History beckons Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl as his dominant postseason moves within reach of 19-goal record

The Edmonton Oilers return home tied 1-1 in their series with the Vegas Golden Knights coming off of a dominant, 5-1 Game 2 victory. Leon Draisaitl scored another 2 goals to bring his total to 13 on the postseason and has Daily Faceoff Live hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli wondering whether he can eclipse Reggie Leach and Jari Kurri’s 19-goal record. On Monday’s show, the two discussed how far Draisaitl and the Oilers can go this spring.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Things are all tied up at 1 between the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights, but before we look ahead to this evening’s game between the two, let’s look back a bit. Through four periods in this series Leon Draisaitl had 6 goals. He already has the 41st most productive postseason ever, and we’re only 8 games into this thing. Draisaitl is 6 away from Reggie Leach at the top. Frank, I’m not asking whether Draisaitl can get the record at some point; I think we need to have a conversation over whether or not he can catch Reggie Leach by the end of this round. The run he’s on is remarkable.

Frank Seravalli: It’s a totally fair question to ask. I’m going to say he gets to 18 this round, and quite obviously if the Oilers advance to the Western Conference Finals this record will have his name written all over it. This playoff run that he’s been on is incredible.

I love how everyone undermines Draisaitl and says “yeah but he does it on the power play,” as if that makes his goals count any less. Get out of here with that garbage. I’ve talked all year long about how special his power-play season has been and this power play in general has been, but we’re 2 games in and he’s got 3 even-strength goals this series. He’s gotten it done in that way as well.

The thing that’s so scary if you’re the Golden Knights is the fact that Connor McDavid has continued to pile up multi-point games that have essentially gone unnoticed. People aren’t really talking about it but he’s got a ton of points in his pocket. This team in Vegas is in a scary spot if they want to run-and-gun with Edmonton. I don’t know how else you approach playing against the Oilers.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I said that at the beginning of the series. LA tried to slow it down and drown out the Oilers. It didn’t work. Vegas plays that aggressive up-tempo style, and I think if they’re going to run-and-gun, they are going against the best run-and-gun team in the NHL.

I’ll put it this way: the scariest thing for a team playing the Edmonton Oilers is if Connor McDavid is the best player in the series. The second-scariest thing might be if he’s the second-best player in the series, because that means Leon Draisaitl is absolutely taking over the series. 

You can watch the entire episode here…