HOW CONCERNING IS DARNELL NURSE MISSING SOME OF OILERS TRAINING CAMP?
It was well known that one player would be unavailable to the Edmonton Oilers early in the season, with Evander Kane working his way back from a sports hernia injury he suffered last season.
But as the captain’s skates kicked off in Edmonton last week, another player’s name popped up dealing with an injury: defenceman Darnell Nurse.
Oilersnation’s Jason Gregor highlighted Friday that Nurse spent the summer rehabilitating an oblique/core injury. While skating last week, he wasn’t engaging in any contact, something the team is looking to be cautious about re-introducing.
Given the Oilers’ short summer, it’s not a shock to see someone who played 101 games last season between the regular season and playoffs still having to work their way back from an injury. The team dealt with this last year when Mattias Ekholm missed training camp and pre-season, including the first regular season game.
Not only did it take Ekholm weeks to begin to find his game, but it also damaged his ability to build chemistry with his teammates, he told me at last year’s Heritage Classic.
“When you miss training camp, yeah, you’re not playing for points, but you do build chemistry,” said Ekholm, “and you do get timing, you do get a sense of the game. I do feel like that’s coming along better as each game goes by.
“As time goes on, I feel more comfortable playing, since I did actually miss time.”
This issue is set to rear its ugly head this year with Nurse at a time when building chemistry is ever more important. The Oilers blue line has seen the departures of Cody Ceci, his former partner, Vincent Desharnais, and Philip Broberg, two other defenders with whom Nurse spent time over the season.
Edmonton’s brought in multiple new defencemen this season in Troy Stecher, who spent time at the end of last season on the team, as well as Ty Emberson, Josh Brown, and Connor Carrick on contracts, with Travis Dermott arriving this week on a professional tryout. For Nurse, one or many of these players could partner with him throughout the season.
Not having a chance to work alongside these players in practice situations, let alone in pre-season games, if Nurse misses games, will stunt his start to the season, potentially being forced to find on-ice chemistry during regular season games. As the Oilers learned the hard way last season, slow starts to the season can be detrimental. While they were able to go on a one-of-a-kind, historic run to regain ground in the standings, being behind the eight ball to start this year is a position they don’t want to put themselves in.
Nurse, too, can’t afford a slow start to the season after having an up-and-down regular season and downright awful post-season. The Oilers will need to rely on him to continue providing big minutes for the team with positive results, so they will undoubtedly need to ensure he’s 100 percent before he gets back in action.
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2024-09-13T22:05:15Z dg43tfdfdgfd