No player in the NHL has dominated a team the way Leon Draisaitl has owned the Nashville Predators recently.

Draisaitl has 21 goals and 39 points in his last 15 games against the Predators dating back to the 2019-20 season. Only one other player in the NHL has averaged over 1.00 goal/game against an opponent (minimum 10 GP) in that span. That player is also Draisaitl with 16 goals in 15 games v. Anaheim.

Draisaitl, by his standards, is in a goal scoring funk with only three goals in his last 13 games, and all three came in a hat trick performance against Calgary. He does have 20 points in those 13 games, so it’s not like he’s struggling, but scoring a goal in only one of the previous 13 games isn’t normal for Draisaitl and a date with the Predators could be just what he needs to light the lamp.

Since the start of the 2019-20 season only four players have 19+ goals against an opponent, and Draisaitl has done it three times.

He has 24 goals in 29 games v. Vancouver.

He has 21 in 15 games against Nashville.

He has 19 in 23 games against Winnipeg.

Alex Ovechkin has 19 in 27 games v. New Jersey.

Auston Matthews has 19 in 28 games v. Montreal.

Connor McDavid has 19 in 29 games v. Calgary.

No player in the NHL has crushed teams to the level Draisaitl has over the past 6.5 seasons. I calculated all situations where a player scored at least 30 points and averaged over 1.6 points/game against an opponent since 2019-20. I found a total of 23 instances and Draisaitl produced seven of them. He’s averaged 2+ points against four different organizations the past 6.5 seasons.

His running mate, McDavid, has also scored 30+ points and 1.6 points/game against seven different opponents. Nathan MacKinnon did it three times while Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, Cale Makar, Mitch Marner, David Pastrnak and Sam Reinhart did it once. While Draisaitl has made it look easy, against multiple teams, his level of dominance against Nashville is impressive.

He’s had five points three times, four points once and five games with three points. He’s had as many games with five points as he’s had zero points.

He has more multi-goal games (eight) than games with no goals (five).

The Oilers are 13-1-1 in those games and have outscored the Predators 66 to 34. Not only has Draisaitl crushed them offensively, but the Oilers have also been quite good defensively, allowing two goals or fewer 10 times. They allowed three twice, and the only game they lost in regulation was 5-2.

The Oilers and Draisaitl have owned the Predators and could use a repeat performance tonight to pick up their first win in 2026.

SNAPSHOTS…

— Kasperi Kapanen will play his seventh game of the season and first since October 19th. He should give the Oilers a boost in speed and physicality, and Kris Knoblauch is hoping he can find the chemistry he had with Leon Draisaitl in last year’s playoffs as they will start on a line together.

— The Predators have played much better recently winning seven of their last 10 to move within three points of the final Wildcard spot. Their offence has emerged with 4+ goals in five of their victories, while they’ve allowed 16 goals in their seven victories. They allowed 11 goals in their three losses and only scored four goals.

— Steven Stamkos has six goals in his last eight games including the 600th goal of his career. He became the 22nd player in NHL history to score 600 and his next goal will tie him with Jari Kurri (601) for 21st. He will likely pass Kurri, Dino Ciccarelli (608) and Bobby Hull (610) this season. Stamkos had 12 goals in his first 31 games, before ripping off six in his last eight.

— The Predators’ PP is 30.8 percent in their last 10 games scoring eight goals on 26 opportunities. In their first 31 games their PP was only 17.3% with 17 goals on 98 chances. It is interesting to note that the Predators’ offence and PP has actually gotten better since Jonathan Marchessault got injured on December 17th. Marchessault led the Predators with four PP goals at that point, but they’ve made some adjustments since his injury, and it has led to more goals on the man advantage. Something to monitor to see how they fare when he returns.

— Trent Frederic and Andrew Mangiapane will be healthy scratches tonight. The Oilers will need to make a transaction to activate Kapanen. I’d guess they move Tristan Jarry to LTIR to make room for Kapanen. The Oilers currently have $1.195m in cap space, but Kapanen has a $1.3m cap hit. So, moving Jarry to LTIR, retroactive to December 19th, means he will be eligible to play next Monday in Chicago. He might not be ready then, but he’d be eligible to return so moving him to LTIR is the smart play.

The big decision will arrive with Jake Walman and Jarry are healthy. The Oilers could activate Walman and send Riley Stillman to the AHL and be cap- compliant with Jarry on LTIR, but once Jarry is ready to play they will need to clear out around $3.5m. And that’s where Andrew Mangiapane comes in. Stan Bowman is working the phones looking for a trade, and don’t be surprised to see one occur soon as Walman likely returns next Tuesday in Nashville, and Jarry is likely ready by the 17th or 18th.

LINEUPS…

Oilers…

RNH – McDavid – Hyman
Podkolzin – Draisaitl – Kapanen
Howard – Henrique – Roslovic
Janmark – Lazar – Savoie

Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Nurse
Stastney – Emberson

Ingram

Connor Ingram is looking for a bounce-back effort after a below average performance against Boston. His first three games were very good, and he’ll need to play well again. Kevin Woodley pointed out that since the Skinner-Jarry trade, Calvin Pickard is 10th in adjusted sv%. He’s only made four starts in that time, but his numbers are much better than early on. It is a small sample size, but Pickard clearly sees the goalie situation and has responded by playing well as the team will need to make a goalie decision with Jarry returns.

Predators…

Forsberg – O’Reilly – Evangelista
Bunting – Haula – Stamkos
Jost – Svechkov
Schaefer – McCarron – Smith

Josi – Perbix
Skjei – Wilsby
Hague – Blankenburg
Barron

Saros

The Predators dressed 11 forwards and 7 D-men in Calgary. They might do the same tonight, or they could insert rookie Matthew Wood in the lineup. Head coach Andrew Brunette said there would be some game-time decisions.

TONIGHT…