'I Don't Know How Much More We Need to Talk About This': Leon Draisaitl Sick of the Same Old Questions
EDMONTON — The wait is almost over.
Despite both teams being done with their first round series for several days now – fans of the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks will need to wait longer before these two teams clash in a post season matchup not seen for over 30 years.
By the time the puck drops it will have been one week since the puck dropped for Game five of the Oilers series against the Los Angeles Kings. This is a great thing – but also a terrible thing.
It’s great because it allows the team to rest up guys who have bumps and bruises – and should take extra time to keep healthy. It’s terrible because the questions can start to feel repetitive.
Mattias Ekholm. Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports
And some Oilers players would rather look to Wednesday, instead of thinking about October and November.
A prime example of that was when Connor McDavid was asked about if the Canucks have seen the best that the Oilers have to offer this season. His answer is a good window into his thought process, “I could sit here and say all I want…ultimately we’re gonna play a series and I’m looking forward to the challenge – they are a great team.”
Leon Draisaitl was asked several questions yesterday about the upcoming series against the Canucks. For starter’s he was asked about how the Canucks are different from the Los Angeles Kings, “similar – obviously different systems. They played a good series against Nashville [Predators] so we know they are going to defend well and so are we.”
Later on he was asked about being in an all-Canadian matchup, “it’s exciting, obviously the Battle of Alberta was great [a couple years ago], it was fun to be a part of. I’m sure this series will write it’s own story.”
Leon Draisaitl. Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports
The Oilers lost all four meetings with the Canucks during the regular season this year. When asked if there is any extra motivation to get back at a team that had their number during the regular season Draisaitl had this to say, “we don’t need any extra motivation right now – I don’t think any team does.”
At the end of his availability he was asked (again) about how much winning – or losing – a season series ultimately doesn’t matter. At this point Draisaitl expressed a bit of frustration, “I don’t know how much more we need to talk about this,” he began while shaking his head with a bit of a smile on his face.
“We’re going into round two of the Stanley Cup playoffs, we don’t care what happened in the regular season. I bet they don’t either, as much as you think.”
All in all, I think the players are eager to get things going – luckily for them, they only have one more sleep before the opening game of the series.
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