{"id":437902,"date":"2026-01-30T01:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T01:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/437902\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T01:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T01:18:07","slug":"leon-draisaitl-talks-about-what-it-will-be-like-to-line-up-vs-connor-mcdavid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/437902\/","title":{"rendered":"Leon Draisaitl Talks About What It Will Be Like To Line Up Vs. Connor McDavid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The two long-time linemates could be on a collision course for an Olympic showdown<\/p>\n<p>PublishedJanuary 29, 2026 5:00 PM EST\u2022UpdatedJanuary 29, 2026 4:39 PM EST<\/p>\n<p>FacebookTwitterEmailCopy Link<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">We&#8217;re just a couple of weeks away from NHL players returning to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/category\/olympics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Olympics<\/a>, and one of the fun things about that is we get to see teammates go head-to-head.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">And there may be no bigger head-to-head teammate clash than watching Edmonton Oilers star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/category\/connor-mcdavid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Connor McDavid<\/a> line up against his long-time running-mate Leon Draisaitl.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">McDavid and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/category\/leon-draisaitl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Draisaitl<\/a> have become one of the most potent offensive combos of their generation, and when it&#8217;s all said and done, likely in all of hockey history.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">However, in Milan, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/category\/edmonton-oilers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Oilers<\/a> captain will suit up for Team Canada, while Draisaitl will be the centerpiece for his native Germany, a team that can sometimes be a surprise contender on the international stage.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Draisaitl was asked what it would be like if the Germans ended up having to face the Canadians during the tournament (starts at the 7:00 mark).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">&#8220;It&#8217;s scary for him,&#8221; Draisaitl joked. &#8220;No, that would be really special, of course, but at the end of the day, it might feel a little weird at first, but when the puck drops, he&#8217;s going to look to give his team the best chance to win, and I&#8217;m going to do the same for our country.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">&#8220;I think that&#8217;s what makes those tournaments so great,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;That would certainly be a unique situation, and an odd feeling, but, yeah, we&#8217;ll see where it goes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">As they alluded to in that clip, this can only happen after the group stage. The Canadians start in Group A with Czechia, Switzerland, and France \u2014 and not only should they move on, but they should probably win the group \u2014 while the Germans get rolling in Group C with Team USA, Denmark, and Latvia.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">READ: <a class=\"decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/sports\/f1-2026-rule-changes-new-terms-explained?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">FORMULA 1 IS TRYING TO CONFUSE THE HELL OUT OF US WITH A SLEW OF BRAND NEW TERMS<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Denmark and Latvia are teams that have a habit of surprising people. Latvia won bronze at the IIHF World Championship in 2023, while Denmark stunned Canada and finished just outside the medals in fourth at the 2025 IIHF World Championship.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Of course, that tournament isn&#8217;t a true best-on-best as it happens during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. So, Germany will probably come out of Group C, along with Team USA, who should win it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">From there, maybe we will get that McDavid\/Draisaitl matchup we all want.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">If it happens, there will be a lot of eyeballs tuning in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two long-time linemates could be on a collision course for an Olympic showdown PublishedJanuary 29, 2026 5:00&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-437902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}