Yes but many are dismissing him based on this sample size
It seems that it is more based on individual plays that stand out as frustrating
What metric would you like to look at? Ice time? Led the league in even strength+short handed average ice time for the past 2 years. Quality of competition? First, only, and probably last player in NHL history to lead the league in both ES+SHATOI and QoC. Production? going at a 40-50 point pace over the past 2 seasons and off to a good start already. Teammates? He managed to convince large chunks of the fanbase (myself included) that #4/5 guys like Bear/Barrie/Bouchard/Ceci were real top pairing RHD every time he played with these dudes. Also as for the scoring through the top 6 argument, Nurse was for most of the year the only dman on the team who had a positive xGF% without McDavid on the ice, a large reason for his poor on-off even strength numbers without McDavid in 2020-21 was b/c he played with the defensive black hole that is Tyson Barrie and we had the worst bottom 6 in the NHL. He's clearly one of the best dmen in the league, just more of a low end #1/high end #2 than a true Makar/Fox/Hedman level high end 1D.
I actually want to see him prioritize more towards his defense. Shot suppression and reduction in GA.
Yeah, thats right. We signed our best D man , by a mile, to keep Connor & Leon happy.I actually want to see him prioritize more towards his defense. Shot suppression and reduction in GA.
He's always jumping into the play and always been high event in that regard, it's understandable his xG would look good. I'm curious to see what the coaching staff will do, and if they'll change up the strategy at some point.
He isn't worth 9.25M. It's to keep McDavid and the gang happy. The hope is to get him to re-sign a long term extension and retire as an Oiler. I get it. I'm already past the point talking about Darnell's contract.
It's the Holland's special. Gotta keep everyone and their buddies happy.
I actually want to see him prioritize more towards his defense. Shot suppression and reduction in GA.
He's always jumping into the play and always been high event in that regard, it's understandable his xG would look good. I'm curious to see what the coaching staff will do, and if they'll change up the strategy at some point.
He isn't worth 9.25M. It's to keep McDavid and the gang happy. The hope is to get him to re-sign a long term extension and retire as an Oiler. I get it. I'm already past the point talking about Darnell's contract.
I've mentioned it before, he just does whatever he wants.
You seem to be rent free with me and Darnell's contract.
He actually made pretty huge strides last year in terms of shot suppression specifically due to an spike in entry denials (also flipping to Ceci instead of Barrie as a primary partner helped) and that was while playing against the opposing team's best players. I don't think that 98th percentile defense for 2021-22 is accurate btw, nor do I think that 3rd percentile in 2020-21 is accurate, a lot of that has to do with partners. His actual level is probs a good above average dman in the league defensively who can drive offense/transition. His in zone positioning could still use some work but he's our best defensive dman, lets not kid ourselves.I actually want to see him prioritize more towards his defense. Shot suppression and reduction in GA.
He's always jumping into the play and always been high event in that regard, it's understandable his xG would look good. I'm curious to see what the coaching staff will do, and if they'll change up the strategy at some point.
He isn't worth 9.25M. It's to keep McDavid and the gang happy. The hope is to get him to re-sign a long term extension and retire as an Oiler. I get it. I'm already past the point talking about Darnell's contract.
Not rent free at all. I think it's quite the opposite.
How much of that is a knee jerk reaction to Nurse-Ceci, Nurse-Bouchard, and the Oilers top 6 bashing their faces in and making those two look like AHLers?
I'd argue Ceci is the better defensive defender. He's basically allowed Nurse to jump into the rush as freely as he wants. Ceci is far better at defending than Nurse has, if we're going by the OP's 5 game sample size lol
Nah Ceci is made to look better defensively b/c of Nurse. Not the other way around. We saw this with Bear. Bouchard, and Barrie too (or at least made Barrie look like a regular bad defensive dman instead of the dumpster fire he was without Nurse). Ceci is able to play back more b/c of Nurse's ability to skate faster than all but a small handful of players in the league and long reach to get back in time and prevent odd man rushes. Nurse can aggressively shut down a lot of entry attempts by challenging the puck carrier at the line and forcing dump ins that Ceci can easily gobble up. Nurse is also usually the one clearing the crease/going into the boards. Ceci didn't have even close to this many options when playing with Keith last year and also doesn't do nearly as well when paired with Kulak b/c he has to be the one playing aggressively/challenging.
