Leon Draisaitl already making a bigger impact for Edmonton Oilers in Stanley Cup Final

Leon Draisaitl was held without a goal in last year's Stanley Cup Final.

A lot of people figured he played hurt throughout that series and it ended up being reported that he'd broken a rib and his left index finger the second round against the Canucks (the former apparently on a hit, the latter blocking a shot). Those are the kinds of injuries that will certainly limit you.

But this time around, Draisaitl is apparently as healthy as you can be this deep into June, and he took all of 66 to break his Cup Final goalless drought. He scored again deep into overtime. And if Florida doesn't end up having an answer for that, well, it wouldn't be the first time Draisaitl victimized an opponent.

The consensus coming into last night's Game 1 was that both the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers are better teams now than they were in their first meeting for the Cup a year ago. Except, of course, that Zach Hyman is done for the postseason with a dislocated wrist, and that is seen as something of a great leveler, at least insofar as bringing this year's Oiler roster back to equilibrium with last year. But that's only because it's easy to forget the various injury reports the Oilers issued in the wake of their loss — which you'll recall was decided by a 2-1 score in Game 7 — and the fact that Draisaitl went 0-3—3 with a minus-2 and only 16 shots on goal doesn't loom as large as the all-hands-on-deck approach that pushed the Panthers through to their first title in franchise history.

Last year, Edmonton got to within a goal of OT in Game 7 because Connor McDavid was everything you would want him to be, despite also playing through a fairly serious injury. He had a point on nearly half of all Oiler goals. Draisaitl wasn't exactly a passenger, but he also wasn't the kind of dominant force he has shown throughout this postseason. And if you wanna say that was the difference in a razor-thin series, it would be hard to argue.

Both teams roared into the Cup Final. The Oilers scored 22 goals in five games against a Dallas Stars team that was purported to be world class; they turned Jake Oettinger from the presumptive U.S. starter at the Olympics to a guy his own coach was saying couldn't close the deal against Edmonton. The Panthers, meanwhile, dropped 21 on Carolina in what was supposed to be a like-for-like rock fight but turned into a one-sided bloodbath. Who would crack first defensively would likely dictate the early outcomes, even if both teams could score in bursts.

But this time around, the injury shoe is on the other foot. Instead of Edmonton's second-best player being so hurt he could barely shoot the puck, it's Florida's who has been limited. Matthew Tkachuk missed most of the second half of the regular season and returned for the playoffs looking not quite like the All-Star caliber player we've come to expect. He has just two goals and two primary assists at 5-on-5 in this postseason, but has been more effective at creating looks on the power play (presumably because he doesn't have to be as mobile).

Beyond Tkachuk, it did feel like Florida's other best player, Aleksander Barkov, was largely absent from the proceedings. Not that he was bad, necessarily, but you didn't hear his name very often and, if the Oilers are gonna have McDavid and Draisaitl going, that feels like it might end up being a problem over the course of a best-of-seven. Florida still did a good job gumming up the works through the neutral zone — felt like you could count Edmonton's per-period controlled entries on one hand — and taking advantage of the relatively few opportunities they did generate, helped in no small part by Edmonton's iffy challenge on the series-opening goal.

Florida has the offensive depth Edmonton largely does not. As we saw in Game 1, Sam Bennett is a menace in a way no one on the Oilers can be. Sam Reinhart can have a big game. And if Brad Marchand is, like, your fifth or sixth best forward, you're in great shape.

But you're in way better shape than most teams in NHL history if, when you need a goal or just have a power play, you can put McDavid and Draisaitl out on the ice together. They didn't even have a monster production game by their standard, but they controlled the play and got on the scoresheet. If they need to reach deeper into the bag, we know they have that capacity, no matter how good Florida is through the neutral zone.

So you gotta think Kris Knoblauch will take a formula that's "overall improved Oilers team plus fully healthy Draisaitl and McDavid minus Hyman" versus "overall improved Panthers minus 20 percent of Tkachuk." Having two of the four or five best players on earth as healthy as possible is a major, major advantage. As long as you can get everyone else going.

And sometimes, because Draisaitl's healthy this time around, even if you don't.