Leon Draisaitl makes his feelings known about his 2 wide open net misses – Source: Imagn
Leon Draisaitl was frustrated after missing two open net chances to put the Edmonton Oilers ahead late in Saturday’s game against the San Jose Sharks. But he made up for it by scoring the overtime winner in the Oilers’ 3-2 victory.
Draisaitl had two chances to give Edmonton the lead in the third period. He hit the post on an open net in the first one. Later, he simply missed the net on another open chance.
“Shit. It’s not a great feeling, every player has those every once in a while,” Leon Draisaitl said of the misses.”Never a great feeling. It’s always one of those where you come back to the bench and are like ‘Oh, if I’d just settled it down for a second, I had more time.'”
Leon Draisaitl acknowledged that in the fast-paced NHL, players’ brains sometimes can’t keep up.
“It’s unlucky,” he said.
Draisaitl had a frustrating night despite scoring the #Oilers OT winner… before that he missed two WIDE open nets in regulation.
I asked him about those chances after the game and, in true Draisaitl fashion, he gave me a great, honest answer.
Story: https://t.co/GbZSeEZO3c
— Preston Hodgkinson (@NHLHodgkinson) December 22, 2024
Despite those misses, Draisaitl rebounded to score the overtime winner, giving the Oilers an important two points. He credited his team’s patience and resilience in sticking with their game plan despite the frustration.
“I think it’s about having a sense of patience,” Leon Draisaitl said. “Sometimes, those games are tricky because you seemingly have the puck the whole night… “There’s some frustration that can creep in, but I thought we did a good job today.”
Mattias Ekholm and Zach Hyman also scored for Edmonton. Luke Kunin and Jan Rutta had the San Jose goals. Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard made 20 saves for the victory. San Jose goalie Yaroslav Askarov nearly stole the win with 39 saves.
Leon Draisaitl and Oilers 3-2 OT win against Sharks
Luke Kunin opened the scoring for the Sharks just four minutes into the first period after finishing off a nice pass from Alex Wennberg. The Oilers responded quickly as Zach Hyman tied it up three and a half minutes later, roofing a cross-crease feed from Connor McDavid.
“These are always exciting and fun if they go your way, so I think we’ve done a good job the last two nights of finding a way to close out a game,” Draisaitl said.”You’ve got to find a way to win any type of hockey game in this league, and the last two nights, we’ve certainly won them the same way.
"These are always exciting & fun… We've done a good job the last two nights of finding a way to close out the game."
Leon Draisaitl on the #Oilers coming back late in the third to win in overtime in back-to-back games.@Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/akssCxo0Rf
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) December 22, 2024
The Sharks responded with another goal in less than a minute later with Jan Rutta’s first goal of the season. The Oilers finally scored in the third period by Mattias Ekholm at the last minute of the game to force an overtime.
In the extra frame, McDavid moved around the defense and found Draisaitl, who fired a one timer past Askarov to secure the 3-2 OT win.
