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Player Discussion Darnell Nurse - Why all the hate?

WaitingForUser

WaitingForUser

Registered User
Mar 19, 2010
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6,080
Edmonton
For the life of me I have never seen a fan base that turn on a player over a calander year so drastically.
When he was first called up last year he was placed well above his head as was the oiler way. He only really started to sink when he was 1 taken away from Sekera and 2 became exhausted from being played 23 minutes a night.
Why does everyone here not think that Nurse is an NHL defenseman? Is he a top 4 defenseman? No but that doesn't mean that he isn't NHL caliber. Everyone seems to think that the Russell signing means Nurse is going to the AHL. I'm glad that our coaching staff doesn't seem to see it the same way. He had a bad game in Winnipeg where he and Davidson were the top pairing. That along with the Adambom pair are they only two consistencies we saw during the pre season on the back end. I have absolutely no doubt that Nurse Davidson has been the plan for the bottom pair from the start of camp.

So all I ask is why does everyone seem to see this as a bad idea?Especially now that we acquired a veteran middle/bottom pair D man for cheap?

Sorry to the mods for starting a new thread but to my amazement I couldn't find a Nurse thread in the first three pages.
 
Not everyone. I'm a huge Nurse supporter and he's looked improved this preseason, smarter reads in his own zone and much calmer. He's played with more confidence.

Darnell will be our future anchor on the 2nd pairing. He's absolutely an adequate #6 right now, I would be fine with him on the 3rd pairing.

Having said that, starting in the AHL is better for him. Put him on the 1st pairing and give him huge minutes, he'll be the first call up.
 
He's demonstrated precious little IQ at the NHL level at either end of the ice. He shouldn't have played last year more than 10-20 games, and he still doesn't look ready to play this year. His decision making just isn't up to par. It's not a "hate" for the player. It's not wanting to have a player in the NHL who doesn't belong in the NHL.

I get that people love his tenacity and physical tools. But a player needs to actually be able to play. Nurse isn't there yet.
 
There's no hate. I think most fans appreciate the toughness he brings to the line up. He can skate like the wind. He still makes some mistakes though. I'd rather see them ironed out with Bakersfield than Edmonton.
 
My only problem with having him down in Bakersfield is him being able to dominate lesser competition. People may say that I'm crazy but I believe that playing against lesser competition can breed bad habits that are very hard to break. especially for someone with Darnell's size and skating ability.
 
No hate. Not yet. Yak is still in town. Give it a few more months. There will be vultures picking his game apart
 
WaitingForUser said:
My only problem with having him down in Bakersfield is him being able to dominate lesser competition. People may say that I'm crazy but I believe that playing against lesser competition can breed bad habits that are very hard to break. especially for someone with Darnell's size and skating ability.
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Yeah I'm in the crowd who would rather he play in the NHL on the bottom pair than in the AHL. He needs to learn the game at NHL speed. He has the physical attributes its just getting accustomed to NHL speed and decision making that he really needs, and I think the NHL is the best place to learn that, not the AHL where the play is much more unstructured.
 
Spawn said:
I get that people love his tenacity and physical tools. But a player needs to actually be able to play. Nurse isn't there yet.
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The fact that people on this board prefer Fayne in the top 6 to Darnell Nurse is maybe not "hate", but is completely ridiculous and I think a symptom of believing we have rushed guys in the past. Darnell is better than most people on here give him credit for, and with the top 6 we have now, will be just fine this year, and will be facing proper competition and less workload.

Prediction: Darnell makes the opening night roster, and doesn't look back.
 
NurseDestroyedHaley said:
The fact that people on this board prefer Fayne in the top 6 to Darnell Nurse is maybe not "hate", but is completely ridiculous and I think a symptom of believing we have rushed guys in the past. Darnell is better than most people on here give him credit for, and with the top 6 we have now, will be just fine this year, and will be facing proper competition and less workload.

Prediction: Darnell makes the opening night roster, and doesn't look back.
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Nurse probably will make the opening night roster. It doesn't mean he should.
 
NurseDestroyedHaley said:
The fact that people on this board prefer Fayne in the top 6 to Darnell Nurse is maybe not "hate", but is completely ridiculous and I think a symptom of believing we have rushed guys in the past. Darnell is better than most people on here give him credit for, and with the top 6 we have now, will be just fine this year, and will be facing proper competition and less workload.

Prediction: Darnell makes the opening night roster, and doesn't look back.
Click to expand...

I can agree with this. Nurse is a better dman than Fayne. Still don't want him in the line up just yet though.
 
You know what Nurse needs -- Time!

A young Dman who plays the style of game he does needs to mature. Nurse has a long-term future with us, he'll be an absolute beast when he's 25. Give him time, Dmen take longer to develop but also have longer peaks.

We've already seen early progression from him this preseason. He looks much better in his own zone, last year he would move the puck to his first read all the time. So far we've seen him move on to his 2nd and 3rd reads if the 1st read is covered. I'm happy with his progress.
 
I would think everyone is very high on Nurse but like u said he struggled.

His flaws are significant and extremely noticeable.

