Nurse doing some heavy lifting
Young Oilers blue-liner shows glimpses of potential in lopsided win over Dallas
So, Darnell, about that goal … first one in almost four months?
“As you can see, I picked that corner,” said Darnell Nurse, not even trying to keep a straight face.
His shot that beat Dallas Stars goalie Antti Niemi to give the Edmonton Oilers a 3-0 lead early in the second period wasn’t of the Alex Ovechkin mould. Niemi lost his place in the crease and gave the Oilers defenceman some fairly large real estate to hit. But hey, a goal’s a goal, and Nurse still celebrated.
It was only a small piece of a large night for the kid who theoretically was in the third defence pairing with Matt Benning, but played more minutes (21:16) than anyone else on the team. Blue-liners or forwards. And he was plus-four in a 7-1 demolition of the Stars, who have weak goaltending, a very young back end (with the exception of Dan Hamhuis) that’s learning on the job and forwards who have got into the habit of wanting to outscore their defensive mistakes so they linger up the ice.
Only Zack Kassian, who seems perfectly placed as a third line right winger for the Oilers, was also plus-four.
Kassian should have been one of the game’s three stars, but he was overlooked because of Nurse, who played a whopping 20:48 at even strength — almost five minutes more than he’s averaged 5-on-5 this year. As a whole, he’s averaging 17:31 a night, with 1:27 of penaltykilling time in the mix.
Nurse has had three games in which he’s had more ice time: 22:31 in Los Angeles on Nov. 17, when he scored his last goal; 22:18 on Nov. 15 in Anaheim; and 21:54 in Long Island on Nov. 5.
But this was the first time he’d played more than 20 minutes since he returned Feb. 26 in Nashville after breaking his ankle. He has suffered ligament damage on Dec. 1 in Winnipeg and subsequently missed 37 games.
He’s up to speed with the pace of the game in his seventh game back, he was doing his usual heavy lifting, fighting an exhausting battle with the 6-foot-6 Michael McCarron this past Sunday when the Montreal Canadiens were here. He’s carrying the puck a little bit more. What he still has to work on is his puck-handling, as the coaching staff knows, but that will come. He’s only played 103 NHL games.
For now, he’s a third-pairing guy who plays with either the rookie Benning or Eric Gryba.
And that’s fine. Again, he only turned 22 in February. How much better can Nurse get? “That’s a tough question to answer … he’s still evolving,” said Oilers head coach Todd McLellan.
“He’s obviously coming off a severe injury and his game is catching up. Against Dallas, we’re ahead and we’re playing him a lot to make him feel good. And he deserved it.”
“We still think there’s a lot more there in the growth of the player.”
Nurse routinely would play half a
He’s obviously coming off a severe injury and his game is catching up. ... We still think there’s a lot more there in the growth of the player.”
game or so in junior, and he played over 20 minutes 28 times last season, including 11 games in a row and 16 of 17 early in the season. He was playing up the ladder because Oscar Klefbom was out with a foot infection for months and Kris Russell wasn’t here. He played 24 minutes or more six times in his 69 games, but that was then.
Now, he seems ensconced in the No. 5 hole.
“It’s always nice when you get those types (over 20) of minutes, but you have to make the most of them. Playing with Benny (Benning), we have some good chemistry,” he said.
The long scrap with the fellow first-rounder McCarron (a goal and four assists in 25 games for the Habs) was more a “why not?” moment than any sort of anger.
The two fought in junior when Nurse was with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and McCarron with the London Knights.
“We looked at one another (Sunday, early in the Habs 4-1 win) and just nodded. That was the gist of the situation,” said Nurse. “Just happened.”
Nurse is 6-foot-4 and 213 pounds but gave away two inches and 18 pounds to his opponent.
Both guys had their helmets off over time in the dust-up, although Nurse’s chinstrap was still done up with his helmet flapping in the breeze with every punch. The fight lasted 50 seconds, and there were close to 40 punches thrown. There was no dancing.
How difficult is it to fight a skyscraper?
“Ah, it’s a nice challenge,” said Nurse, who’s had six NHL fights..
“With my game, where I try to play hard, that (fight) will happen once in a while. When it goes that long, you have to catch your breath.”