While most of the Oilers have elevated their game and had success at times through the playoffs by now, Darnell Nurse has struggled so much that he's close to setting a terrible playoff record.
According to a post today from Big Head Hockey, Darnell Nurse is only one minus away from a -16 rating, the worst in NHL history in the playoffs.
For Nurse's salary of $9.25M, fans, media, and likely players too are demanding more from his level of play. Through 19 playoff games so far, Nurse has 0 goals and only 3 assists despite averaging just under 20 minutes of ice time a night.
In game one of the Cup Final, the Nurse and Ceci pairing was on the ice for two goals against, both of which were scored because of blown defensive zone coverage. Ceci plays mostly with Nurse, but even he has a much better (but still bad) -7 rating.
When asked about the struggles of the Nurse and Ceci pairing today, Knoblauch backed his players and the decision to go back to that pairing, but also sounded open to changes being made for next game. Now in the Cup Final, there's absolutely no time to waste. Any lineup moves need to be decisive and effective, and Knoblauch has proven he can do it. At the very least, perhaps Kulak and Broberg deserve some more ice time.
We'll see tomorrow morning as the Oilers gear up for practice in Florida if Knoblauch does make any changes on the back end.
