NURSE’S SOLID PLAY HAS BEEN LIFESAVER AS OILERS STRUGGLE
Former No. 7 overall pick finally showing why he was highly-touted junior player
In a foul October for the Edmonton Oilers, it’s fair to say one of their few bright lights has been the play of Darnell Nurse on the blue-line.
Nurse might even be part of the No. 1 defence pairing Wednesday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
But Nurse is not the quick-fix remedy for what ails the Oilers over the first 10 games. There are so many problems, from their anemic penalty killing to their moribund power play, far too many players getting through the first month without scoring and their best players not being their best.
On the other hand, Nurse has been very good in most games, whether on the third pairing with Eric Gryba or moving up the ladder to play on the second defensive unit with Matt Benning against Washington Capitals on Saturday night.
“It’s been a good step for me, but that’s all it is. It’s the beginning of the year,” said Nurse. “I’ve got to continue to grow. There’s lots of room for improvement.”
Maybe, but again his good plays far outnumber his bad ones right now.
He’s the best Oilers defenceman at lugging the puck up the ice. He still has trouble making enough right plays when he gets close to the other team’s blueline, but he’s learning.
“He’s a year older, a year wiser. He looks a lot more confident,” said Oilers coach Todd McLellan. “His legs are better this year. He’s always been a great athlete and has been able to do anything in basically any sport, but he’s getting to his jobs better and he has the ability to join the rush and recover well.”
McLellan would like to see Nurse make more consistent decisions 120 feet from his net on the attack, but he had the puck all the time as a junior and could do what he wanted with it. Not so much at the NHL level.
“There’s ebbs and flows,” said McLellan. “Some of the best players in the world feel good at times in those situations and then there’s others where it dies. He’s done an admirable job entering the other zone and creating for his teammates. That’s an area that can improve. But he’s young in his evolution as an NHL defenceman.”
Nobody knows that more than Kris Russell, who’s played 651 games.
“He’s been great. He’s using his legs, skating, moving the puck well,” said Russell. “He’s been defending extremely well and he’s been one of our better defencemen.”
Russell knows Nurse was the seventh player taken in the 2013 draft, so he has tools, but defence is also the trickiest position to play.
“It’s hard coming in as a high draft pick; as you say, there’s pressure there,” Russell said. “Not only is he trying to get pucks up the ice and create offence, you have to defend your own end, too. Since I’ve been here, we’ve all seen him progress.”
Nurse has only played 125 NHL games, far from the 300 many scouts, coaches and general managers need to gauge how good a defenceman’s going to be, but he’s coming on.
“I’m better at reading and reacting than I was,” Nurse said. “I have the ability to close fast and hard, but it’s doing it at the right times and not getting myself out of position.”
Nurse hasn’t had any singular eureka times where he thinks, “OK, I’ve got this figured out,” but he’s gradually getting to where he looks like he’s going to be a solid second-pairing defenceman at worst.
“No light-bulb moments, but what I’ve tried to do this year is to take the puck and try to make a play,” he said. “I’m trying not to force things. That’s the only change.”
One thing that hasn’t changed: he still likes to drop the mitts every now and then, like against Ryan Reaves in Pittsburgh last week when Reaves belted Jujhar Khaira in the Oilers’ end.
“I saw Jujhar go down and I tried to stick up for him. Not that it was a dirty hit or anything,” he said.
Reaves is big-man strong, but different from, say, teammate Milan Lucic, who while with the Los Angeles Kings was Nurse’s sparring partner in his first NHL fight.
“I think I’m a little smarter now,” he said. “Looch hit me once in my kidneys and I still feel it.”
*** Defenceman Griffin Reinhart was put on waivers by the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday after claiming him off the Oilers in the expansion draft. Would the Oilers reclaim him? GM Peter Chiarelli did say on the night Reinhart was taken by Vegas, in his mind Reinhart would have been a regular Oiler this season. Maybe the Oilers would feel Reinhart could be better than Yohann Auvitu as a No. 7 for now. Vegas has too many D and wants to call up Shea Theodore from their American Hockey League team.