The blue and orange squad will kick off their 2025-26 season against the Calgary Flames on October 8 in Rogers Place. With the inception of a new season, the Edmonton Oilers have a chance to redeem themselves after two consecutive championship heartbreaks. The Oilers fumbled as the Florida Panthers clinched victories, first and foremost, thanks to the team’s impeccable chemistry.
The first thing that comes to mind after two futile Stanley Cup quests is to introduce significant changes to the roster. Surely, the fans would have loved to see Stan Bowman acquire a new goalie. However, defenseman Darnell Nurse thinks otherwise.
Darnell Nurse of the Edmonton Oilers is Wary of Big Moves
Nothing is more disheartening than a near victory, and for a team that has taken two successive trips to that spot, it ought to be battered emotionally and mentally. However, Nurse believes that making big moves till you finally win a Cup is not the ideal solution.
In a recent interview with Sportsnet’s Mark Spector, the 30-year-old defenseman, who is coming off another unsuccessful championship campaign, shared his candid views on the difficult subject. Although the defeat is heartbreaking, Nurse still has reasons to remain hopeful.”With that said, you’ve always got to zoom out and see that there is obviously progress. Going to the Cup Final two years in a row, that’s progress. But it stinks, you know? It stinks, and it sits with you,” Nurse admitted.
For Nurse, it is all about reasonable progress; surely, there was a time when consecutive Western Conference finals could have imbued him with enough confidence and motivation for an entire season. Defeat hits hard, especially in such short intervals as two back-to-back seasons, but by focusing on the championship loss, it is easy to undermine the team’s long journey.
In the same vein, the defenseman believes that making significant changes to the team is not the guaranteed way to win the Oilers the next Cup. “You’ve got to be careful on change,” Nurse stated before making the prudent observation that every defeat contains within itself a lesson the team can imbibe to become better.
“We’ve got to keep knocking at the door and give ourselves the opportunity. For the guys that have been through the experiences, we have to lean on those experiences — lean on the knowledge that we’ve gotten so far.”
The repeated heartbreaks fuel the team to do better. “We do a pretty good job using it as motivation. Yeah, we did get there two years in a row. But obviously, there’s another level that we can go up, because you didn’t do the job,” the d-man confessed.
Nurse’s words can enable the community to become more appreciative of the Oilers before launching scathing critiques in the team’s direction. There is enough reason to believe that a team that has made the finals twice in a row also has it in them to lift the Cup sooner or later.