edmontontoilers

[edmontontoilers]

"He was chesting up in front of the net" hockey players really out here just breasting boobily with impunity eh?

#oilers lb

[edmontontoilers]

Kühlbox LIVE meets NHL: At Home With Leon Draisaitl - pt 1 [English notes/summary]

A while ago I stumbled across an interview by Magenta Sports from February 2020. The basic conceit of the Kühlbox (cooler/icebox) show seems to be that they send the interviewer, Patrick, with a cooler to interview people. With Connor McDavid’s mansion (derogatory) trending again, I had to think of this glimpse into Drai’s home, and to my surprise it doesn’t seem that anyone has provided a translation.

I don’t have the wherewithal or, tbh, the German skills to do a full line-by-line translation but I thought I could at least do a bullet-point summary. It’s a 40-minute interview so I’m gonna break it into parts; this is part 1, up to roughly minute 19. I apologize for any awkward wording, mistranslations, typos or mistakes left in my notes, etc. The sound quality isn’t always the greatest and the interviewer in particular has a bit of an accent that I’m not familiar with, and my German is like... “I have German family and can only speak clumsily but understand reasonably well”. But I did my best! I welcome corrections and additions on anything I missed or mistook.

Quick highlights:

- Leon can’t cook (his friends claim he could burn water) and gets his groceries bought for him by friends

- Claims that if he could get any player, worldwide, past or present traded to the Edmonton Oilers it would be Frederik Tiffels (or as Leon calls him, “little sweet Freddie”)

- Mentions Bergeron as a player he finds particularly tough to play against because he tend to think the game vs playing physical

Starts off with general intros, how-are-yous, etc. Patrick (the interviewer) is evidently live-streaming; mentions that it’s 10pm in Germany. Leon’s feeling fresh/energized after arriving home yesterday off a loss to the Sharks, which he doesn’t want to talk about.

Fabian and Nico, his “best friends”, are over to visit - they come once a year for about a week, to catch 3 games and hang out

There’s really no actual house tour (just shows the living/dining area), but Leon mentions he has a basement with a pool table and dartboard (but spends most of his time upstairs)

Talks about how he wishes his dog were here when showing off the living room with TV and fireplace, explaining how his “little dog” likes to stretch out in front of the fire

Has a 29 jersey from the Haie lying on the kitchen island; explains how some of the managers and bosses came by and left it as a token of thanks - talks a little about his dad, basically just says he’s doing really well.

Mentions his favourite restaurants in Edmonton: apparently there are a couple of Italian restaurants he likes, but (after stopping to tease his “boys” Nico and Fabian for “chilling in the background - they don’t do anything else, just chill”) says that he actually spends a lot of time here at home and enjoys spending time at home when he can due to travelling so much

Livestream question: apparently the Haie are having a rough streak, so in the livestream a fan Marcel asks about how he feels about that as a “Koelner Jung” (Cologne boy). Lowkey (highkey?) he’s such a funny motherfucker to me. He thinks about the question for a moment then affects a sort of pompous/pretentious expression and tone and says, “Mein lieber Marcel, was sag ich dazu?” Which just translates to: “My dear Marcel, what can I say?” but the entire tone, expression, etc is this tongue-in-cheek formality out of nowhere. Then says: “no, to be serious, but like I’ve often said, I’m still a huge KHC [Haie] fan…and therefore I feel for the boys with what’s happening and hope that they squeak into the playoffs somehow.”

Mentions at one point that it’s his lifelong dream to play in the DEL - wants to stay “over here” (NHL) and do his thing as long as possible, but a few years in Cologne was actually always his plan. (Interviewer: never say never)

As an aside, there is SO MUCH mutual flirting with the interviewer - near the very beginning, Patrick talking about how bad his hair looks, the first time assuring him it looks good and Patrick being like “oh, do you think so?” all delighted; the second time, Patrick fussing again then saying “but what matters is that you look good, and from that perspective we’re all set”. Also in the livestream, shortly after the Marcel question, Leon reads out a fan saying “you’re the best” and then he and Patrick argue over who she meant (with each guy claiming she clearly meant the other).

