“Nurse is bad defensively”
There’s likely some truth to this position. Nurse has had his share of struggles with over-committing to players already covered by his D partner or chasing players behind the net when a more clear threat is parked in the slot. While this has improved in increments over the past few years, I’m not sure I’m prepared to say this tendency has been fixed. However, I believe this evaluation often overlooks a pretty key component: his playing time with McDavid.
Maybe you’re thinking “but McDavid is the best player in the world; how can playing with him HURT someone”? While he’s absolutely the best offensive player in the world, the same cannot be said of his defensive results.
This isn’t necessarily to say that I don’t think he’s capable of this or that his individual defensive skills (stick checking, positioning, reads, etc) are particularly lacking. It is to say that his rush-dominant style and the fact that his team has generally been hard-pressed to score ANY goals without him on the ice, he’s incentivized- and perhaps even pushed- to play a ‘balls-to-the-walls’ style that often neglects some of the finer details- namely those on the defensive side of the puck.
Don’t believe me? Well, let’s take a look at every D pairing’s goals against rates with McDavid compared to without him:
Larsson w/: 3.22 GA/60 & 2.67 xGA/60
Larsson w/o: 2.38 GA/60 & 2.01 xGA/60
Bear w/: 3.38 GA/60 & 2.43 xGA/60
Bear w/o: 2.71 GA/60 & 2.24 xGA/60
Klefbom w/: 3.11 GA/60 & 2.57 xGA/60
Klefbom w/o: 2.42 GA/60 & 2.27 xGA/60
Russell w/: 2.31 GA/60 & 2.77 xGA/60
Russell w/o: 1.88 GA/60 & 2.02 xGA/60
Benning w/: 3.12 GA/60 & 2.45 xGA/60
Benning w/o: 1.77 GA/60 & 2.1 xGA/60*
* Important to note that 3rd pairing defensemen deployed in the way Benning was have a much easier job and their results should be taken with that grain of salt in mind
Every defensemen seems to see their GA/60 and xGA/60 rates spike when with McDavid. What about Nurse?
Nurse w/: 3.41 GA/60 & 2.79 xGA/60
Nurse w/o: 2.55 GA/60 & 2.32 xGA/60
And so the trend continues. Now take this idea that defensive results dip when with one particular player and map it onto a situation where one defenseman plays a disproportionately greater amount of their time with said player. What can we infer from that? Said defenseman will likely see his overall defensive results take a larger hit as a result.
I believe this explains a fairly big portion of the criticism levied against Nurse’s defensive game. This isn’t to say I think Nurse is an above-average defender, but I don’t believe he’s among the league’s worst as some might have you believe.
NOTE: I feel it’s important to mention that I’m not disparaging McDavid here. I believe his poor defensive results are equally a consequence of the team’s reliance on him to score. As the rest of the forward group improves, I expect to see McDavid focus more on “outscoring” rather than just “scoring”.
(Stats per Natural Stat Trick)