"Playoff makeup": Draisaitl gets face stitched up at Oilers skate
It seems like nothing can slow down Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl these days — not even a little errant whack to the face.
At Friday’s skate ahead of Saturday’s Game 3, Draisaitl left the ice a little early after getting clipped in the face by one of his teammates.
Draisaitl just took a puck or stick in the face, headed off with a towel. Didn’t look too bad but headed down tunnel.
— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) May 5, 2023
Asked by TSN’s Ryan Rishaug about Draisaitl’s condition, Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft had a bit of banter with the longtime beat reporter.
Woodcroft gave Rishaug some sass this afternoon lmao pic.twitter.com/OZ9meQU03r
— Oiler Alert (@OilerAlert) May 6, 2023
“Did he leave the ice?” Woodcroft joked with Rishaug. “I would say it’s a little bit of playoff makeup, I think he probably had one or two sutures. He’ll be just fine.”
No videos of the incident have surfaced yet, but it appears that Draisaitl will be in the lineup for Edmonton come Saturday night.
Draisaitl has 11 goals, four assists and a plus-minus of +5 in seven games in the 2023 playoffs. Over five separate appearances in the postseason, Draisaitl has 29 goals, 45 assists and a plus-minus of +16 in 44 games in the playoffs in his career.
“For Leon, he typically raises his game at this time of year,” Woodcroft told reporters earlier in the week. “His name’s right up there with some of the top people in the history of the game.”
Game 1 was arguably the most impressive game of Draisaitl’s career, as he picked up four goals in a road playoff game — though Edmonton still fell 6-4 to the Golden Knights to trail 1-0 in the series.
“I just don’t think we played very well tonight,” Woodcroft told reporters after Game 1. “We did some things to shoot ourselves in the foot. We can be better and we will be better. But tonight wasn’t our night… we made some uncharacteristic individual errors, and we were made to pay.”
Game 2 gets underway later today in Vegas, with puck drop set for 5 pm MT/7 pm ET, while being broadcast on both CBC and Sportsnet.
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