Oilers’ Darnell Nurse gets one-game suspension for cross-check

Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse received a one-game suspension for his Monday cross-check to the head of Los Angeles Kings forward Quinton Byfield.

The punishment was issued Tuesday by the NHL Department of Player Safety after it had a hearing with Byfield.

Nurse will miss Edmonton’s regular-season finale on the road against the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday — a contest that will have no bearing on the final standings. The Oilers and Kings are set to square off for the fourth consecutive season in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

Nurse lowered the boom on Byfield with 5:24 remaining in the second period on Monday. The Kings went on to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Pacific Division with a 5-0 win against the Oilers at Rogers Place.

Nurse was whistled for a five-minute major penalty for cross-checking and a game misconduct for the hit on Byfield, who did not return to the contest.

Deadspin | Oilers' Darnell Nurse gets one-game suspension for cross-check

“No update,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said of Byfield’s condition. “He wasn’t able to finish, that’s all. It doesn’t matter how I saw it.”

The NHL Department of Player Safety, in its video explaining the suspension, stated that Nurse made “the decision to deliver an intentional cross-check that makes head contact on an opponent lying on the ice and was delivered with requisite force for supplemental discipline.

“While we agree with the assertation that this cross-check is not delivered with exceptional force, it is only because of that fact that this incident is not met with much more harsh discipline.”

Nurse, 30, has recorded 33 points (five goals, 28 assists) in 76 games this season.

Byfield, 22, scored a power-play goal in the first period to boost his point total to 54 (23 goals, 31 assists) in 80 games this season.

–Field Level Media

Connor McDavid on Injuries to Oilers: “Not Everything as it Seems”

Connor McDavid talked about the aura surrounding the Edmonton Oilers and injuries, saying not everything is as it seems.

Connor McDavid does not love the fact that teams are counting out the Edmonton Oilers because some key guys are currently out of the lineup with injuries. Monday night, Edmonton played what Phillip Danault called a “B squad” because McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Mattias Ekholm, Jake Walman, Troy Stecher, Evander Kane, and Trent Frederic were all out. Don’t let that fool you, suggests McDavid, who says the Oilers are ready to roll.

“We have this like aura about us that we’re the walking wounded, but we’re just fine. Everybody’s going to be ready to roll. Everybody is doing whatever they can. I don’t like this whole notion that we’re the walking wounded here. We’re ready to roll.”

Oilers' Nurse ejected after cross checking Kings' Byfield to face

The Oilers’ superstar admits that it was unprecedented for the team to get hit with so many injuries at the same time, but the group is healthier than insiders and analysts want to make it seem. Some are already writing the Oilers off due to these injuries, but everyone but Ekholm should be ready to go for Round 1 of the playoffs versus the Los Angeles Kings.

McDavid said he feels night and day better than before the injury, and he suggested others are going to feel the same way. “I just don’t like the theory that people are counting us out. We’re a great team here; bumps and bruises along the way. We’re a great team when we’re healthy. And we are healthy.”

Are the Oilers Ready, or is This Spin?

These are interesting comments from McDavid. They either suggest that the storyline closing the season that many guys aren’t feeling 100 percent and could affect Round 1 isn’t accurate, or he doesn’t want the Kings to know the Oilers aren’t feeling great. Both scenarios make sense.

As far as Edmonton playing a “B squad,” he didn’t want to comment, and when asked if it was bulletin board material, he simply said he didn’t know where Danault was going with those comments since many of the guys playing in that game will be playing in