EDMONTON — Darnell Nurse could have played — and been suspended — in any era.
A modern day Kevin Lowe, he’s always run a little hot, never one to choose the path of least infliction. The son of an old Hamilton Ti-Cat, Richard Nurse, hasn’t met a forearm shiver that wasn’t worth delivering, a slash or cross-check better saved for later.
It is both his curse and his cudgel, his worth and his detriment.
We’ve always loved a defenceman that makes the net front a painful environment, the way Mason Marchment’s father Bryan always did, once instructing those who found his physical game off-putting with the best three-word quote this scribe has ever received:
“Go play tennis.”
And so, as a series shifts north from one oil patch to another, it arrives in Edmonton with an extra dose of crude, thanks to the whack heard ‘round the West that has either knocked Dallas centre Roope Hintz out of the series, or facilitated an awkward return in Game 3 that would raise the eyebrows of fan and official alike.
Stanley Cup Playoffs on SportsnetThe Edmonton Oilers host the Dallas Stars for Game 3 of the Western Conference Final with the series tied 1-1. Watch live Sunday on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ with coverage starting at 2:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 p.m. MT.
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Hey — we’re not here to judge. Hintz is a fantastic player and Dallas’ best forward until the arrival of countryman Mikko Rantanen. He’s way underrated because of his market and moniker — one of those guys who would get trophy votes if he played in Toronto or New York.
Hintz is a Finn, and Finns don’t flop.
It’s just that, compared to the kind of stick fouls that have permeated Stanley Cup Playoffs of yore, the one that injured Hintz was more like a shrimp skewer than the full-blown shishkabob of local legend Marty McSorley v. Mike Bullard.
Nurse’s act was, in fact, a two-minute slashing penalty. But the rule book says it could be more if a player is injured, as if Dr.s Garrett Rank and Jean Hebert were supposed to run Hintz through an MRI machine on his way to the dressing room — in a sport where players have been known to fake an injury to put their team on the power play.
“Terry Crisp was our coach,” ex-Flame Mike Bullard told me once, re-enacting the near-fatal spear he received from Edmonton’s Marty McSorley back in the ’88 playoffs. “They take me off on the stretcher and into the room. I say to Bearcat (trainer Bearcat Murray), ‘We need a win here. I’m OK. Go tell Crispy.’
“He goes out to the bench, Bearcat, and right where the players can hear, he says to Crispy: ‘Bully says he’s OK! Do you want him?’ And Crispy says, ‘Hell no. He hasn’t done a God damned thing yet anyway. Leave him in the room.’”
Now, Dallas coach Pete DeBoer likely needs Hintz more than Crisp did Bullard back in the day, and we’ve all heard the coach’s response by now, when asked what he thought of the fact that Nurse’s slash was downgraded from a five-minute major to a two-minute minor penalty.
“Does anyone in this room think if Connor McDavid gets carried off the ice like that, it’s not a five-minute major?”
On Saturday, before boarding a plane to Edmonton with or without Hintz in tow — DeBoer would not say if Hintz was able to make the trip — he doubled down:
“I see exactly what I saw last night, and I stand by exactly what I said last night.”
Thankfully, we have lowered our tolerance for violent acts in hockey, even if the heat of the moment still gives us a Jacob Trouba slash to Trent Frederic’s head, a sneaky Jason Robertson elbow to Adam Henrique’s kisser, or a Viktor Arvidsson can-opener at the worst possible moment for Brayden McNabb.
Nurse is less subtle, which we’ve always respected. If he’s doing it, he’s doing it in the full light of day, ready for whatever consequences arrive. His suspension list isn’t short, and that’s just the cost of doing business.
Like the time back in 2016 when Nurse thought he saw veteran teammate Matt Hendricks being run dangerously into the boards by San Jose defenceman Roman Polak.
Nurse, in his first full NHL season at age 21, found Polak not long later and left the burly Czech in a bloody pile, administering a savage lickin’ that told every opponent how one young Oiler was going to deal with dirty plays involving a team leader like Hendricks.
It was anything but subtle, and the fact that replays later showed Polak had nothing to do with Hendricks’ fall into the boards was a simple miscalculation, to be blamed perhaps on the late arrival of those iPads on the bench. You can see that scrap here:
In playoffs, acts like Nurse-on-Hintz have provided the juice that fuels our industry. And with sympathies to Hintz’s limb, we don’t see that ever changing.
We got the in-game infraction, the post-game quotes, and the impending retribution all in one — ironically wrapped up conveniently by Mush’s boy Mason Friday night in Big D.
Marchment was asked, predictably, if this angle will play out further in Edmonton for Game 3.
“Yeah, for sure,” promised Marchment. “A lot of that stuff you just keep in the back of your mind, and if the opportunity presents itself, then you take your chance.”
“You take your chance.”
Ah, the sweet sounds of playoff hockey.
And for those who look down on this aspect of our beautiful game, we’d ask you this:
What are you doing Sunday afternoon?
Watching hockey? Or playing tennis?
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