Top Oilers d-man struggling against Panthers (again). Any solutions?

Yahoo

3 hours ago

Darnell Nurse is once again an enigma wrapped in a conundrum, shrouded in difficult questions for the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final.
Edmonton's Stanley Cup hopes rest to some large degree on figuring out the riddle of Nurse's game.
Can they unlocked all he has to bring, which is substantial? Or will he and his coaches squander their opportunity?
This regular season Nurse likely had his best season as a professional, moving the puck well and defending with confidence and aggression.
But he's now and then struggled mightily in the 2025 playoffs, and at this moment against the Panthers he's having a super rough patch. In Game 2, especially, he struggled to move the puck, often making unforced icings that locked his team in its own end, not to mention unforced turnovers that led to dangerous shots against.
But the problem can be fixed, I strongly suspect. For whatever reason, a major difference maker for Nurse and the Oilers is which d-man gets paired with Nurse. With some partners, he's solid, even outstanding, playing sound but aggressive defence and moving the puck tape-to-tape. With other partners, he's out of position on defence, missing his checks and his skill moving the puck starts to evaporate.
In the playoffs this year, Nurse has played his best hockey with water bug Troy Stecher.
In the first nine games, without Stecher, Nurse helped create nine Grade A shots at even strength, but made mistakes on 19 against. That made Nurse a liability for the Oilers.
But after Ty Emberson was replaced by Stecher, and the quick, smart and effective Stecher teamed up with Nurse, Nurse made 12 major contributions to Grade A shots in the next six games, with 16 major mistakes on Grade A shots against. That was a much better ratio for a d-man, a solid signal that he and Stecher were getting the job done.
After Mattias Ekholm got healthy for the final game against Dallas, Stecher was sent to the pressbox Nurse has since been teamed up with Brett Kulak for the last three games, including the first two games against Florida. Nurse has made two major contributions to Grade A shots at even strength, but 13 major mistakes on Grade A shots against in the three games. It's his worst stretch of the playoffs. Kulak has been holding his own, but Nurse has wilted.
It's worth noting that Nurse and Kulak weren't a particularly strong partnership in the regular season, 16 goals for and 19 goals against in 428 even strength minutes.
Why would the Oilers expect the iffy pairing to now play well against tougher competition? It might well have been worth a try but it's not pay out, so why place the same bet?
It's time to change it up.
For Nurse, this is a repeat of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs where the Oilers struggled to find a d-man partner who could combine with Nurse to give the team effective minutes. Vincent Desharnais, Kulak and Cody Ceci all tried but all played mediocre hockey at best at Nurse's side, with Nurse in the same boat.
It all came to a head in Game 1 of the Final against Florida where the partnership of Nurse and Ceci was on the ice for the first two Panthers goals, with both veteran d-men making mistakes on both goals. It was a key reason that the Oilers lost a game where they dominated in Grade A shots, 16 to 8, a game the team might otherwise have won. That proved to be a dear price in a tight series, no?
The Oilers made a drastic move. They had already inserted young d-man Philip Broberg into the line-up to replace struggling Vincent Desharnais against Dallas. Broberg provided far better puck movement than Desharnais.
In Game 2 against Florida, the Oilers then put raw Broberg with the veteran Nurse. They weren't perfect together. They leaked some Grade A shots against in the next six games of the Final. But after being the culprit on two goals against in Game 1, Nurse was the culprit on just two goals against at even strength for the entirely of the next six games, while at the same time making major contributions to four Oilers even strength goals.
That's the kind of result the Oilers could use right now. It might well be a great idea for coaches Kris Knoblauch and Paul Coffey to juggle the d-man pairings for Game 3, just as they did last year against Florida. The coaches certainly have the jam to make such moves. They've done so repeatedly, including this year putting Stecher in for Emberson this year.
Any move to rectify this situation is complicated because the Oilers have two tried and effective defensive pairings just now, with Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm, plus Jake Walman and John Klingberg.
Walman and Klingberg has been the most used Oilers d-man partnership at even strength in the playoffs, 200 minutes together, six goals for, six goals against, 50 Goals For Percentage (GF%), not good, not bad. They create a good number of dangerous moments on the attack, but have had a few hiccups on defence.
I'd consider switching them up, at least if that helps find Nurse the right partner.
I don't think it's wise to mess with Bouchard and Ekholm. They've been a good-to-great partnership for several years. Yes, the Oilers get more offence out of Bouchard and dynamic Jake Walman together, and perhaps the team might move to that when they're in need of a goal in the third period.
But does it really make sense to break up Bouchard and Ekholm? Besides, Bouchard and Nurse were often partners in the first nine games of the 2025 playoffs, and their partnership was a mess with neither player bringing his best at that time.
Klingberg and Nurse would make for an interesting partnership. They've played together 60 even strength minutes in the playoffs and been on the ice for five goals for, not one against.
That would mean two lefties in Walman and Kulak together on the other Oilers pairing with Bouchard and Ekholm rounding out the group.
That might work.
But the best idea might be to go with Nurse and Walman.
They haven't played much together in the playoffs, just 20 minutes, but they played 114 minutes together in the regular season, with left shot Walman on his off-side. They were on the ice for eight goals for and two against at that time. Not bad at all.
The other two pairings would then be John Klingberg and Brett Kulak, with Bouchard-Ekholm the top pairing.
Make sense? Worth a try?
The downside is you have two pairings in Nurse-Walman and Klingberg-Kulak who have played relatively little together. The upside is that Walman looks like he can have some success with Nurse, and that his sound play will bring out the best in the Nurse.
At his best, Nurse can be a force. Again, he was often a force in the regular season. He had stretches of outstanding two-way play.
The Oilers need him to do so again in the playoffs.
Of course, the Oilers might also try seven d-men, bringing Stecher back in the line-up and 11 forwards. I'm not a huge fan of this arrangement, as the constant juggling of the d-men often leaves them all confused. I'd much rather the Oilers go with three consistent pairings that work. That's the best recipe for victory.
Knoblauch and Coffey have proven themselves to be master chefs in the past in this regard. They simply need to do it again right now.