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Connor McDavid questions NHL rules, Darnell Nurse’s gaffes prove costly in Oilers loss

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EDMONTON — The Oilers lost 4-3 in a shootout to the Blues on Thursday for two reasons.

The first was a would-be overtime winner that was overturned on account of an offside review by the NHL.

The second was a pair of turnovers by veteran defenseman Darnell Nurse that led to two goals against, including the tying marker with 19.1 seconds left in regulation.

First things first.

Connor McDavid was uncharacteristically perturbed following the game after Leon Draisaitl’s extra-time goal was wiped off the board.

Upon a review from the league’s situation room, it was determined that McDavid “preceded the puck into the offensive zone without possession and control and, therefore, was in an off-side position prior to Draisaitl’s goal.”

Let’s just say McDavid disagreed with that assessment.

“The league’s got to clarify some of these rules,” McDavid said. “What’s a kick? What’s offside? What’s goalie interference? It kind of depends on the night, I guess.”

McDavid approached the blue line with the puck behind him. As he crossed the stripe, it appeared as though the puck didn’t remain on his blade. He maintained he had control.

“Since I was a kid, I thought if you had possession of the puck, it’s onside,” McDavid said. “If I have possession or not, I guess that’s a judgment call. Players just want some clarity on some of these rules.”

He said he thought Draisaitl’s goal was like Cale Makar’s tally with 14 seconds remaining in the first period of Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. The Oilers challenged the call on the ice, but it was upheld.

Back in May, the league deemed that “Valeri Nichushkin was legally tagged up at the blue line before Makar entered the offensive zone with the puck on his stick. Nichushkin was in an on-side position after Makar made contact with the puck in the offensive zone.”

It was a decision the Oilers grew to accept and agree with.

However, McDavid felt this one was close to the same if not identical.

“We got burned by a call in the playoffs over a similar type of situation,” he said. “You don’t know if it’s offside or onside.”

Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft also bought up the Makar goal. He, too, felt McDavid had possession of the puck Thursday.

Naturally, Tyson Barrie was on the side of his captain, the game’s most surehanded player.

“You’re talking about Connor McDavid. If he feels like he’s got control of the puck, you can pretty much guarantee he’s got control of the puck,” the defenseman said. “He feels pretty passionate that he had it. I’m inclined to believe him.”

As McDavid mentioned, his confusion goes beyond offside calls. He even cited Flames winger Blake Coleman’s potential go-ahead goal that was disallowed in Game 5 because it was deemed to be a kicking motion as a questionable call.

“It kind of goes back a long way — not understanding some of the rules of our own game,” he said. “It’s kind of funny, I guess.”

There’s so much open to subjectivity and interpretation. But that was just one issue with the loss.

The other one — the one over which there’s no debate — is why the Oilers were even playing in overtime at all.

“We put ourselves in a position to not win the game in overtime,” Woodcroft said.

“We should never have even been in that situation,” McDavid said.

And that’s certainly true.

The Oilers had a 3-1 lead after Kailer Yamamoto tipped in a Barrie point shot with 9:24 left in the third period. That advantage disintegrated.

Robert Thomas replied less than a minute later before disaster struck for the Oilers.

Nurse, an alternate captain and the team’s ice-time leader, made a crucial turnover when he tried to make a pass from behind his net through the middle of the ice to Draisaitl. The Blues’ Vladimir Tarasenko knocked down the receiver and eventually tied the score after McDavid was knocked off the puck.

The goal officially went down as a short-handed marker, although Blues goalie Jordan Binnington was on the bench.

“That’s not on anyone else,” Nurse said. “That’s on me.”

Nurse also made a gaffe in the first period when he held on to the puck for too long and was stripped by Blues’ Brayden Schenn. That led directly to a Jordan Kyrou goal.

As bad as that mistake was, the second one came at a much more critical time. The last minute of a game is a time when the team’s highest-paid defenseman is on the ice to lock down victories rather than cough them up.

“That’s unacceptable on my part,” Nurse said. “I let my teammates down. We shouldn’t have been in the position to be in OT like that. I play too many important minutes and situations to be making plays like that. That’s on me.”

Woodcroft refused to blame Nurse for his part in the loss, repeating, “We win and lose as a team” multiple times. He even put Nurse back on the ice in overtime with McDavid and Draisaitl because that’s a tried-and-true trio for the team.

Once again, it was Barrie who came to his teammate’s defense.

“Nursey’s taking it hard on himself, but he tries to make the right play to go to Leon, who would have had a shot at the empty net,” Barrie said. “It hits the guy’s shaft.

“Nursey plays such an important role on this team. Every night, he’s playing big minutes against the best players in the world. He’s a leader physically. It’s hockey. He’s going to play over 1,000 games. He’s going to have a couple of ones he’d like to have back. But I’ve had a million of those myself. It’s part of the game — and you move on.

“I know Nursey’s one of the more mentally tough guys I’ve ever met. It’ll be no problem for him.”

From Draisaitl’s disallowed goal to Nurse’s errors, namely the late one, it was an odd way for the Oilers to miss out on two points.

Once a game gets to a shootout, it’s a crapshoot. But the Oilers felt the game should never have made it that far to begin with.

“It’s disappointing because the game’s right there, but you move on,” Barrie said. “It’s a game of mistakes. We’ve got to learn to close those ones out. It’s a bit of a one-off there.”

(Photo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl celebrating what would later be ruled a disallowed goal against the St. Louis Blues during overtime Thursday: Amber Bracken / The Canadian Press via Associated Press)

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