EDMONTON, AB - Instead of preparing for what would've been the penultimate game of the regular season on Tuesday against the Vegas Golden Knights, Leon Draisaitl is stuck inside like the rest of us.
Instead of gearing up for a run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Deutschland Dangler can only watch re-runs on Sportsnet.
"I've watched a few of them sitting on the couch," Draisaitl said during a Zoom conference call with local media Monday morning. "I watched Game 5 against San Jose a couple of years ago, and it's a little bit of a tease I'd say."
The stockpiles of shows on Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Crave during this time of isolation isn't any sort of replacement for sharing a Cup run with Oil Country after the heights of coming within a game of the Western Conference Finals four seasons ago.
In most cases, the intermission from action just sharpens your appetite for the game.
"You start to miss it even more, so sometimes it's better watching 'Friends' than hockey," Draisaitl said.
"It's not ideal right now. It's not an ideal situation for any of the players. But I think once a decision is made and there's some clarity, and if it is hopefully going back to playing, then it'll be very exciting and everyone will be fired up to play again."
BLOG: Draisaitl keeping outlook positive for return of NHL season
"Stay positive... We all want to get back to playing as soon as possible, but right now there are more important things going on in the world and we have to accept that," the German said
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