Draisaitl excited forhome game
Sellout crowd as Oilers suit up in Cologne, Germany
COLOGNE Milan Lucic thinks Leon Draisaitl might get the rock star treatment in his hometown, mobbed at every corner of this beautiful city, but Draisaitl might get more requests for a photo walking through West Edmonton Mall than his birthplace’s medieval Old Town.
The Edmonton Oilers centre has no illusions about where hockey rates in his homeland compared to the fever over soccer and a Cologne-born player like Jonas Hector.
“Me? I don’t get recognized very much on the streets. Maybe here and there but it’s pretty tame. Now, in a hockey rink, it gets crazy,” said Draisaitl, who was gobsmacked when an Oilers friendly against the Kolner Haie Sharks of the Deutsche Eishockey League on Wednesday sold out quickly.
“Sold out in 10 minutes and 40 seconds, I think,” he said.
The 18,500-seat Lanxess Arena will be full to see their hometown boy, and Tobias Rieder, who is from Landshut, near Munich. And, of course, Connor McDavid.
“They’re going to see the best player in the world playing live,” said Draisaitl, proud to play against his dad Peter’s Kolner Haie team.
Peter, 52, played forward on the German Olympic team in Calgary in 1988 and in 1998 against the NHL stars in Japan.
“For Cologne and the fans here, this is great. They’re all excited,” said former Oilers winger Ryan Jones, who is in his fifth year with Kolner Haie.
“They ’re used to seeing, if not guys at the end of their (North American) careers, then ones like me who had an injury which prevented them from playing over there anymore — or players who don’t want to grind it out in the American league any longer and they get a little more money in Germany.
“The Cologne fans are getting Leon’s homecoming and Connor.”
The 20-year-old Lanxess Arena is the largest hockey barn outside North America.
“For the Oilers fans, I don’t know how they’re looking at this. I hope they’re excited as well, but at the same time, their players are going all the way to Germany to play a team in another league in an exhibition and that’s tough.
“That’s like us when we play teams in Austria or the second-division German teams. There’s a worry somebody might get hurt,” Jones said.
This will be the Oilers’ NHL lineup, though, because they have to be down to their 23-man roster limit by Oct. 2. Apart from Jones, Kolner Haie will also have ex- Oilers Corey Potter, the Sharks’ assistant captain, and tough guy Steve Pinizzotto, plus several German national team members.
“People from my hometown, six hours by car from Cologne, are trying to get tickets and come up for the game. They never get a chance to see a full NHL team,” Rieder said. “Growing up in Landshut, there was this little show on Thursday nights where they would show NHL highlights but with NHL Game Center now, it’s more popular with the fans.”