The Daily Faceoff Show: How can the Edmonton Oilers adjust in this series with Darnell Nurse’s injury?

Nothing summarized the Edmonton Oilers struggles against the Colorado Avalanche better than that moment in the first period when Connor McDavid looked like he was going to fly up the ice, only for Cale Makar to keep up with him and give McDavid nothing to work with.

Scoring off the rush like that is where the Oilers excel, but the Avs have tightened down on that in their own end, while getting a plethora of their own chances at the other. Through the first two games, the Avs have out-chanced the Oilers on the rush 26-8. If Edmonton keeps that up, they aren’t going to last much longer in this series.

Frank Seravalli and Matt Larkin talked on today’s Daily Faceoff Show about what adjustments the Oilers can make to turn this series around.

Matt Larkin: It’s pretty tough. You know, with Cale Makar, someone said to me once in a press box, one of those debates during the intermission, “Is Cale Makar the second best player in the world right now after Connor McDavid?” I think you could make the case, because he’s the one person that can keep pace.

But I’m wondering about the deployment of the Oilers’ top line. I know we saw Jay Woodcroft experimenting, I don’t know why you do that right now. I know the Oilers were hard on themselves with the 8-6 score in Game 1, but in my opinion, the Oilers want chaos, they want firewagon hockey. And yes, I know the Colorado Avalanche are extremely talented, they can keep up with that pace well, but if you look at the success of the Oilers, the wilder the games have been, especially with Calgary, the better the results have been, because they find a way to lose track.

If you have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the ice together, and you have back-and-forth action, you have chaos. It’s hard to pick up both of them, and one of them is going to burn you. And I don’t know why the Oilers want to mess with that. Yes, of course, they don’t want to give up the eight goals including the empty netter, but to me when the games are wild, when they’re crazy, I think it actually seems to favour them so far in the playoffs.

And you saw in Game 2, the Oilers were a bit more conservative, they tried to be a lot more physical, which good on them I guess, you want to get Colorado off their game, but that’s not what’s worked for the Oilers in the playoffs. They need crazy, they need their hair on fire.

Frank Seravalli: Well they might need that, but I don’t think there’s been one moment in this series so far that the Avs have not been in complete control of the game.

So, you mention lineup decisions, and Jay Woodcroft certainly has a few. He broke up Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in Game 2 for the first time since Round 1, and he had to put them back together in the third period as the Oilers were chasing the game, but what about the decision with Darnell Nurse?

I fully commend Darnell Nurse, and what he’s battling through, Jay Woodcroft said after the game that he’s “giving us everything that he has, and he’s an absolute warrior” and there’s no question about that as he’s dealing with his core muscle injury that, as I reported, may require surgery. At what point is he hurting you instead of helping you?”

Matt Larkin: Yeah, we’ve seen this come up over the years so many times, in the playoffs, because there’s the warrior mentality. You want to help your team, but there reaches a point that which you’re not necessarily helping your team anymore by being in the lineup. And I don’t want to go as far to use the word liability, but it’s hard to not think it a little bit.

If you look in the first couple of games since Colorado with Nurse on the ice at 5-on-5, the score was 6-1 Colorado, the scoring chances were 32-16. The Oilers have been doubled in chances in this series with their No. 1 defenseman on the ice. Of course, Darnell Nurse is going to get the tough assignments, but I still think it’s a sign that he’s not himself.

You said it earlier in these playoffs, we’re not seeing the physical, the nasty Darnell Nurse. I just decided it’d be fun to look it up, and in the regular season, 10 percent of his games he didn’t have a hit. In these playoffs, 23 percent of his games he’s gone without a hit. And this is a guy who’s not just throwing one hit in a game when he’s on, He’s throwing five hits, nine hits, 10 hits, he’s physically dominating the competition. And he’s just a shell right now, what we’re seeing out there is just not Darnell Nurse.

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, I fully agree. And what’s odd to me is that it seemed like he was getting better. He had a really rough Game 1 against Calgary as well, and then 2, 3, 4, and 5 to close out the Battle of Alberta, he seemed to be closer to himself. He got in a practice between these rounds, and you’re thinking, “This guy’s getting on the ice that’s in an optional situation, maybe he’s getting healthier.”

I wonder if maybe instead of just being dependent on the injury as well, which obviously isn’t going away, the Avs are just so much of a better skating team than Calgary that you can’t really seem to avoid some of what the Avs are making Darnell Nurse do. Minus-3 in that 2:04 sequence for Darnell Nurse, the turnover that started it all for the first goal that ended up in the back of the net. The Oilers compounded their problem with Jay Woodcroft sending out the fourth line for the next shift, Kadri remained out there, and the puck was in the back of their net in a hurry, the rout was on.

The Oilers haven’t been able to generate much. It’s going to be fascinating to see what they can do as they return home for Game 3 Saturday night 8 p.m. ET.

You can watch the full video here…