EDMONTON — Let’s think of an NHL roster like a car. A confluence of interconnected parts that come together to produce a single entity — a game — which is the output of all the working parts doing their own specific job.
Contracts (and no-move clauses) marry teams to certain parts that cannot simply be changed out on a whim. Andrew Mangiapane, waived by the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday, was not one such part.
Otherwise, they are forced to depend on those parts, whether they’re working well or not. If those parts function at less than their required level, the car — the team — cannot purr along at its highest level.
Take Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse, for example.
The 11-year veteran is a huge part of Edmonton’s defensive game on the ice, and their dressing room culture off of it. He’s been there since the start, before Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and he has the battle scars to prove it.
Nurse wears an ‘A’ as an alternate captain, and for better or worse, has been given a large percentage of the salary pie ($9.25 million per season).
Nurse is trusted with nearly 21 minutes per game of ice time — fourth on the Oilers. Edmonton’s defensive game, like it or not, turns around Nurse’s axis to some degree.
If Nurse’s game becomes leaky or untrustworthy, which it has been for much of the season, Edmonton’s overall game becomes untrustworthy for the one-third of the game that he plays. As a leader, if he’s not performing, it becomes impossible for him to call on others to block more shots, or make better plays.
You might say, “Then don’t play Nurse so much!” Fine.
But what does head coach Kris Knoblauch do with those minutes then?
NHL Highlights: Sharks 5, Oilers 4
Macklin Celebrini scored his 29th goal of the season, while Michael Misa tallied a goal and an assist as the San Jose Sharks earned a 5-4 win over the Edmonton Oilers. Both Connor McDavid and Evan Bouchard recorded three points in the loss.Play Video
Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm, the first pairing, can’t take on more ice time. Their plate is full.
And the third-pairing guys — Ty Emberson and Spencer Stastney — are third-pairing guys for a reason. If they could handle 20-plus minutes a night, they’d be second-pairing guys, right?
Now, back to the car analogy. You can trick our car out at the deadline with an extra, optional part here and there. But if the core pieces — Nurse, the penalty kill, the depth scorers, an overall game that respects the defensive side of the sport — don’t effectively cover off their responsibilities, it doesn’t matter who or what you add.
And it’s not just Nurse.
The other core pieces on this roster are playing an unbalanced game as well. Lots of offence is great, but that’s only one facet of the game — a facet that becomes secondary to solid defensive play as the games get more important.
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