Comeback King! Edmonton Oilers vet justifies massive contract with best year ever
This in from Hall-of-Fame NHL d-man Chris Pronger, his assessment that Edmonton Oilers d-man Darnell Nurse is playing his best hockey because he’s finally figured out that sometimes less is more on the ice, and it’s often best to pass the puck rather than skate it.
Speaking to Bob Stauffer on Oilers Now, Pronger said the puck moves faster than any player can, and it’s crucial for NHL d-men to realize that.
“(Nurse) was a good enough skater in junior that he could skate his way out of trouble and make another play. At the NHL level, he’s not an elite skater,” Pronger said.
“When he was in his formative years, you know, he was trying to do a little bit too much. In junior when I scouted him the knock was he was always trying to skate himself out of trouble. And as you know, in the NHL, unless you are an elite skater like Cale Makar or Quinn Hughes, one of these guys, you are not skating yourself out of trouble. You are only going to skate yourself into more trouble.”
Pronger continued: “You’re learning on the fly. You take your lumps and you have to understand and learn from what’s going to work and how you can simplify the game.
“(Nurse) was a good enough skater in junior that he could skate his way out of trouble and make another play. At the NHL level, he’s not an elite skater… Ultimately, teams find your weaknesses, and then they prey on them, and they would ultimately start funnelling him into trouble, and get turnovers, and go back the other way, and get quality scoring opportunities and goals. And so you have to learn, you have to gain that experience, make those mistakes, and hopefully understand what those mistakes are, and change your habits, and get out of those habits to be effective. And in his particular case, it’s just keeping the game simple, and using your physical capabilities, and the way that you play the game with grit, and jam, and physicality, and make the simple play, keep it simple, don’t step outside of that skill set and try to do too much, because you want to justify a contract, or you want to justify X, Y, and Z. If you keep your game simple, you’re going to allow your team to be successful.”
My take
1. Pronger said in exact and expert terms what many Oilers fans and obervers have been saying for years about Nurse with increasing frustration, that less is more with Nurse, that if he’s not running around on defence and on the attack, he’s a much more effective player.
This year, Nurse has taken that step towards simplicity. When was the last time we saw him rush the puck up ice, get funnelled to the boards, then make a weak shot from a sharp angle? Hardly ever. When was the last time we saw him charge out of position on defence to challenge for the puck, only to cause a 2-on-1? He’s rarely making that mistake.
He’s protecting the middle of the ice. He’s passing fast and true. He’s staying on the right side of his check. He’s not making rash challenges for the puck. He’s joining the attack but most often as the danger man turning a 3-on-3 into a 4-on-3 so he can launch a dangerous shot.
What does this add up to? Nurse is having one of the best seasons that we’ve seen from any Oilers d-man this century, perhaps since Pronger’s own exceptional 2005-06 season when he led the team to within one game of winning the Stanley Cup.
