Leon Draisaitl does everything he can to help put Edmonton Oilers in the best possible position for the mail season.
At the same time, the New York Rangers are just trying to make the playoffs what they can do.
Draisaitl, who goes to a career-high 17-game point, will look to help Oilers save a split of his four-game trip on Sunday evening against Rangers.
Draisaitl has registered at least 100 points during four seasons in a row and six in the last seven, which have only become short in the pandemic affected season 2020-21.
On Friday night against the New York Islanders, Draisaitl reached the milestone dramatically and scored his second goal in the game at 3:53 to overtime in Edmonton’s 2-1 victory.
While another prominent individual performance is nice, Draisaitl was happier that Oilers rejected a third loss in a row.
“The two points are much larger than any other personal record,” said Draistaitl, who joined the Colorado Nathan Mackinnon as the first two players who reached 100 points this season.
“Sometimes you need such a game just to grind one and get started.”
Oilers are currently encountering Los Angeles Kings for second place in the Pacific.
Even with Draisaitl and colleague Superstar Connor McDavid in the lead, Edmonton has been held to two goals in each match on this trip.
“There have always been lots of adversity (for the team),” said Edmonton goalkeeper Calvin Pickard, who made 24 rescues Friday for his second victory in three starts this month.
“We are not strangers to it. We have put together some good efforts but we just haven’t been able to score goals.”
In a 6-2 home victory over Rangers on November 23, McDavid had two goals with an assist, Draisaitl published one of each and Stuart Skinner made 32 rescues.
McDavid, which has two goals with 12 assists during a 10-game point streak, owns eight points in seven matches at Madison Square Garden. At the same time, Draisaitl has been held without a point in five of the nine times he played there.
New York returns home after winning two straight on the road after an 0-2 rut.
On Saturday, Vincent did TroCheck twice, Alexis Lafreniere and Artemi Panarin each had a goal with an assist and Igor Shesterkin made 21 rescues in a 4-0 victory on Columbus. The winn was entered New York into the Eastern Conference’s final wild-card place at the moment.
Rangers, who had star defender Adam Fox back Saturday after he missed eight matches with an upper body injury, allowed four goals on the 2-1-0 trip.
“I thought we got better every minute of the game (Saturday),” said Rangers coach Peter Laviolette.
“(But), we have a lot of work to do. There are still teams that are there. … We are responsible for what we do.”
Shesterkin stopped 69 out of 73 shots on the trip, but Jonathan Quick, who gave up seven goals in his last start versus Columbus on March 9, was able to get the call on Sunday.
Panarin has 12 points in eight matches this month.
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