the game. Although he returned to play two shifts at the end of the period, he did not return for the second or third.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou saw the hit, and he didn\u2019t feel right and he goes back (into dressing room) and he gets checked out, the medical team and Leon do some tests, just some preliminary tests, to find out what it\u2019s like,\u201d\u00a0Knoblauch said. \u201cLeon feels comfortable enough that he wants to try it out and nothing out of the ordinary, nothing dramatic seemed like there was anything wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next day he gets an MRI and then we find out it\u2019s more serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Draisaitl is a four-time 50-goal scorer and has 97 points (35 goals, 62 assists) in 65 games this season. He leads the NHL in goals since the 2018-19 season (359) and is second in points (846), behind Oilers teammate Connor McDavid<\/a>\u00a0(941).<\/p>\n

Edmonton is not fooling itself into thinking Draisaitl can be replaced with 13 games remaining in the regular season. The Oilers (34-26-9) moved into a tie for first place in the Pacific Division with the Anaheim Ducks, who have two games in hand, following the win against the Sharks.<\/p>\n

\u201cInjuries happen. They\u2019re part of the game,\u201d Oilers forward Zach Hyman<\/a> said. \u201cWe\u2019re fortunate that Leon\u2019s been really healthy since I\u2019ve been here (fifth season). I don\u2019t think he\u2019s missed an extended period of time. As a group, we know the position we\u2019re in, we know how tight the standings are. There\u2019s a lot of divisional games and you\u2019re missing one of the best players in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody is just going to come in and replace him. Every line, every player has to play a little bit better and collectively as a group. When you do that, you play better as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The points Edmonton will miss with Draisaitl out will have to be made up by playing better defensively. The Oilers have made a concerted effort to shore up their defense all season and acquired defenseman Connor Murphy<\/a> and forward Jason Dickinson<\/a>\u00a0just prior to the NHL Trade Deadline to help in that regard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re missing a perennial 50-goal scorer, so over 82 games that\u2019s a goal every two or three games,\u201d Hyman said. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot of goals and a lot of assists as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edmonton was happy with its defensive effort in the first and third period against San Jose on Tuesday. The Sharks battled back from a two-goal deficit to tie the game 3-3 in the second period, when they outshot the Oilers 15-12.<\/p>\n

However, they only managed seven shots on goal in the third.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers will have to adjust accordingly without Leon Draisaitl, who is expected to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-544302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544302","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=544302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}