BLOG: Draisaitl enjoying race with MacKinnon & others for NHL's scoring title

EDMONTON, AB – Good luck deciding what to lay your eyes on Friday.

There’ll be a lot of talent (almost too much) on the ice to follow at one time, and we're not even officially into the 4 Nations Face-Off break yet.

At the centre of Friday's high-value clash at Rogers Place you'll find the League's two hottest scorers, who are looking like they're gonna duke it out until the final game of the regular season.

The Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche always make for an entertaining fixture with the depth of talent both sides have in their squads, and Friday’s tilt at Rogers Place will quite possibly be their biggest match since Game 4 of the 2022 Western Conference Final.

When beginning to discuss the conclusion to the season series, which the Oilers are looking to sweep for the first time since 2016-17, we’d be remiss starting anywhere other than the NHL’s only two players to exceed 80 points this year in Nathan MacKinnon and Leon Draisaitl.

The two superstars have gone shot for shot all season with MacKinnon re-taking the League’s scoring lead from Draisaitl on Thursday night with three assists in a win for the Avalanche over the Calgary Flames to reach 83 points – just a day after the German’s goal and assist in Chicago lifted him into first place on 81, including his league-leading 38 goals.

Surprisingly, MacKinnon has never led the League in scoring at the end of the regular season despite winning the Hart Memorial Trophy in 2023-24 with 140 points, finishing second to Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov, who had 144 as a member of the 100-assist club with McDavid.

Draisaitl led the NHL in scoring in 2019-20 over 71 games with 110 points, winning the Hart Mermorial, Art Ross Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award that campaign.

Still, Kucherov is right behind them this season by two points with 79, while Toronto’s Mitch Marner and Oilers captain Connor McDavid are the only other players to cross 70 points.

Even for MacKinnon and Draisaitl, the entertainment value this season from each of their bodies of work has been incredibly high, and whoever ends up on top will be deserving of the accolade as the League’s leading scorer.

“I'd be lying if I said I wasn't aware of where I'm at [in the race], but there's so many great players up there. It's so tight,” Draisaitl said. “This is a one-to-two game swing that can go in any direction, and I'm aware of that. This is not the time right now to throw every egg in the basket and try and be the leader.

“Whoever it ends up winning is deserving of it, and there's lots of guys in the race.”

Draisaitl attributed part of his success this season to a greater attention to detail on the defensive side of the puck, echoing the cliché that “good defence leads to offence.”

“I've been obviously valuing that a lot this season and I think it has helped me,” he said. “At the same time, when you're defending hard and coming back, you give up some offense as well and that's part of it, too. So I think it goes both ways a little bit.”

McDavid backed up his other half of the Dynamic Duo when it comes to his defensive prowess this season, while mentioning it'd be amazing to see him get rewarded for his play on both sides of the puck this year by winning a scoring title.

"He's been so good, and I think just his backtracking," McDavid said. "I know it's not obviously the offensive side that you want me to talk about, but he's just tracking back hard, winning battles, keeping pucks alive and making great plays. It's been great."

Not only would it be well-deserved for Draisaitl, but it's something that's important to every one in the Oilers locker room.

"Whether it's a young guy getting his first NHL goal or maybe a guy getting a hat trick – whatever it is, the guys are close," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "They want each other to succeed, and another one is having a guy win a scoring race or get the most goals that sort of thing, so Leon's a very popular guy in the dressing room. I obviously want him to succeed, and having that goal or that accomplishment at the end of the year by winning some hardware at the end, the guys want them to do that. Leon, of course, has got other things on his mind, but every player wants to have succeed or succeed and accomplish those kind of things."

We haven’t even dived into the likes of McDavid and Makar, who are deserving of the limelight on their own on most nights.

Combined with MacKinnon and Draisaitl on their own respective teams, Draisaitl & McDavid rank second in the NHL for combined goals by teammates this season (60) and first in points (152), while MacKinnon & Makar rank second for points (143).

The duo of MacKinnon and Makar always require special attention in the same vein as Draisaitl and McDavid for the Oilers, making sure they’re always aware of when they have the puck.

“I know the last time we played them, we were fortunate. We spent a lot of time in the offensive zone,” Knoblauch said. “But when they get the puck, they're so dynamic, and you need to be ready for their quick attack, whether that's coming out of the zone or they’re moving around the offensive zone, and it's not really scripted. Good players can just play off free play, and those two are very dangerous.

“It's a cliché, but the more that we can spend in the offensive zone, the more they have to defend, the better off we are. As soon as they touch that puck, we better be on an alert because they're looking to attack and they're two of the top skaters in the NHL with great offensive ability.”