Don Cherry Shares His Take on Oilers Defenceman Darnell Nurse's Reaction to Hit From Ryan Reaves
Edmonton Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse was majorly in the news the last few weeks after he got rocked by Ryan Reaves, and now hockey icon Don Cherry is shoring his opinion.
Nurse was very critical of Reaves' hit after the fact, even going as far to say that Reaves intended to hurt the Oilers defenceman.
- Darnell Nurse
This prompted a passionate rant from the 90 year old Don Cherry on his Grapevine Podcast. In Cherry's opinion, Reaves did deserve to be suspended for the hit, but Darnell Nurse put himself in a brutal position to be lined up for a hit like that.
- Don Cherry
Not only that, but Cherry went after Nurse's insinuation that Reaves was indeed trying to injure the Oilers defender with the dirty hit. Cherry said that hurting people is a fair part of hockey.
- Don Cherry
However unpopular his comments are, Nurse's criticism of Reaves and the hit are entirely true. Reaves' role on the Leafs isn't really to play hockey, it's to bring physical intimidation to their roster.
It brings up the debate of whether there's still a place for pure enforcers in the modern day NHL. Nobody wants to see star players get injured by depth players, but that's exactly what their role is.
Of course Don Cherry would be on the sode of the old school, blaming Nurse for putting himself in a vulnerable position - but the reality is, the NHL should stop allowing players to get away with exploiting those vulnerabilities.
| POLL | ||
NOVEMBRE 25 | 72 ANSWERS Don Cherry Shares His Take on Oilers Defenceman Darnell Nurse's Reaction to Hit From Ryan Reaves Do you think enforcers still belong in the NHL? | ||
| Yes | 54 | 75 % |
| No | 15 | 20.8 % |
| See Results | 3 | 4.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
