EDMONTON — It’s playoff time, so the Edmonton Oilers aren’t telling us whether Leon Draisaitl — or Jason Dickinson — will play in Game 1 Monday evening against the Anaheim Ducks.

So if we can’t have a doctor’s clearance, a hockey writer’s eye will have to do.

After consecutive practices centring Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen, Sportsnet.ca is declaring Draisaitl as highly likely to play in Game 1 against Anaheim. He looks ready, and has been skating hard since last Tuesday.

A week of pushing himself, and then being able to replicate or increase that workload the next day consistently, tells us his knee is ready for the rigours of playoff hockey.

“I feel good,” a coy Draisaitl said after Sunday’s practice. “We'll see how it feels tomorrow, and then we'll make a call from there.

“I know it's going to take me a couple games to really be myself, and that's okay,” he added. “But it's just the best time of year. There's nothing like it: the atmosphere, the intensity of it, the meaning of it… The adrenaline takes a lot of pain away.”

Dickinson skated with the team on Sunday for the first time since being hit with a shot in San Jose 12 days before. He took a regular turn at 3C Sunday between Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jack Roslovic, and if he plays that means the Oilers would be 100 per cent healthy when the playoffs begin, missing only fourth-line winger Max Jones.

“Health throughout the playoffs is important, and........

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