Oilers’ biggest worry after Game 1? Darnell Nurse and Leon Draisaitl’s health

CALGARY — How you look at the Oilers’ Game 1 loss to the hated Flames probably depends on if you see the glass as half full or half empty.

Half full is the Oilers have nowhere to go but up after a dreadful performance that culminated in a 9-6 defeat in the series opener.

“We didn’t deserve to win that at all,” winger Zach Hyman said.

He then rhymed off a list of things he and his teammates can improve on — defensive awareness, physicality, being hard to play against and surrendering too many Grade-A chances.

“So, you just wash that one away and get ready for the next one,” he said.

Then there’s the other way of looking at things. As coach Jay Woodcroft said numerous times after the drubbing and repeated several more times on Thursday, the Oilers scored six goals — all at even strength — on the road against a Vezina Trophy finalist in Jacob Markstrom.

The Oilers are an excellent offensive team, but that’s going to be challenging to replicate — especially with any sort of regularity. There’s room to grow. There’s also room to slide back. The worse part is they lost a game that was there for the taking.

Regardless of how you feel about things, though, there was one undeniable takeaway from Game 1 — and it’s a troubling one for the Oilers. The limitations of Darnell Nurse and Leon Draisaitl due to injuries were noticeable and don’t appear to be changing for the better any time soon.

They’re both toughing it out, but they’re clearly not at full strength. Their roles have had to be adjusted accordingly.

“They’re giving us great minutes,” Woodcroft said. “You want to make sure you’re playing people toward their strengths.

“We’ve done some things specifically with Leon where we’ve moved him around the lineup a little bit. He’s still playing big minutes for us. He’s still making plays and has an impact on the game. And he’s just a warrior.

“In terms of Darnell, Darnell is someone that has a champion’s mindset. He’s somebody that refuses to be deterred. While he might not feel at his 100 percent marker, he’s going to give you everything that he has, and he makes us a better team.”

Woodcroft sums it up nicely. It’s not like either player is useless to the Oilers in their current states. Far from it. You’d rather have both players in the lineup doing whatever they can offer — as long as they aren’t risking their long-term health — than have them wearing suits come puck drop.

There’s no question, however, that their shortcomings due to their health are affecting the Oilers, making it an uphill climb to win this series.

Nurse missed the last four games of the regular season because of a lower-body injury suffered against the Avalanche on April 22. A player who’s known for his skating and physical play, Nurse hasn’t been able to show the same proficiency in either capacity throughout the playoffs.

It’s been evident in his usage, too. Nurse was 12th in average ice time in the NHL during the regular season, clocking in at 25:03. Though his ice time dropped under Woodcroft and Dave Manson after they were hired on Feb. 10 — more minutes being replaced with tougher minutes — Nurse still averaged 23:22 under the new coaches.

Nurse has played 21:04 per game across seven contests in the playoffs, which doesn’t even lead the Oilers. He’s almost a full minute shy of Connor McDavid, who’s at 22:10 — bumped up in the last three games.

He played 18:08 on Wednesday, a notably low total considering the game was up for grabs for large chunks despite the Oilers’ poor effort. McDavid, Draisaitl, Hyman, Tyson Barrie, Cody Ceci, Evander Kane and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins all played more than Nurse. Evan Bouchard was only three seconds shy of matching him, too. For him to be eighth in ice time, and on the cusp of coming ninth, is as rare as seeing a polar bear walk the streets of downtown Edmonton. It just doesn’t happen under normal circumstances.

Granted, Game 1 against the Flames was a challenge for Nurse — as it was for almost all the Oilers. With Nurse on the ice for 14:19 at five-on-five, Edmonton was outscored 4-1, outshot 16-5 and out-attempted 25-11. Nurse had a 15.8 expected goals percentage. Not good. In particular, he left Andrew Mangiapane unchecked on Calgary’s second goal 51 seconds into the game.

The Oilers are going to need more from the banged-up Nurse, somehow, if they’re going to want any chance of beating a Flames team that has three effective scoring lines.

That’s where Draisaitl’s issues come into play.

Draisaitl was hurt in the first period of Game 5 of the Kings series when Mikey Anderson pulled him down with a questionable move that had shades of a slew foot. The Oilers superstar forward’s right ankle buckled as he fell, and he hasn’t been the same since.

Though he was playing the wing by Woodcroft’s choice at the time, it’s clearly by necessity now.

It’s obvious that Draisaitl’s skating isn’t the same to anyone who’s watched him for any length of time. He took a few shifts at centre in Game 1. The first one came just over five minutes into the second period. The Oilers were scored on. It doesn’t appear as though Draisaitl is up to the task of handling the extra skating that comes with playing that position.

He’s most commonly been restricted to playing left wing with McDavid and Kailer Yamamoto — even if he still played 21:59 as he did in Game 1.

“He’s such a good player that he has the ability to go,” Woodcroft said. “If you watched the game last night, I moved guys around all over the chessboard, so he took some shifts in the middle.

“He is buoyed by playing with (No.) 97 when he does play on the wing. Leon makes people better and he can do that on right wing, left wing or centre.”

Woodcroft seldom used Draisaitl and McDavid together at five-on-five before the third period of Game 5. The Oilers were trailing 3-1 entering the final frame. The move was made to ignite the offence — and it worked.

Draisaitl and McDavid both had multi-point outputs in the period, albeit on special teams, and were electric at five-on-five to push the game into overtime — a game the Oilers ultimately lost.

Putting them together is a nuclear option for a coach, but it needs to be used sparingly because it weakens the rest of the forward ranks.

“There’s that healthy competition with them to drive their line and make their line the best line,” former teammate Sam Gagner said. “It helps them be a more competitive group. From a matchup perspective, it certainly helps (the Oilers) as well. It creates some matchup problems and makes them a better, deeper team.

“But there are times when you have to put them together — when you’re looking for offence.”

The final 20 minutes of regulation in Game 5 against the Kings seems like that time. The series against the Flames perfectly meshes with the rest of what Gagner is talking about.

The Flames are a much deeper, faster and more experienced team than the Kings. Not having Draisaitl driving his own line hurts the Oilers.

Save for the odd shift from him or Derek Ryan, they’re essentially running McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins and Ryan McLeod up the middle. McDavid has been asked to do much more than he’s used to, which is already a lot.

The Oilers can and will be better in this series. That’s a check for them. The Flames — especially their goaltender — will almost certainly improve, too, which is a cause for concern.

But the biggest worry is the one they can’t do anything about — the status of two of their best players.

(Photo of Leon Draisaitl: Brett Holmes / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)