{"id":513132,"date":"2026-03-04T05:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T05:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/513132\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T05:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T05:39:10","slug":"oilers-defenceman-darnell-nurse-not-happy-about-his-play-at-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/513132\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers\u2019 defenceman Darnell Nurse \u2018not happy about\u2019 his play \u2018at all\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, before the Oilers host the Ottawa Senators<\/a>, Nurse took a different approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 61 games in, and I\u2019m minus-12 and have 20 points. I\u2019m not happy about that at all,\u201d Nurse told reporters after the morning skate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith that said, if we\u2019re going to reach the goal we want to reach, I have to step up for sure, and there\u2019s a lot of hockey to be played. I think that\u2019s the excitement and the opportunity and the accountability. I owe that to the guys in the room. That\u2019s it. No one else. Showing up each and every day and giving what I have, and enjoying it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The accountability, I owe that to those guys in the room.”<\/p>\n

Darnell Nurse, when asked about his performance recently. #LetsGoOilers<\/a> <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcf9: @EdmontonOilers<\/a> <\/p>\n

As the Oilers lost two of the three games on the California road trip, Nurse struggled in defensive-zone coverage in Anaheim and San Jose. He was a minus-3 in Anaheim and minus-1 in San Jose, with an assist. He and the team played much better as they demolished Los Angeles. Nurse was plus-3 with an assist as well.<\/p>\n

Nurse was the centre of attention in San Jose, just hours after his wife gave birth to his third child. He asked a question<\/a> about whether he fought the game after the Sharks\u2019 loss, saying, \u201cgood analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the latest example of the Oilers\u2019 core expressing frustration. As Nurse points out, winning is fun, but they need to find it playing the right way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve shown in stretches and areas throughout the season that when we check, we play really good hockey,\u201d said Nurse.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur group has it. Individually, we all feel we have it. For me, it\u2019s going out there and being hard to play against. Having fun on that side of the ice is going to help our group. We\u2019re excited about the last 21 games; there is a lot of hockey to be played.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Oilers are getting help on the blue line in the form of shutdown piece Connor Murphy<\/a>. He won\u2019t be ready to join the team just yet, but he is a 32-year-old veteran who has played 800 NHL games.<\/p>\n

Whether he\u2019ll play with Nurse when he arrives, remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely is a really good component to our group, [he\u2019s] steady back there, hard to play against. So is it welcome when it\u2019s a guy kill some penalties and do something that\u2019s of the tough stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and has been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, he also collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues.<\/p>\n

PRESENTED BY THE DAILY FACEOFF TRADE DEADLINE SPECIAL\"\"<\/a>The 2026 Trade Deadline Special is going LIVE March 6th. Join the Daily Faceoff crew on Friday, March 6th from 9 AM-1:30 PM MT for wall-to-wall coverage of every single move as it happens. Get instant reaction, expert analysis, and exclusive insights from special guests throughout the day. Tune in LIVE on the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel<\/a>\u00a0and don\u2019t miss a second of deadline day chaos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Tuesday, before the Oilers host the Ottawa Senators, Nurse took a different approach. \u201cIt\u2019s 61 games in,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-513132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}