I don't think Nurse can have a prominent role on the team if we want to be good anytime soon, we should trade him either at the deadline or in the offseason, with his offensive numbers at an all time high I'd like to do so at the deadline. The reality is we'll likely stick with him and give him a big raise when this bridge deal expires and regret it soon afterwards. He can play pretty good man on man defense when he just utilizes his physical gifts, but in zone style defense which all teams play he is just completely lost out there and on text book 2 on 1's he always finds himself in the odd position of not fully committing to taking the pass option away, or the man, or the shot, tries to remain in position to do all 3, but fails completely in taking any option away, basically a backwards skating pylon. It seems like opposition forwards have picked up on his flaws, he doesn't have a good active stick and doesn't close off passing lanes or stop pucks well with his body, guys are passing right through him and around him with a high level of frequency, there are low percentage plays you tend to not see forwards do that often around the net, but they do them when Nurse is on the ice cause pucks just get through him or past him.
If Sekera's wheels are back and it kind of looks like they are, he's probably back to being our 3rd best d-man in short order, leaving Russell as our 4th best d-man, not as talented or gifted as Nurse, but he knows his strengths and weaknesses and plays better around his limitations and to his strengths, plus brings a much higher degree of consistency. Nurse is starting to remind me a bit of Jack Johnson, brings a lot of tools to the table, but hasn't refined it into a package that translates to winning more hockey games, I do think he will figure things out well enough at some point, but I see the maturation process being a long one before he draws his game in and does less, but does so consistently, and effectively.
