After years of futility on the Edmonton blue-line, Darnell Nurse is leading a defensive resurgence

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This article was published 22/12/2015 (3608 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

EDMONTON — In the seemingly perpetual climate of deficiency on the Edmonton Oilers’ defence, there have emerged a couple of hopeful notes.

Hope, of course, isn’t the best game plan to escape the wilderness, where the Oilers have resided for quite some time.

And the assembly line of great, young forwards acquired through the draft almost has appeared to many to be a pointless exercise until something tangible can be done about that blue-line.

Here, Oilers fans at least see 22-year-old Swede Oscar Klefbom and 20-year-old Hamilton, Ont., product Darnell Nurse as building blocks for the future, any future that doesn’t look the like the recent past.

The bad news is Klefbom is on the injured-reserve list, having missed the last four games with an undisclosed injury.

Better news is Nurse seems to be adapting very well in his NHL rookie season. His sister, Kia Nurse, 19, adapted quickly to playing at the highest levels. A guard, Kia won gold with the Canadian women’s basketball team this year at the Toronto Pan Am Games.

Oilers coach Todd McLellan has trusted the seventh overall pick of 2013 for 20 minutes of ice time per night so far this season, regularly with top-four duty.

Nurse, a sizeable defender at 6-4 and 213 pounds, has played all of 27 NHL games, 25 of them this season, and is shouldering a big part of the weight that falls on the Oilers’ defence.

“He plays hard,” left-winger Taylor Hall said Monday. “He’s going to give a good effort every night and I think he’s starting to round his offensive game a lot. He’s starting to find out when he can go and when he should move pucks up and when he can jump in the rush.

“For a guy like him, that’s maybe the last thing that comes, but right now, he’s terrific in the D-zone and he’s super hard on guys that are much bigger in him. He plays with a lot of tenacity and that’s great to see.”

Nurse, who had a modest two goals and seven points entering Monday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets, was low-keying his role in whatever Oilers future there is to come.

“I go out every night and work as hard as I can and give myself the best chance I can to be successful,” he said prior to the game. “I’ve had a lot of help from the coaching staff, my D partners.

“The biggest thing with me is recognizing the different guys in the league and the skill sets they have. It’s gone pretty well so far and I’m just trying to continue playing the right way and build some trust.

‘He plays with a lot of tenacity and that’s great to see’

— Oilers left-winger

Taylor Hall, on Darnell Nurse

“It’s been a lot of fun. The thing for me is… when I’m playing against top players, to not be intimidated. I just have to go out and play my game and trust in my abilities and that all the other guys on the ice will talk to me.”

Nurse has built some trust already with his fearless style. The edge he can bring is evident on many nights, and there is clearly some kind of built-in confidence — not yet demolished by the perennial rebuilding that seems to go on with the Oilers — that’s resulted from a fine junior career, including being Team Canada’s No.1 defenceman at last winter’s gold-medal performance at the world juniors.

Since the Oilers drafted him more than two years ago, there has also been an impatience for what he has to offer. Some might call it an irrational hope Nurse could have done more earlier, but that only illustrates the need.

“I’m just 20 so this hasn’t taken too long, but from a playing standpoint, going back and playing two more years of junior felt, well, not long, but it’s been a road for sure,” Nurse said. “There’s been a lot of development over these last couple of years, but that’s put me in a good position to come up here and be capable of playing in this league.

“Any young defenceman, when he gets drafted, has to be patient in many ways. But I wouldn’t say it’s taking too long.

“I don’t know how many people expected me to make the team my first year. I made a good push last year and got into a couple of games, but I think, hey, I’m just 20. The road has been pretty good and I’ve made good progress on my game. I’ve still got a lot of room to grow, lots of things to still work on.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca