Draisaitl injury all but confirmed following slow start to round 3

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Noel Drolet
May 28, 2024 (7:17)

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Oilers fans concerned with Draisaitl disappearing due to injury.

With how healthy the Oilers have been and with their track record in previous years, it was bound to happen that at least one of their superstars was going to get injured. At the start of the series there were rumours of a broken finger on his shooting hand, which seem to be true given his round 3 performance.

After leading the league with 24 points in 12 games, Draisaitl has just 1 point in his 3 games against Dallas and 0 points in his last 2. This is a terrible time for Draisaitl to go quiet, when he has been the league's best playoff performer all year so far.

His production was unsustainable, but he just looks absolutely terrible out there. He's only had 8 shots so far this series, which is very scary to see. Draisaitl has an insane shot and loves working the hash marks on the powerplay so he can unleash his lethal one timer. We've seen no powerplay success against the Stars with the Oilers going 0-5 in the series, which could be in part due to this lack of shooting.

There is one thing the Oilers' superstars know how to do though, which is how to bounce back from a terrible loss. McDavid and Draisaitl have been great in games following a loss so far in the playoffs and we hope to see that same success again.

After today's loss the record updates to 4-1, but the points still go up to 24 between the two of them in these 5 games. The Oilers leaders need to reset the team mentally, and go out there and lead on the ice with a dominant performance. The series is far from over, but the Oilers team that we saw tonight has no place in the conference finals.