Why Leon Draisaitl should be in Hart Trophy talks, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins heats up, and the Oilers almost blew it against the Ducks

When the Edmonton Oilers and Anaheim Ducks last met four days ago, our boys put in one of their worst efforts of the season and deservedly lost. Luckily, the schedule afforded them the chance at revenge, with the rematch providing the opportunity to right that wrong. And while it wasn’t the smoothest ride to victory, the Oilers managed to squeak out a 3-2 win over the suddenly red-hot Ducks.

LEON DRAISAITL SAVES THE DAY AGAIN

Make it nine game-winning goals for Leon Draisaitl after he picked up the Oilers’ third and deciding goal in the final moments of the third period. With the goal, Draisaitl added yet another piece of evidence to the table to show why his name should be included in the conversation for the Hart Trophy. Not only is the guy putting pucks in the net on an almost nightly basis — mostly at even strength, I should add — but he’s also scoring them at the most clutch moments of the game time after time.

Draisaitl’s 28th goal of the year extended his point to 13 games, where he’s amassed an incredible 25 points (11G, 14A) and looked borderline unstoppable in the process. But more importantly, he’s not cheating for offence at the expense of his defensive responsibilities. I’d challenge you to find more than a small handful of instances where he took his time getting back in the zone over the past few months, and it’s showing evolution to his game that could pay endless dividends down the stretch.
Combining what he’s doing at both ends of the rink creates a magical viewing experience for Oilers fans and pain for the opposition. If that’s not worthy of some Hart Trophy talk for our handsome German, then I don’t know if he’s getting enough coverage around the league. The guy is playing out of his mind right now.

RYAN NUGENT-HOPKINS IS HEATING UP

I’m not going to sit here and pretend that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has had a very good start to his 2024-25 season, but I will say that he’s been figuring it out offensively a whole lot more these last few weeks. With the power play goal he scored in the first period — his second goal in as many games — RNH has three goals in his last four games and seven points in his last nine. Having him pick up the pace down the stretch would be a blessing, and I think he’s showing some signs of getting there.
Nuge only had one goal through the first 19 games but has since picked up eight in the last 18, and if he can maintain this new pace, he’ll be well on his way to a sixth 20-goal season. That puts him much more in line with his career average, which I’d call a win, given that he went a quarter of the season with only one goal. Even though we’re a long way from the pace that saw him put up his unicorn 104-point season, having Nugent-Hopkins firing on all cylinders down the stretch will be important for the team’s success, given how many areas of the game he touches.

THE OILERS BLOW ANOTHER TWO-GOAL LEAD

The more I write about the Oilers blowing two-goal leads, the angrier I get with every keystroke. I don’t know what is going on with this team right now, but their inability to maintain leads they’ve built for themselves is endlessly annoying. To make matters worse, their two-goal gaff on Friday came at the hands of the bottom-feeding Anaheim Ducks. It’s not like a Cup contender came back to wipe out their lead, but instead, a team likely to be in lottery contention.
I don’t know why the Oilers have periods where they take their foot off the gas in the back half of games, but that’s easily their worst team trait right now. But outside of working through the problem with practice and video and committing to a full 60-minute game, I don’t know what to suggest they do outside of spitting out some cliche like dialling it in. All I know for sure is that this trend of blowing or, in this case, nearly blowing third period leads needs to stop and it needs to stop yesterday.