With apologies to Mattias Janmark and Evan Bouchard, the best Edmonton Oilers defenceman over the last six weeks has been Darnell Nurse, who has rebounded mightily after last season’s roller-coaster.
His game was tremendous against Tampa Bay on Tuesday night. Cool, calm, collected, unflappable on their rush chances, moving the puck with alacrity and with purpose. The old less-is-more-works-best theory.
As it turns out, Tampa’s general manager Julien BriseBois, the assistant GM of Canada’s 4 Nations team, was in the house Tuesday to watch his club, but got an eyeful of Nurse, too. Nurse didn’t make the team — Devon Toews, Shea Theodore, Josh Morrissey and Travis Sachem were the left shot defencemen picked a week ago, although Sanheim normally plays the right side — but if there’s any injuries before the February tournament and Nurse keeps playing like that, he’ll force his way into the conversation as a replacement.
He was involved in both goals by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl but didn’t get official assists on either — he found Draisaitl with a fine 80-foot pass, but when Andrei Vasilevsky stopped Draisaitl’s breakaway, the goalie swept the puck away, off Victor Hedman’s stick and into the net for an own goal. No assist.
Nurse started the season poorly, like the team, in the first 10 games, he was on the ice for only three goals for and nine against and the Oilers were getting outshot when Nurse was on the ice. Since the first of November, though, his on-ice shot share at even strength, is above 53 per cent, very good stuff. Another determining factor: in the first month, he was often on the ice with the third and fourth lines, but since then often with Draisaitl, which helps, of course.
In the big picture, Nurse is back after last year’s tough go.
“You guys (media folks) should talk about him more. He’s been really, really good, like high-end. You guys are really hard on him sometimes,” said Draisaitl.
Actually a vocal minority of fans have been louder critics, but we digress. Usually, their gripe is the $9.25 million AAV contract Nurse has, and not living up to that. Again, a concern for Nurse but not his problem. The Oilers signed him to that when Zach Werenski and Seth Jones got that money, and he’s their comparable, but those naysayers usually detour to Cale Makar’s $9 million AAV and don’t like it.
Nurse smiled broadly at Draisaitl chiding the scribes.
“I appreciate that from him. I don’t really have social media and stuff but sometimes I like to go and read what everyone says and then I get to come and see you all the next day,” he joked. “Say whatever you want.”
Nurse has never been much for blowing his own horn, so he quietly assessed his play this season compared to last when he struggled, in large part in the playoffs.
“I came into this year wanting to have a high standard for myself so I could come out and play well for the team each and every night,” said Nurse, who seemed lost at times last year, especially defending, letting attackers sneak in behind him or over-committing to a check — atypical when he’s play a hard, smart game.
“It’s been going well but once you set the standard you’ve got to continue to build off it night after night. So I’m not content, at all,” said Nurse, a hard grader.
Big-picture stuff. But small picture, he’s just trying to keep it simpler than last year.
“I’m trying to see plays, make plays. I’ve confidence in my ability to go out there and make those. It has been good for me,” he said.
No argument from Draisaitl.
“He’s been amazing, maybe our best D for awhile now. It’s fun to see. He’s such a horse, you can’t beat him off the rush,” he said.
Oiler coach Kris Knoblauch didn’t see the best of Nurse, for sure, after going behind the bench last November. But he is now, and Nurse is playing with two different defensive partners in the same games, many nights — Brett Kulak and Troy Stecher. It’s tough enough fitting in with one partner on a game-to-game basis, but two in game?
That takes work, and Nurse seems unperturbed about it.
“On the line rushes against, he just denied the blueline,” said Knoblauch. “When he does that we don’t have to defend and we forced them (Lightning) to dump the puck in. And obviously with his speed, he can retrieve a lot of pucks, and he’s really good at breaking it out.”
“He didn’t get credit for an assist on Leon’s goal but he made a heckuva play on the breakaway, just turned the puck up and sauced it right onto his stick,” he said.
Another former NHL coach, Perry Pearn, now coaching the Chinese men’s national team after a stint in Japan, following 20 years as an NHL assistant, amplified Knoblauch’s opinion of Nurse’s play after watching him Tuesday.
“The decisions you make inside the blueline are what get you into trouble,” said Pearn, “and Darnell has been a lot better (this season than last). You watch him and he’s not trying to do too much. Less really is more.”
“The whole Oiler team is playing better without the puck and they’re getting a lot more back-pressure (on attacking forwards) and that kind of protection helps make a defenceman a lot better, too.”
And the Nurse contract?
“The pressure of what you get paid forces you to try and do more than you should and when you do that you’re never as good a player as if you are if you play within yourself. It’s not a complicated game if you play within yourself,” said Pearn.
“I mean, he’s a good player, but the criticism that he’s received hasn’t come because he’s not a good player. It’s from people who think he should do more than he does.”
They think $9 million players should be the wondrous Cale Makar?
“Yup,” said Pearn. “That kind of works against him.”
So is the contract a cross to bear for Nurse, in his own mind?
“Every player’s different. There’s points and there’s impact on the game. You can look at it any way you want,” said Nurse.
“I’m not on the first power play so I’m not going to give you 100 points,” he said.
“But in the same token, if I can come out at five-on-five and be a force, do what I can on the PK as well, and helping the boys in this room every day … it doesn’t really matter what everyone else thinks.”