With Leon Draisaitl injured for the rest of the regular season, the rest of the Edmonton Oilers' roster has been called upon to take on more of the workload going into the final few weeks.
The Edmonton Oilers have no chance of replacing Leon Draisaitl's impact on the lineup.
With Draisaitl recovering from a lower-body injury for what could be the rest of the regular season, the Oilers need more people than just Connor McDavid, Evan Bouchard and Zach Hyman to help them secure home-ice advantage in the playoffs.
They did that in their last game and will need to do it again when they face the team that crushed their Stanley Cup hopes in back-to-back years on Thursday.
In Edmonton's 5-3 win over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday, 13 players recorded at least a point. Call-up Max Jones scored his second goal in 10 NHL games this season, which held as the game-winner.
Without Draisaitl in the lineup, Matt Savoie has slotted into his role on the top power-play unit. The team's giving him a chance to be a solid top-nine forward, recording 10 points in his last 11 games.
The rest of the Oilers' roster must continue to elevate its game on both ends of the ice until his return.
"We're not going to be able to score five every night, but its nice when guys are feeling apart of it," Hyman said Tuesday. "Nobody's going to replace Leon. He's one of the best players in the world, collectively as a group everyone's got to raise their game, be a little bit better."
The question is whether the Oilers meet the moment against the Florida Panthers on Thursday and the final 12 regular-season games after that in a campaign that has been one of the toughest in the McDavid and Draisaitl Era. The Oilers are second in the Pacific Division with 71 points, but the Vegas Golden Knights are one point behind with a game in hand.
Avry Lewis-McDougall has more in his latest video column up above.
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