Leon Draisaitl has been on fire with the Edmonton Oilers in the playoffs, but could he be nursing an injury?
The German power-forward currently leads the NHL in playoff scoring with 24 points through 12 games and has been the team’s MVP through two rounds. He was banged up at the beginning of Edmonton’s series with the Vancouver Canucks but found a way to battle through everything.
It appears, however, that fans have noticed something peculiar about Draisaitl in one of the videos the team posted of players getting off their plane in Dallas yesterday. It looked like Draisaitl was wearing some sort of brace on his finger.
The Oilers later deleted the post, but the internet was quick to snag a screenshot before it was taken down.
This is interesting…
The Oilers posted a video of their team getting off the team plane yesterday. Pretty ordinary stuff. But in the video they accidently showed Leon Draisaitl with his fingers taped up…Fans pointed it out and they deleted the post 👀#LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/gUQqMwOugH— Any Action Sports Cast (@AnyAction_) May 23, 2024
Draisaitl’s original injury was explained as cramps by head coach Kris Knoblauch and it didn’t look like it affected his play on the ice all that much. That injury supposedly happened in Game 1 against the Canucks, and Draisaitl managed to snag 12 points in the next six games after that.
There was a moment in Game 7, however, where an injury to his finger could have occurred. It happened in the second period when he blocked a shot from Canucks forward Conor Garland that seemed to hit him in the hand shown in the photo. He shook it off at the time and remained in the game.
If there is an injury, it doesn’t appear to be that serious. Draisaitl was a full participant in practice yesterday, and there has been zero indication that he will be missing any time. Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch has also not talked about Draisaitl fighting an injury of this kind.
We’ll see if anything comes of it during tonight’s series opener.