Oilers Defenceman Darnell Nurse Reveals His Biggest Mistake From Last Season
Oilers Defenceman Darnell Nurse has been struggling to live up to his $9.25M ever since e the contract was signed, but he's determined to be better this season.
In a new interview at practice today, Nurse identified that he thought he wasn't physical enough last year, and it's something that he's looking to correct this year.
»I'm way more effective, I think, being physical. It brings out the skating element of my game, cause you wanna close on things quick, you want to be in people's faces.»
- Darnell Nurse
- Darnell Nurse
The message to Nurse to play a more physical game is clearly coming from the coaching staff as well. Coach Knoblauch at practice echoed a similar statement as Nurse, emphasizing that he needs to play physical and do that by closing gaps quickly. In a recent interview with OilersNow, coach Paul Coffey also praised Nurse's physicality so far this year, and said he wants more of it.
Nurse's struggles are fresh in the minds of Oilers fans especially due to his poor play in last year's playoffs. It honestly was amazing that the Oilers were able to make it as far as they did with their third best defenceman posting the worst +/- record in playoff history. Kurt Leavins of the Edmonton Journal recently revealed that Nurse was plagued by a significant injury at that time, but it was still extremely concerning.
This season, the Oilers are seemingly making it a priority to get Darnell Nurse's game back in a positive direction. The coaching staff's direct messaging and instructions are great to see, and if Nurse plays more physical, he will add more value to the Oilers blue line. Now if he can just work on eliminating the turnovers too, Nurse could go a long way to winning back some Oilers fans.
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