Germany’s ice hockey star Leon Draisaitl narrowly missed out on a prestigious triumph at the NHL All-Star Games. The Cologne native played a big role at the show event in Toronto and reached the final with Team McDavid, but there the team put together by his teammate Connor McDavid lost to Team Matthews 4:7.
Draisaitl, who is currently on a high with the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL, contributed two assists in the 4-3 penalty shootout win against Team MacKinnon in the semifinals. In the final, the national player then provided two more assists and a goal.
The NHL elite was divided into four teams by team captains McDavid (Edmonton), Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs), Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche) and Quinn Hughes (Vancouver Canucks). In the final and semi-finals, the teams played three-on-three plus goalkeepers for ten minutes twice. Draisaitl took part in the Allstar Games for the fifth time.
In the new week, the North American professional league will return to regular operations. The Oilers and Draisaitl could achieve something historic on Wednesday (4:00 a.m. CET): The Canadians, who started the season poorly, could equal the record of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who played 17 games in the North American professional league in 1992/93, at Stanley Cup winners Vegas Golden Knights won the series.
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Thanks to the ongoing successful run of 16 wins in a row, Edmonton has improved to third place in the Pacific Division in recent weeks. This would mean playoff participation at the end of the regular season.