The Edmonton Oilers could be getting Leon Draisaitl back at just the right time.

Draisaitl practiced for a second straight day on Sunday heading into Game 1 of the Western Conference first-round series against the visiting Anaheim Ducks on Monday night.

Draisaitl sustained a lower-body injury against the Nashville Predators on March 15 and missed the last 14 games of the regular season.

Draisaitl was well on his way to securing his fifth straight 100-point season before finishing with 97 points (35 goals, 62 assists) in 65 games.

Draisaitl centered a line with Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen on Sunday, and was also on the first power-play unit.

“We’ll see how it feels (on Monday), and then, yeah, we’ll make a call from there,” Draisaitl said. “There’s lots of things that go into it. Again, it’s going to take a little bit of time, but I’m going to find my ways to contribute and try to get to my best as quick as I can.”

The Oilers took two out of three against the Ducks in the regular season.

They combined for 11 goals in each of the first two meetings before the Oilers won 4-2 on March 28 in Edmonton. The victory came in the middle of a five-game winning streak that helped the Oilers leapfrog the Ducks for second place in the Pacific Division and earn them home-ice advantage for the series.

“The push we had the last month or so, we’ve played a lot better,” Edmonton defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “We had some big guys go down, and guys come in and fill those spots. The guys in here feel as good as they have all year, going into the playoffs, which absolutely can help our group.”

The Oilers are aware the Ducks have solid goaltending and high-end skill up front that prefers to to play at a fast pace.

“That’s not how we want to play,” Edmonton center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “We want to play tight defensively, and make things really difficult for them and wait for our chances.”

While the Ducks haven’t been to the playoffs in eight years, they do have several veterans with playoff experience.

Alex Killorn won back-to-back Stanley Cup titles with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020-21, John Carlson lifted the Cup with the Washington Capitals in 2018, Chris Kreider played in the Stanley Cup Finals with the New York Rangers in 2014, Mikael Granlund advanced to the Western Conference finals with the Dallas Stars last season, and Jacob Trouba has appeared in 73 playoff games during his career.

And then there’s coach Joel Quenneville, who guided the Chicago Blackhawks to three Stanley Cup titles from 2010-15.

“He calms you a little bit knowing he’s been there, and you can just see it on his face,” Ducks forward Troy Terry said. “He’s won a lot of hockey games, a lot of playoff hockey games. He’s won Cups, and just to see his excitement (at practice on Saturday). Like, you can tell. It’s like Christmas to him, just being able to game plan for one team and just the whole playoff format and the atmosphere. And just seeing him excited, it just shows you how this is what you really play hockey for.”

Quenneville said he gets the most excited for the first game of the season and the first playoff game.

“The best part of winning the Cup is trying to win the Cup, so that starts when they drop the puck on the first game,” Quenneville said.

–Field Level Media

As far as Minnesota Wild forward Marcus Foligno is concerned, the key to regaining control of his team’s first-round playoff series is staying out of the penalty box.

That’s it. Simply keep the same number of players on the ice as the Dallas Stars.

“They’re looking to play 5-on-4,” Marcus Foligno said. “That’s their game. They can’t hang with us 5-on-5. So we’ve just got to be smarter, and myself included.

“But it’s a heated game out there.”

The heat figures to intensify when the Wild face off against the Stars on Wednesday night in Game 3 of their best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinals series in Saint Paul, Minn. The series is tied at 1-1 after the Wild took Game 1 and the Stars responded to win Game 2.

Stars coach Glen Gulutzan heard about Marcus Foligno’s 5-on-5 comment, but he shrugged it off as Game 3 approached.

“He’s probably emotional or whatever,” Gulutzan said. “I don’t know if we need (bulletin-board material). We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing and grind this thing to where we need it to go.

“Obviously, I don’t agree with it.”

The pace of play increased dramatically in Game 2 as both teams traded high-quality scoring chances. One key difference was that the Wild committed eight penalties totaling 16 minutes, which paved the way for the Stars to capitalize on the power play.

Wild coach John Hynes said he felt better after rewatching film of Game 2. He never likes seeing his team lose, but he said the team’s mistakes were correctable and not a sign of a larger, more foundational problem.

“Going back through it, I thought we did a lot of good things,” Hynes said. “… The thing I love about our group is we’re extremely competitive. Even if you (compare) the two games, I think from a competitive aspect of the game, we were there, we didn’t take a step back in that area.

“I think now it’s just understanding that we have to play with emotion and not (be) emotional. There’s a difference in that. To me, that’s controllable.”

One thing the Wild cannot control is the health of injured forwards Mats Zuccarello and Yakov Trenin. Zuccarello was a late scratch before Game 2 because of an upper-body injury, and Trenin left in the first period Monday after absorbing a crushing check from Stars forward Colin Blackwell.

Hynes said he was not sure whether either forward could play in Game 3. If not, he said, there is a chance that the team could dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen instead of the usual combination of 12 forwards and six defensemen.

“That is something that is on the table,” he said. “But also, you look at 12 and six, and you look at the intensity level of playoff games and things like that, I think you want to take that into consideration as well.”

The Stars’ Jake Oettinger and the Wild’s Jesper Wallstedt likely will start in net for the third straight game of the series. Oettinger is 1-1 with a 3.54 goals-against average and an .879 save percentage in the series, and Wallstedt is 1-1 with a 2.02 GAA and a .932 save percentage.

–Field Level Media