Question from the livestream about what training is like in the NHL during the season (“how much time do you really have in the NHL for training when you play so many games?”) - replies that it’s really not that much, practices are usually 15-25 minutes in order to keep them fresh for the games, unlike European leagues where there’s more of a focus on training.

The contrast between his whole house and Connor’s (but especially their fridges) is hilarious. He says he likes to eat, and when the interviewer expresses astonishment/admiration for how well-stocked and healthy the food is, admits that “the boys” (Fabian and Nico) and friends grocery shopped for him before the video. Leon: “so, I’ll eat it all, but bought probably none of it”. Interviewer is super impressed by how healthily he feeds himself - “is there anything sweet there? Nothing.” But then Leon shows him the junk food cabinet. Says his favourite sweets are mini-eggs.

Asked about his favourite (or toughest?) opponent. Says the toughest opponents are those who play smart. Says he’s someone who looks for contact, i.e. plays physical, and so for him players like Bergeron who are more about the brain (think the game more) are tougher than those who just try to grind you into the boards.

If he could get any player worldwide traded to Edmonton, who would it be? A little bit more flirting with the interviewer (Patrick: “I don’t play anymore, sadly”, Leon: “yeah, I was just thinking about that”, P: “you’ll have to pick someone else”). Eventually says Freddie Tiffels… then asks if Freddie is watching the stream and calls him “little sweet Freddie, where is he?”

Another question from the streams: “opinion of the Flames?” The interviewer after reading this out immediately says, “ah, there probably is no opinion” (literally “da gibt es keine Meinung” rather than “du hasst keine Meinung”, the latter of which would mean “you have no opinion” - the read I got off of it was that the interviewer immediately surmised this wasn’t a question Leon would be willing to answer) and Leon immediately shakes his head and says “no, no opinion there to [??? - couldn’t make the last word out - but basically no opinion to share]”.

Getting a hundred points and fifty goals last year, especially since it was the first time for him, was really special

Question from the interviewer about what it’s like for Leon, having come into the NHL no doubt idolizing players like Crosby, to now be one of the stars of the NHL who’s looked up to by the younger generation. Leon: “Growing up, one of the players I looked up to a lot was Anze Kopitar, and now, a couple of weeks ago, I [played with him - lit “sat in a cabin with him”] - and that kind of thing is always cool, and one sees that hard work, and the right hard work, pays off. And I hope that boys - girls - whoever - are watching [me], I hope that shows someone that regardless of which country you come from, where you come from, that there are no limits to how good you can be and how hard you can work. Yeah, I’m proud that I’ve been able to experience both sides [of that experience].”

Patrick: “now I naturally have to ask your boys if you truly are the way you’re just acting right now, therefore I have to ask, what kind of flaws does Leon have?” Nico: “I think he’s already kind of given it away - we all like to eat, but he can’t cook anything. He could burn water.” [Leon cracking up in the background and saying something about how he tried to make spaghetti bolognese one time] Flirt break: Patrick goes to ask Fabian the same question but then says “beautiful picture, by the way, of both” and flips the camera view to show Leon and Nico, Fabian says “one has to appreciate the outfit too” (Nico and Leon are both wearing a T-shirt and shorts). Back to Leon’s flaws: Fabian confirms he’s bad at cooking, but then can’t think of anything else. Finally Patrick goes to ask Leon: “what are your flaws even? You have to say three.” Leon: “Cooking… um… there are no flaws. No, I don’t know, I no doubt have numerous flaws, even when I can’t bring them to mind myself…” Livestream comment: “Leon should cook water live sometime.” [general laughter]

Then there are some horrible experiments with camera filters. And that’s where I’m going to end for this part.

#leon draisaitl