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McDavid says he’s not only bought in to this, he’s been a co-author. Draisaitl, too.

“We’re bought in,” Draisaitl testified Saturday morning after practice on behalf of all three. “Obviousl,y we need to lead and we need to set the pace and set the tone. And we have guys who will follow.

“The break came at a good time for the group. It was nice to get away but everyone is looking forward to getting back into it now,” said the pilot of Helicopter Line B, with 17-goal man Alex Chiasson on one wing and zero-goal guy Tobias Rieder on the other.

“We’ve had two good practices here and we’ll be ready to go and excited for it,” Draisaitl said of the 11 a.m. return to action Saturday against the Flyers, who have already played three times since the all-star game and come into it on a six-game winning streak.

Draisaitl has 27 goals and 61-points and has a shot at his first 100-point season.

Nugent-Hopkins goes into the stretch drive as pilot of Helicopter Line C with Jujhar Kharia and Zack Kassian, with 16 goals and 46 points and a chance to be a point-per-game player over 82 for the first time in his career.

Hitchcock said he was successful with a similar set-up a few years ago when he took over as coach of the St. Louis Blues, but it was watching he Flyers that inspired him to attempt it again.

“It was watching Philadelphia come out of the break. That’s what they did. They split it up. They’ve had some success with it,” he said. “We just feel like by playing this way we can become a three-line team and the fourth line fits in when we need them. We’ll be lucky to have five practices the rest of the year and we have to lean on these three guys and nine or 10 forwards to try and get the job done that way.”