'1 goal' finds Oilers players skating together 2 weeks before NHL training camp

It's been almost four months, but being eliminated in the National Hockey League playoffs still sticks firmly in Leon Draisaitl's craw.

His team's loss to the eventual Stanley Cup champion (again) and his desire to hoist the trophy himself someday soon with the Edmonton Oilers are what has him and his teammates skating on Rogers Place ice two weeks before training camp formally begins.

"We're determined," the Oilers star told media on Thursday following the informal on-ice session without coaches. "You can see it in the fact that everyone's here working hard and trying to get things going early. Obviously, there's one goal here. Whether that pans out that way, we'll see, but one thing that's guaranteed is that we're going to do everything in our power to achieve that goal and get to that point."

That 'goal' is to win the NHL championship. To Draisaitl — who scored 52 goals and 76 assists for 128 points in the regular season to finish second in the league behind teammate Connor McDavid and added 13 goals among 18 points in 12 playoff games — one major key to the Oilers tasting more playoff success is to find more consistency.

"We just didn't play our best hockey when it mattered most, not consistently enough at least," Draisaitl said, referring to the Oilers' second-round series loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. "We had some really good games where we dominated and a couple of games where they were clearly better than us. I think in the long run, the last two games, they just outplayed us a little bit, in little areas ...

"Sometimes, it's just learning how not to lose the game instead of learning how to win it."

For forward Connor Brown — a former teammate of McDavid's in junior hockey — that shared desire to win paved the way for him to sign with the Oilers in July as a free agent.

"It's a great team," Brown said. "They've been competing every year to try to get over the hump and try to win. That's what I want to do at this point in my career. I feel like this is a team that has similar interests and the same kind of mindset as I do."

Oilers players are slated to report for medicals on Sept. 20, a day before camp begins. Edmonton's first pre-season game is scheduled for Sept. 24 against the Winnipeg Jets.