Darnell Nurse’s importance to the Oilers has never been tested like this

EDMONTON — Connor Brown couldn’t help but smile when thinking about the humor of the situation.

It wasn’t long ago that Brown wanted to stick up for Darnell Nurse immediately after a Game 4 win in the Western Conference final when his Edmonton Oilers teammate had been the subject of intense criticism.

Well, Nurse is ailing now — the result of a hit by Florida Panthers winger Evan Rodrigues in the first period of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final that left him holding his left hip. He didn’t take part in practice on Wednesday.

Though coach Kris Knoblauch said he has “no issues, he’ll be ready to play” in Game 3, suddenly there’s great angst about how the Oilers can manage without Nurse potentially not at his best.

“There’s definitely irony there,” Brown said. “I’ve heard guys like (Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman) Chris Pronger come to his defense. The guys that know what it takes to win in this type of atmosphere, this type of battle in the Stanley Cup playoffs, really know what it means to have a guy like that who’s the leader of the team and the leader of the charge with the way that he plays — putting his nose in every day with his work ethic.

“It can’t be understated what he means to this group.”

Knoblauch’s declaration that Nurse plans to push on and almost certainly remain in the lineup comes as little surprise. Nurse played through a torn hip flexor throughout the 2022 playoffs, after all. Righty blueliners Vincent Desharnais and Cody Ceci did drills on the third and fourth pairs, meaning there was no rejigging of the defense corps in Nurse’s absence.

Positive spin aside, there’s a huge question mark about Nurse’s health and effectiveness — at least until he gets in a couple of shifts.

This is a player who seldom misses even an optional skate. For him to play three shifts over the last two periods, as part of 4:20 in the game, and not take the ice with the Oilers on Wednesday means he’s clearly hurt.

“Just when you remove him — you remove him from a practice today — you notice it right away,” defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “That says a lot about him, what kind of guy he is and how he conducts himself. He’s a super professional. He does every drill. He goes first. He knows what to do. He’s setting the tone.

“He’s a huge piece of our team. You don’t just remove a guy who plays 20 minutes and don’t feel it.”

No, Nurse hasn’t been at his best in these playoffs or anywhere close for that matter. It would be a daunting task for anyone to argue otherwise.

His minus-15 rating is one of the worst totals in NHL postseason history. Calgary Flames rearguard Paul Reinhart owns the dubious distinction for the worst mark at minus-16 in nine games in 1983.

The Oilers have been outscored 23-9 at five-on-five in 322 minutes with Nurse on the ice, per Natural Stat Trick. He has a 45 expected goals percentage. He has yet to score and has just three assists in 20 games. His average ice time is down almost three minutes compared to the regular season — 19:02 as opposed to 21:54.

Factoring into both goals the Panthers scored on Stuart Skinner in Game 1 wasn’t his finest hour either.

As Brown noted, Nurse has a big contract — a $9.25 million cap hit for six more seasons. That leaves him open to more denigration.

“I don’t feel for him. It comes with the territory,” Brown said. “If you want to be great, you’re going to have to face a lot of criticism.”

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All doesn’t paint a rosy picture. But his teammates insist Nurse is providing more than meets the eye or that can be parsed from the high-level numbers.

Ekholm points to the difference in the quality of ice time he receives compared to Nurse.

Ekholm has started almost 69 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone in the 2024 playoffs, per NST. That’s happened less than 39 percent of the time for Nurse.

Ekholm has played more than 74 percent of his 354 five-on-five minutes with Connor McDavid and 31 percent of the time he’s been with Leon Draisaitl in that situation. For Nurse, it’s 12 percent of his 322 five-on-five minutes with McDavid and 35 percent with Draisaitl.

“You’ve got to look at what kind of role he’s getting,” Ekholm said. “If you look at me and (partner Evan) Bouchard, we usually get in the offensive zone. It’s usually with Connor or Leon. Call it the ‘cookie minutes’ or whatever. I’m not saying we’re not doing a good job with those minutes. But we’re getting a different starting point from our shift.

“You look at Darnell; he’s probably starting in the D-zone a lot. He’s just playing (against) one of the top lines from the other team. Those are hard minutes. Somebody’s going to have to do them.”

It’s not easy to excel in that type of usage, but it’s Nurse’s job to do that. He’s taken a lot of heat because he hasn’t.

It got to the point where he and Ceci were split up heading into Game 4 of the Vancouver series because they were getting caved in to that point. Scorn for Nurse came to a head after Game 3 of the Dallas matchup, leading to a terse interaction during his morning avail two days later.

Nurse responded with one of his better outings of the Oilers’ run in Game 4 — he had 11 hits and three blocks — and Brown wanted to make sure everyone knew about it.

He wants to make sure people know about it now, too.

“His leadership is a big reason why this group is where it’s at,” Brown said, adding Nurse is arguably their best penalty killer. “He’s a key piece of this.”

“I know people get on him,” Ekholm said. “Give him criticism. Sure, whatever. But we know in here that he’s always up for the task. He responds to every situation.

“He does so many things I feel go unnoticed. He gets a lot of criticism, but he’s a huge part of the team. Anyone that believes different, I don’t know; good for you.”

It was McDavid who enticed Brown to join the Oilers. They were former junior teammates. But it was Nurse with whom he forced his first bond last summer after signing.

Brown and Nurse were teammates in an Oilers golf tournament McDavid hosted in Ontario’s cottage country. The duo won the event.

“That’s saying a lot. Doc’s a great guy but not a great golfer,” Brown said, howling.

Oilers players have lauded Nurse for pushing through the tough moments this spring while remaining a calming influence on the group.

It was Nurse, McDavid said, who steadied the group during the last TV timeout late in the third period of Game 7 in Vancouver when it looked like they were about to implode. They might not have won that night without him doing that.

“Sometimes you can’t really measure that. There’s no stat. That’s who he is,” Ekholm said. “It’s not just Game 7 in (Vancouver). He felt it there and he calmed everybody down. We were able to get that win. He does that every day. Around here, the presence that he brings is huge.”

The Oilers’ defense would have likely been overhauled sans Nurse for a full game. To keep the elite duo of Ekholm and Bouchard together, the third and fourth pair would have to be some combination of Kulak, Desharnais, Ceci and Philip Broberg.

There might still have to be alterations if Nurse is limited in what he can do.

Judging by how he gutted it out through his hip injury two years ago, Nurse will undoubtedly do whatever he can to make an impact on Thursday’s game.

“That was impressive,” Kulak said. “One thing about him is he’s not one to vent and tell everyone what’s going on. At the time, he was saying he was a little banged up and sore. He was downplaying everything. Then he gets testing done on him and you see the full extent of his injuries, it’s like, ‘Holy smokes. You were probably playing through a lot of pain.’

“He’ll do whatever it takes for the team, and those are valuable to have.”

Added Ekholm: “It’s that time of year where you’ve got to push through. If you look at him last game, he’s not quitting. In the last 40 minutes, he still gave us three shifts because of who he is and how he conducts himself.”

His teammates expect nothing less.

Nurse hasn’t been great in the playoffs. Playing hurt surely won’t help matters.

But one thing’s for sure: The Oilers would rather have Nurse in the lineup in any state than not have him at all — perception of Nurse’s game be damned.

“There’s a lot of things that go on within a hockey team that aren’t fully understood by the public,” Brown said. “That’s why it’s such a team game. It’s our job to have our back to the audience and focus on our job — and doing our job the best we can.

“Obviously, it makes it more difficult when you’re under that much scrutiny. Doc’s done a really good job of dealing with that.”

(Photo: Curtis Comeau / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)