Ice Hockey NHL – Leon Draisaitls Next start to dream of dreaming

The ice hockey world championship ended almost a week ago, but the German national team had been free for a long time. After several good years at the highlight of the season, the team was disappointing this time before the quarter -finals. Some stars from the best league in the world, the NHL, were missing. The best German player of all time was missed: Leon Draisaitl. But he had a good reason for his absence. He just plays too well. For the second time in series, he and his Edmonton Oilers made it into the NHL final series, which never pauses for World Championships. At the World Cup, only those who fail early in the race for the title in North America can play. And that is exactly what Draisaitl knows how to prevent regularity.

Anyone who looks at the statistics of the now 29-year-old native of Cologne can understand why the German national coach regularly travels to him to clarify whether he would go on the ice for the national team at all, and why his team from Canada would never release him for it. In the NHL main round, the son of the ex-international Peter Draisaitl won the goal scorer with 52 goals in 71 games and some lead. He also scored in 14 of the following 16 playoff games as a template or goal scorer. He scored the decisive goal in an extension twice. And in the semi-final series against Dallas, Draisaitl was involved in the always important 1-0 lead goal in four out of five games. The statistics crazy Americans, including the complicated calculation formula, have developed the value “created gates”, which is intended to calculate the contribution of a player to the total number of points of his team. Draisaitl is also in front.

Nd.Diewoche – Our weekly newsletter

With our weekly newsletter . We’re Doing Look at the most important topics of the week and read them Highlights our Saturday edition on Friday. Get the free subscription here.

So it is no wonder that the German, who extended his contract by eight years last autumn – at the end he will have earned $ 112 million – is also among the last three candidates in the election as the most valuable player (MVP). He won the title in 2020. He can therefore do without the and all other individual prices, as he always emphasizes. His goal is the Stanley Cup, the trophy, which all players of the NHL master can stretch up at the end of the season.

For this, Edmonton now has to conquer the Florida Panthers. The team, of all things, that Draisaitl’s title dream after the maximum possible seven games had been broken last year. This time it should be different, says the Cologne native: »We are gaining because a lot of people are now scoring goals, our width is incredible. This is exactly what you need in the playoffs. ”In addition, the Oilers had learned a lot from the bitter defeat a year ago. “It’s nice to get the chance of revenge.”