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People always like to say that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

This is often true, but it’s also true that sometimes you don’t know what you have until someone else is gone.

And that was the case with Leon Draisaitl on Thursday in Edmonton’s first game without injured captain Connor McDavid. We’ve all known for years that Draisaitl’s best level of play is as good as the NHL.

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He’s a proven warrior, a proven money player, and one of the best shooters in the game who also happens to be one of the best passers in the game.

So when the Oilers needed something special in the absence of their captain, it’s no surprise that the tenacious German answered the call, once again reminding Edmonton hockey fans that even if there’s only one Connor McDavid, you better believe there’s only one Leon Draisaitl. .

The score line in Edmonton’s 5-1 win over the Nashville Predators had his fingerprints all over it: he scored the first goal, scored the third and fourth goals and finished plus three in 19:20 of game time. ice.

“He did it from the beginning,” head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “You knew that with Connor gone, we needed someone to step up. Everyone needed it, but the biggest is your best player and he was our best player. Tonight he did not disappoint.

“Everything he did tonight, from making key plays to scoring in big moments, you could tell he was ready to play, and that first shift showed it. “

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Draisaitl knew the majority of the game was going to fall on his shoulders and he was fine with that. He enjoys the challenge. You can’t be one of the five or six best players in the world by avoiding a difficult challenge.

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“When he is away it puts a little more pressure on me but I like these situations,” he said. “I think I’ve always been good at stepping up in those moments. Obviously we miss him, you can’t replace him, but we have to find him as a group.

That’s what they did. It wasn’t a one-man show at all – on a night when the Oilers needed everyone to contribute, Zach Hyman and Viktor Arvidsson scored their first goals of the season, and the Oilers, for the most part, were at the top. defensively. They will need it more in the future.

“You’ll never deal with Connor leaving,” Draisaitl said. “There will always be pieces missing. He’s the best player in the world so we’ll definitely miss him but it also creates a lot of opportunities, a lot of research for other players. I thought tonight everyone did a great job accepting that, staying together and playing collectively as a group.

Noah’s offense

As if the night wasn’t perfect enough as Edmonton scored a 5-1 decision, Noah Philp, in his first-ever NHL game, assisted on Corey Perry’s game-winning goal.

You couldn’t have written things better on that front either.

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“It was really his first presence of the game,” said Knoblauch, who took the 26-year-old center out a few seconds earlier in the period. “He had a very good match tonight.”

Philp played just under 12 minutes, had three shots on goal, one assist and posted a solid 10-4 record in the faceoff circle.

“For him to do that tonight against a very good faceoff team is very impressive,” Knoblauch said. “Very important to us.”

After taking time off last season to address his mental health, Philp has taken over this year. He looked good enough in training camp to make the team and his performance Thursday night, against a tougher completion, on a team that didn’t have McDavid, proved that these exhibition games n ‘were no coincidence.

“It was an incredible match,” he smiled afterwards. “The energy from all the guys was so much fun to be a part of and having my family here was amazing.”

“They were all standing in front of the glass (for his traditional solo turn during the pre-match warm-up). I went up, gave them a smile and took a quick photo. It was quite a precious moment for all of us.

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