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 Adam
Messages: 7757
Registered: August 2005
Location: Edmonton, AB
6 Cups
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| Skookum Jim wrote on Wed, 11 March 2026 15:26 |
Interesting stat on Nurse..
It seemed to me that Nurse was always the culprit regarding pucks off stick/skate/body deflections into the Oiler net..
Staples thought the same thing and reviewed past Oiler game stats on player deflections on to their own net.. turns out Nurse has had 10 deflections on net.. with 5 goals against.. (goalie with 0.500 SV% !! ) .. and the rest of the entire TEAM had 10 deflections total on their own net .. that kind of discrepancy would suggest a trend towards statistical relevance.
So it isn't just my imagination.. it seems to be a thing with Nurse.. Staples and Leavins both think its the way he tries to block shots, and his positioning.. there's methods players use to reduce the probability of deflecting pucks on net.. positioning, skate and stick placement.. but he isn't employing them.. or is bad at it.
I'm sure coaches must have caught this.. shouldn't that be a teachable set of skills?
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He did learn. In his formative years the Oilers held up Kris Russell as the ideal defenceman. Lay on the ice all the time, deflected in 3-4 goals in ONE playoff series against the Jets. Taught Nurse everything he knew. Then he got Late Career Duncan Keith as a mentor, teaching him how fun it is to get turnstiled again and again.
We built this monster ourselves through our own mistakes. The management didn't value puck movers appropriately - and probably still doesn't. Look at Broberg. Good puck mover...never got a real shot.
"Thinking that a bad team's best players are the reason the team is bad is the "Tambellini re-signing Lennart Petrell" of sports opinions." @Woodguy55
#FireBobbyNicks
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