Edmonton Oilers: Darnell Nurse Out to Prove Himself
The Edmonton Oilers are getting ready to start off the season again, this time, looking for a better future. All of the hype recently surrounding the team has gone to Connor McDavid, and rightfully so. He leads a new generation of hockey, being one of the top prospects since 2004.
However, when the Oilers started rookie camp, they decided that not everything would hype up to be “McMania.” The first game, they gave someone else the captaincy, and rightfully deserving of it was the man with the “C” on his Oilers sweater on Friday: Mr. Darnell Nurse.
Nurse has been in the game ever since development camp, bulking up and proving himself to be a big name player who can help protect the goaltender, as well as the Oilers team.
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First off, Nurse has proved incredible speed and strength. When he plays, he explodes down the ice, having the ability to dominate in the defensive zone. He also works well in the offensive area, where he can coordinate nicely with the help of his line mates to either set up plays from the point or send a point shot to the back of the net.
As part of the “big three”, Nurse, along with Leon Draisaitl and McDavid, truly stands out. It has taken him try and try again to prove to the Oilers that he can make the team, and after failing to make the cut, he didn’t give up. He didn’t stop playing. He brushed it off, looked at what he did wrong and improved tremendously.
Let’s go over some of his greatest plays thus far from rookie camp.
Goal vs. Vancouver
Simple play, amazing execution. McDavid comes flying in, Nurse is on the point. McDavid lightly sends a pass to him, and instead of one-timing it, Nurse takes a minute, balances the puck and takes a wrister, sending it right to the back of the net. An amazing play where he shows not only poise, but pace, and he shows that he can score from the point with a wrist shot, which is hard to do.
Fight vs. Calgary
Darnell Nurse knows his team is down. He decides that they need a little bit of fight. So he heads over to Calgary Flames rookie Rasmus Andersson and accepts his fight challenge, but Nurse knows how to fight. He dominates and wins without any problem at all, showing that he is willing to stand up for his team and that he knows how to get his team back in the game.
Huge Hit vs. Calgary
THOU SHALT NOT PASS. Darnell Nurse makes his presence known on the ice shift by shift, but this play takes the cake. The Flames begin the offensive rush, and a pass is intended for Louick Marcotte. Instead of letting Marcotte enter the defensive zone, he won’t let them pass. He sends a clean, rough body check to the Flames right winger, sending him to the ground. Throughout the game, this is present: Nurse is aggressive. He fights for his team, and he showed a little of that aggression against Jake Virtanen in the Vancouver game as well (after he hit our beloved McDavid). Don’t worry, no one will mess with Nurse now, let alone this team, if he protects this house.
Protect This House
Those are his top three plays. I’m excited to see what else Nurse brings, but I’m sure of this: he is not going unnoticed.