Let’s cut to the chase.

Leon Draisaitl, out for a month with a suspected knee ligament tear, is playing Game 1 against the Anaheim Ducks. He’s gone from a possible to a probable, knowing his drive. After several days wearing a grey fifth-line jersey in team skates, Draisaitl was tramping up and down the ice Friday in a regular white jersey, in the middle with his usual winger Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen.

Yeah, he needs the medical staff to sign off officially, but Draisaitl knows his body better than anybody. He’s getting past the pencil him in stage. Not quite pen, but …

“We’re getting him as close as possible to game-ready and to do that we’re putting him with players in practice he would most likely play with,” said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch after Friday’s session with one more full skate for sure, Sunday, before Monday’ game and possibly an option morning skate.

“He’s played a lot with Pods and Kapanen this year and last and sometime during the playoffs that would be a line for me,” said Knoblauch, who has said Draisaitl, who finished with 97 points after taking a hit from Ozzy Wiesblatt in a Nashville game March 15, would be back some time in Round 1. But, the way he’s skating, it’s not Game 3 or Game 4.

Unless he has a setback.

What are Knoblauch’s eyes showing him?

“When we had our team photo two or three weeks ago, he looked ready to me. He looked effortless on the ice. That doesn’t say the whole story of what’s underneath, but it’s up to the doctors to say he’s ready, that he’s not at risk of damaging something. We’ll wait for that,” said Knoblauch.

While Draisaitl looks like he could be the second-line centre, the chances of Jason Dickinson getting the green light for Game 1 is more dim. He didn’t skate with the main group Friday.

He’s been out 10 days after taking a shot off his leg in San Jose.

Is it a pain threshold thing with Dickinson or a doctor’s call?

The latter.

“He was on the ice on his own, skating, today. I saw our training staff afterwards and I do expect him on the ice for practice with the whole team on Sunday,” said Knoblauch, who has a first line with Connor McDavid between Matt Savoie and Zach Hyman and a fourth with Josh Samanski centring Colton Dach and Trent Frederic, and is trying for familiar pairs of linemates on the other two — Draisaitl with Podkolzin, Nugent-Hopkins with Jack Roslovic.

“We’ve got a lot of balls up in the air. We don’t know about Leon, if Dickinson can play Game 1. We have some question marks,” said Knoblauch.

RelatedPICK YOUR SPOT

Calvin Pickard is back from AHL playoff-bound Bakersfield after going to the farm after the Olympic break, back as third goalie for the Oilers NHL post-season run. He’ll only dress if Connor Ingram or Tristan Jarry gets hurt but he’ll have his family by his side here. With his daughter in kindergarten, his wife stayed in Edmonton after he cleared waivers. Pickard was living in a hotel in Bako, hardly ideal, until getting a place with Alec Regula.

Pickard played eight games on the farm in concert with Matt Tomkins in the oftimes chaotic AHL, where goalies are left helpless, at times, with breakdowns. He had 3.26 average and an .886 save percentage. The NHL allows for a third goalie on every playoff team to be recalled from the AHL on an emergency basis. They can practise and serve as the safety net if anybody gets hurt in the playoffs. When Bako brought back goalie Connor Ungar from the ECHL this week, it telegraphed that Pickard was rejoining the Oilers.

Pickard is tickled to be back, leading the stretching in the middle of the ice, post-practice Friday. “We’re excited to have him back. I know how popular he is and how much he means to our room. He is a definitely a glue guy. Lots of smiles with the interaction with him,” said Knoblauch.

“Unfortunately for him we were shaking up our goaltending situation: Ingram, Jarry and Pickard. He was the odd man out. It was unfair for Calvin because we had played some of our worst hockey in front of him, which didn’t help his situation. He was our guy right from the start we were calling up with every team allowed three goalies,” said Knoblauch.

BRINGING THE JUICE

Dach looks like he’s solidified a spot as fourth-line winger, in part because of the leg injury to Max Jones but also because Knoblauch likes what Fort Saskatchewan’s Dach brings to the table. In Game 82 Thursday against the Canucks, he scored, he assisted on a Josh Samanski goal and he fought Elias Pettersson, for the old Gordie Howe hat trick.

“Great addition to our team,” said Knoblauch of the winger, who started the season with the Chicago Blackhawks.

“I didn’t know very much about him when we traded for him. Unfortunately, he got hurt right away and we weren’t sure how he would get back into the lineup because we have a lot of capable forwards. He came back and we weren’t sure how many looks he’d get because the games meant something. But right from the start he provided energy, physicality and speed.”

“You need that for the playoffs with long rounds. He’s worked himself into being a regular for playoffs. His game has always been the same. It’s not highs and lows. Nice to know as a coach, that he’s consistent.”

This ‘n that: McDavid, who had 24 points in the 14 games Draisaitl missed to end the season, got his 48th four-point game in the blowout of the Canucks. That’s one more than Jari Kurri, 10th most in history. But, more importantly, he has 1,220 points now, one more that the great Jean Beliveau. Beliveau had 1,219 in 1,125 games. McDavid has played 794 league games … The Oilers had tied their club record against the Canucks for the fewest shots allowed in a game at 11, set Oct. 9, 2001 against Chicago, until the stats crew found a 12th shot after the game ended … Jack Michaels and Louie DeBrusk will call the game for SportsNet in the Oilers-Anaheim series, with the retiring-after-the-playoffs Scott Oake as game host … The NHL has a playoff salary cap ceiling, too, but deputy commish Bill Daly says none of the 16 teams should have any trouble with game-day cap lineups, which means, say, the Oilers wouldn’t be sitting Jarry and his $5.38 million cap for Pickard’s $1 million … Ducks’ captain Radko Gudas, who was suspended five games for his knee-on-knee hit on Auston Matthews, has been battling injuries. Ex-Washington Capitals right-shot defenceman John Carlson has been eating up his minutes after they got him at the trade deadline. It was a conditional first-round pick, a first-rounder in 2026 or 2027. If the Ducks made the playoffs this spring, the Caps got Anaheim’s first-rounder this June … It appears Curtis Lazar is the odd man out at forward for Oilers, if Draisaitl plays Game 1. Adam Henrique was on left wing with centre Nugent-Hopkins and right wing Roslovic at Friday’s practice, giving them two excellent defensive forwards and penalty-killers on a line with Roslovic as a five-on-five shooter.