Chris Kreider drilled Leon Draisaitl hard into the boards with 2:40 left in the second period of Game 5 of the 2026 NHL Western Conference First Round series, a heavy hit that came with Edmonton leading 4-1 over the Anaheim Ducks. Officials did not call a penalty on the play.
Kreider caught Draisaitl square on the numbers and sent him hard into the boards, and the clip quickly spread after Oilers Nation posted it on X and called it a ruthless hit. The reaction was immediate and fierce. One fan called it “What a piece of actual (expletive). That deserves fkn hearing.” Another wrote, “That hit could take an elite player out for the season or worse. Refs are horrible. Dont care who it is. Do better.”
The outrage around the hit had extra weight because Draisaitl had recently returned from a knee injury that cost him 14 regular-season games. He is Edmonton’s leading forward in points in the series, and he stayed in the game after the collision before finishing with two goals. Edmonton built its early cushion with first-period goals from Vasily Podkolzin, Zach Hyman and Draisaitl, who later added a power-play goal assisted by Connor McDavid and Evan Bouchard.
That score line mattered because the Oilers entered Game 5 trailing 3-1 in the series and needed a response after defensive lapses and penalty-kill problems had hurt them earlier in the matchup. They got one. Edmonton defended well in the third period and won Game 5 to cut the Ducks’ lead to 3-2. Connor Ingram returned in net for Anaheim and made 29 saves while allowing one goal.
The hit will linger because it landed in the middle of a playoff game the Oilers were already controlling, and because the no-call invited the kind of anger that often spills into the next shift. One fan said it was “blatantly a hit from behind” and warned that if it was not called, “it’s going to get real chippy in this series.” Another called the officiating a “clown show,” while a separate fan urged Edmonton to answer back physically. Kreider was not penalized, Draisaitl kept playing, and the series moved on with the tension now part of the backdrop.
