Has Darnell Nurse found his Mattias Ekholm?
Evan Bouchard, if you’ll remember, was a skittish youngster struggling to establish himself as a legitimate top pairing defenceman before Ekholm arrived to settle him down late in the 2022-23 season. Once they paired him with the big, steady Swede, the results were dramatic — he blossomed into a star defenceman.
His points doubled from 40 to 82 and his plus minus (which used to be an antiquated stat until they started calling it goal differential) went from plus six to plus 34.
Three years later they are still a pair, with Ekholm and Bouchard one-two on the Oilers at plus 28 and plus 22.
Which brings us to Edmonton’s second pairing. Since Connor Murphy arrived at the trade deadline and teamed up with a struggling Nurse, they starting to establish a strong identity of their own. The big, heavy duo is exactly what the Oilers are looking for heading into the post-season — shut down guys who make life difficult for opposition goal scorers.
“When you look at those two, if I was the opposition I certainly wouldn’t feel comfortable playing against them,” head coach Kris Knoblauch said of the six-foot-four defenders, who check in at a combined weight of 427 pounds.
“They’re both physical, both take up a lot of room. Their sticks are good. There’s just not a lot of room to maneuver out there. We like those two against the other team’s top lines and it’s nice that they bring that physicality.”
The Oilers allowed 16 even-strength goals in the last six games and Nurse has only been on the ice for four of them. Even when the Oilers were being roughed up in 4-0 and 5-2 losses to Florida and Tampa Bay, Nurse was only on for one even strength goal against.
For a guy who is a team-worst minus-18 on the season, this is a marked improvement. And for a team struggling to reduce its goals against it’s a major development at just the right time.
The Nurse, Jake Walman pairing couldn’t find any traction all year, but this one came together in a hurry.
“He’s an easy guy to play with because we think similarly and want to be hard defenders,” said Murphy. “He’s a passionate leader that you can feel his intensity and his drive to win and be good for the team. That’s contagious as a partner to read off of.
“It’s really fun to play with him. Just having some games to build that chemistry helps because in the heated parts of the games you want to have that natural instinct to know where a guy is.”
This comes in concert with the Oilers overall commitment to playing playoff hockey, something they showed just a passing interest in for the first 65 games of the season. A three-game winning streak and outscoring the opposition 13-7 in that span shows improvement everywhere.
“Coming out of the break we made some adjustments in wanting to take away the middle of the ice and I think we’ve just gotten more comfortable playing that system,” explained Nurse.
“We have all of the offensive firepower in the world. We have one of the best point-scoring defencemen in the league, we have guys in front that can make it happen each and every night, and we need to bring that same attention to detail defensively. That’s something that I can do and help out.”
Saturday’s 4-2 win over Anaheim is a perfect example. The first two games against the Ducks this season were wild shootouts, (7-4 Oilers, 6-5 Ducks), but this time Edmonton wasn’t going to be drawn into a track meet. They shut the Ducks out for 50 minutes, built a 3-0 lead and didn’t crack when the visitors scored two quick ones in the third period.
“Yeah, the last few games we’ve done a pretty good job of that,” said Knoblauch. “Even going back to the Tampa game… they got a couple of special teams goals, but five-on-five the last four games we’ve played the right brand of hockey.”
Even the rookie can tell the difference in what the Oilers are doing right now.
“I feel like we’re pretty comfortable in the defensive zone right now, spending time there, allowing them to stay on the outside,” said Matt Savoie, a better two-way player than you’d expect any 22-year-old to be.
“I think we’re playing an intense style right now, closing quick in the D-zone, not giving them easy looks inside. I think it’s just the intensity that we’re playing with right now, and that’s playoff style.”
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