He needs to figure out how to contribute offensively and be more consistent defensively. A year in the AHL playing top minutes is better than him being a number 6/7 at this point in his development.
 
WaitingForUser said:
My only problem with having him down in Bakersfield is him being able to dominate lesser competition. People may say that I'm crazy but I believe that playing against lesser competition can breed bad habits that are very hard to break. especially for someone with Darnell's size and skating ability.
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this route would allow him to build his confidence and fine tune his complete skill set which helps him in the long run. Even if it ends up being a short stint in the AHL, like Draisaitl last season
 
yukoner88 said:
this route would allow him to build his confidence and fine tune his complete skill set which helps him in the long run. Even if it ends up being a short stint in the AHL, like Draisaitl last season
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I'm not convinced you need to go to the AHL to build confidence, nor do I think that it built Draisaitl's confidence last year. Draisaitl was not very good in his AHL stint by most accounts, in fact it sounds like it pissed him off getting sent down and when he came back up he had something to prove. Hard to say if Nurse would react the same, but if preseason has been any indication Nurse looks like he's confident. Certainly was playing the body and puck more and jumping into the play more than last season. I personally think he's had a good preseason and looks easily NHL ready (I understand some don't agree, while other do), but there's no denying he looks more comfortable and confident this year.
 
He needs to play NHL hockey to make NHL decisions. He's looked a lot better in regard to decision making this pre season(that I've seen)
 
McFlyingV said:
I'm not convinced you need to go to the AHL to build confidence, nor do I think that it built Draisaitl's confidence last year. Draisaitl was not very good in his AHL stint by most accounts, in fact it sounds like it pissed him off getting sent down and when he came back up he had something to prove. Hard to say if Nurse would react the same, but if preseason has been any indication Nurse looks like he's confident. Certainly was playing the body and puck more and jumping into the play more than last season. I personally think he's had a good preseason and looks easily NHL ready (I understand some don't agree, while other do), but there's no denying he looks more comfortable and confident this year.
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I've watched Darnell very closely this preseason and you're exactly right. His confidence level and his handling of the puck are vastly improved. He's made some smart rushes up the ice and joined the offensive attack at the right time as well. Does he still need work? Absolutely. However, we're seeing improvement and progress. He's easily a legit #6 right now. He'll be a solid #3/4 who gets heavy PK time at his peak. He'll be our 2nd pairing LHD behind our Swedish studs down the road.

Every team in the league would love to have Darnell on their team. He's a major part of our future, when he hits his peak he will be an absolute force.

He's a guy you want on your team. Either way, as a 3rd pairing or 1st pairing in the AHL, I'm good with both. First pairing in the AHL would be nice (first call up obviously), but if he helps us win more than other options, we have to play him.
 
I'm ok with him on the 3rd pairing.

He's still not ready to be in the top 4 (and with Russell signing, he doesn't need to be), but if he's the 7th D-man, I'd rather they send him to Bako.
 
The hate is just the nature of these boards, a lot of people who didn't really watch Nurse in junior or who didn't notice the weaknesses in his game which were quite visible even when he was arguably the best d-man in the entire OHL, got smacked with a dose of reality last season when he wasn't this all world god-tier defenseman they thought he was. When people on these boards have their illusionary bubbles popped they tend to take a complete 180 degree turn on a player and someone who was just a few months ago a future top pairing d-stud will become a complete scrub seemingly overnight. When the hype train runs too hot and the player falls well short of their expectations people just pile on and their is a loop of negativity on a player till they bad mouth him well beyond the point of what is reasonable or realistic representation of who they are as a player. Then after a period of time so long as the player doesn't reinforce the negative characterizations put on them will slowly come back into vogue and a more realistic representation of who the player actually is will come back into view.

For people of more even temperaments, more realistic expectations, or better analysis of a players ability and how they project moving forward it is just part of the predictable spectacle of HFboards. The fanbase here is generally extremely passionate about hockey and whenever you are emotionally invested in something it can lead to unsound emotional based judgement which is a detriment to analytical thought and analysis, a certain segment of posters will have mood swings and basically think a player is fabulous or trash based on whatever play or small handful of game is most recent in their memory opposed to a more big picture focus, this kind of myopic based analysis is always going to lead to a certain amount of polarizing extremes.
 
its not hate. it's coming back to reality (whoops, there goes gravity!).

He's not ready for top 4 and he unlikely to ever be top 2.

be it bottom pair or top pair in the A, either are good for him


just give the kid time. he'll be a very valuable beast in time.
 
People are just extremely impatient. I'm a Sault Ste Marie guy. I love following the former Hounds. The same happened to Muzzin in LA. The LA board wanted to trade Muzz. for a cup of coffee or completely cut ties with the guy his first season. Darnell needs to develop in the NHL and people just need to be patient. He's going to be a beast.
 
Chia loves Nurse, he's not going anywhere. He's a legit NHL #6 right now.

Davidson is a legit #5. We've got a decent D if we roll this. Nurse and Davidson both bring more than Fayne.

Klefbom-Larsson
Russell-Sekera
Nurse-Davidson
Fayne

Ready to come up: Benning and Oesterle.
 
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