Comeback King! Edmonton Oilers veterinarian validates substantial agreement with finest year ever before

This in from Hall- of-Fame NHL d-man Chris Pronger, his evaluation that Edmonton Oilers d-man Darnell Nurse is playing his finest hockey since he’s ultimately identified that in some cases much less is much more on the ice, and it’s frequently best to pass the puck as opposed to skate it.

Speaking to Bob Stauffer on Oilers Now, Pronger stated the puck relocates faster than any type of gamer can, and it’s critical for NHL d-men to understand 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 stated.

“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 proceeded: “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 stated in specific and professional terms what numerous Oilers followers and obervers have actually been claiming for several years regarding Nurse with enhancing irritation, that much less is much more with Nurse, that if he’s not running about on support and on the strike, he’s a a lot more efficient gamer.

This year, Nurse has actually taken that action in the direction of simpleness. When was the last time we saw him hurry the puck up ice, obtain channelled to the boards, after that make a weak shot from a sharp angle? Hardly ever before. When was the last time we saw him bill out of setting on support to test for the puck, just to create a 2-on-1? He’s seldom making that blunder.

He’s securing the center of the ice. He’s passing quick and real. He’s remaining on the ideal side of his check. He’s not making rash difficulties for the puck. He’s signing up with the strike however usually as the risk male transforming a 3-on-3 right into a 4-on-3 so he can release a harmful shot.

What does this amount to? Nurse is having among the most effective periods that we have actually seen from any type of Oilers d-man this century, possibly considering that Pronger’s very own remarkable 2005-06 period when he led the group to within one video game of winning the Stanley Cup.

2. The Cult of Hockey has actually been doing evaluation of all objectives for and versus the Oilers considering that 2007-08, so we really did not evaluate Pronger’s wonderful solitary period with the Oilers because means, however we have actually done so for 14 straight years. In all that time when we consider normal Oilers d-men over a complete period (at the very least 900 also toughness mins played) no d-man has actually had a much better year by the specific objectives plus-minus statistics than Darnell Nurse is having this year.

That consists of some remarkable periods from the similarity Sheldon Souray in 2008-09, Andrej Sekera in 2016-17 and Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm last period in 2023-24, when they went to the top of their video games.

3. At also toughness this year, Nurse has actually aided produce 33 objectives while making significant errors on simply 22 versus, for a +0.13 objectives per video game plus-minus. That’s the greatest we have actually seen, much better than Denis Grebeshkov’s remarkable 2008-09 period, +0.11 (prior to injury hit Grebeshkov, he was a great NHLer).

Nurse is squashing it, which is even more remarkable taking into consideration just how inadequately he played in the 2024 playoffs, in huge component as a result of injury, however likewise since he was still seen running about frequently attempting to do excessive right here, there and all over, frequently roaming way out of setting. It spent some time for him and d-man instructor Paul Coffey to figure points out, however they have actually currently gotten to that objective. Nurse is playing disciplined, wise hockey, making hm the leading d-man on the Oilers this year.

4. In the 2010-11 period, the Cult of Hockey initially began to track payments and errors on racking up opportunities for and versus theOilers It’s a much better means to evaluate gamers than concentrating just on objectives, as racking up opportunities are considerable dip into the heart of any type of hockey suit, and there is a much more of them than objectives, which enables you to make even more particular analyses of truth ability of a gamer over a much shorter variety of video games, claim 10 or 20 video games in contrast to 60 or 70 if you’re passing specific objectives plus-minus alone.

Nurse’s Grade A shots plus-minus remained in the commode in the playoffs in 2015. It was without a doubt the most awful on the group for any type of Oilers d-man. But he’s currently obtained the 2nd greatest Grade A shots plus-minus of any type of d-man on the group.

5. For context right here profession specific objectives plus-minus numbers for Oilers d-men that have actually played greater than 1500 also toughness mins from 2007-08 to 2024-25, with Mattias Ekholm blazing a trail.