Oilers Shake Up Defence Pairs at Practice, Making Significant Change With Darnell Nurse

The Oilers have tried this formation before with Nurse on the top pairing, which may come from Paul Coffey's promise to give the Oiler veteran a bigger role on the ice.

With Nurse sliding up to the first pair with Bouchard, Mattias Ekholm will anchor the second unit with Troy Stecher, and Brett Kulak is still next to Emberson on the third pair.

Josh Brown was rotating in for Troy Stecher, but according to Tony Brar's projections, Brown looks to be a healthy scratch.

It could be possible that he does play tonight, as Mark Spector recently hinted that Brown could see a bigger role with the team to inject some toughness.

UPDATE: According to a new update from Knoblauch after practice, the Oilers may not even use these pairs in tonight's game - just practicing new combinations.

Darnell Nurse has been rightfully criticized at times for failing to meet the standard of play for a $9.25M player, but this season his level of play has increased drastically.

Coach Paul Coffey promised him a larger role on the ice if Nurse could prove himself, and so far he has.

Oilers analyst NHL Sid believes that Nurse would benefit most from a partner with skills like Bouchard's, but there will be some concerns about stopping cycles and clearing the net front in the defensive zone. Hopefully, their offence outweighs the defence struggles.

It's a major positive of the Oilers season that Darnell Nurse is rebounding and improving his game after a truly disastrous playoffs last year. If he can sustain this new standard, the Oilers blue line will be much stronger this spring.