Darnell Nurse did not practice Wednesday after he sustained an undisclosed injury in the Edmonton Oilers’ 4-1 loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday.
After the game, Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said he didn’t expect the 29-year-old defenseman to miss any time.
“He’s getting looked at right now,” Knoblauch said. “He was on the bench. Yeah, I think he’ll be good to play, but he’s getting looked at, so I don’t have an update.”
Knoblauch did not have an update on Nurse’s status Tuesday but on Wednesday said he expects him to play Game 3 at Rogers Place on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, CBC, TVAS, SN).
Nurse was hit in the corner by Panthers forward s Evan Rodrigue at 8:16 of the first period and left several seconds later. He played four shifts in the first period, the final one lasting 13 seconds.
Nurse returned to the bench in the second period but only played three shifts over the final two periods.
Nurse has three assists in 20 Stanley Cup Playoff games for the Oilers. He entered Game 2 averaging 19:48 of ice time per game in the playoffs, third among Edmonton defensemen behind Evan Bouchard (24:42) and Mattias Ekholm (21:46).
The Oilers also lost forward Warren Foegele, who was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for his knee-on-knee hit on Panthers center Eetu Luostarinen at 9:21 of the first period.
“We missed Foegele with his speed, having four lines,” Knoblauch said. “The amount of penalties took away the flow of the game a little bit but I think we weren’t as efficient breaking the puck out as we were in the first game.”
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