Sarah Nurse owns a Silver Medal won at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. Now she’s mining for gold.
Nurse, a forward for Toronto Furies of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, was named to Team Canada for the 2019 International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s WorldChampionship April 4-14 in Espoo, Finland.
Sarah Nurse played for Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics and will represent her country for the first time at the IIHF Women’s World Championship in Finland next month (Photo/Hockey Canada).
The tournament will be Nurse’s IIHF world championship debut but she’ll be in some familiar company. Fifteen other players from Canada’s 2018 Winter Olympic squad will join her in Finland.
“The players we have selected have had success at various levels of their careers, both nationally and internationally, and we’re excited to get started in Finland,” Gina Kingsbury, Hockey Canada’s director of women’s national teams, said.
Canada is seeking its 11th gold medal but its first since 2012. And Nurse has the goal-scoring skill to help them do it.
Nurse has emerged as a star for the Furies in her CWHL rookie season. She scored 26 points (14 goals, 12 assists) in 26 regular season games. She has one post-season goal so far for the Furies.
Nurse comes from a highly competitive sports family. Her brother, Isaac Nurse, is a forward for the Hamilton Bulldogs of the Ontario Hockey League. The siblings are cousins of Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurseand New York Liberty basketball point guard Kia Nurse, who represented Canada at the 2016Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The jersey that Canadian forward Sarah Nurse wore and the stick that defender Brigette Lacquette used at the 2018 Winter Olympics are in the Hockey Hall of Fame (Photo/Phil Pritchard/HHOF)
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Their dream of hoisting the Stanley Cup deferred for at least another season, several National Hockey League players are going for the gold overseas, and players of color are no exception.
Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse and Los Angeles Kings defenseman Alec Martinez are in Denmark hoping to power their countries to a gold medal at the International Ice HockeyFederation World Championship, which begins Friday.
Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse suits up for Team Canada at the IIHF World Championship in Denmark.
Nurse’s Team Canada will face Martinez’s Team USA in an opening round match Friday at Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, Denmark, at 10:15 a.m. Eastern Time. The NHL Network will televise the May 4-20 tourney in the United States and TSN will carry it in Canada.
Nurse and Martinez became available to play in the 16-country tournament after the Oilers had a disappointing 2017-18 season and didn’t qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the Kings got swept in the first round by the surprising expansion Vegas Golden Knights.
They’ll join other NHLers whose teams also either missed the playoffs or suffered early Stanley Cup exits to form world championship tournament squads with way more talent than the U.S. and Canadian teams that skated at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Those teams were stocked with U.S. and Canadian players from North American minor leagues, colleges, European and Russian leagues after the NHL opted not to suspend operations during the Winter Games to allow its players to participate.
So how good are these IIHF teams?
Team Canada is captained by Oilers center Connor McDavid, he of 41 goals and 67 assists in 82 games.
He’s joined by fellow Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (24 goals, 24 assists, 62 games); St. Louis Blues center Brayden Schenn (24 goals, 46 assists, 82 games); New York Islanders center Mathew Barzal (22 goals, 63 assists, 82 games); Buffalo Sabres center Ryan O’Reilly (24 goals, 37 assists, 81 games); and, of course, Nurse (6 goals, 20 assists, 82 games).
Los Angeles Kings defenseman Alec Martinez plays for the U.S. at the IIHF World Championship.
Martinez (9 goals, 16 assists, 77 games) is joined on the U.S. team by Chicago Blackhawks right wing Patrick Kane (27 goals, 49 assists, 82 games); Calgary Flames left wing Johnny Gaudreau(24 goals, 60 assists, 80 games); New York Rangers left wing Chris Krieder (16 goals, 21 assists, 58 games); Blackhawks right wing Alex DeBrincat (28 goals, 24 assists, 82 games); and Columbus Blue Jackets right wing Cam Atkinson ( 24 goals, 22 assists, 65 games).
New York Rangers center Mika Zibanejad(27 goals, 20 assists, 62 games) is representing Sweden at the worlds. He tallied a goal and an assist in Sweden’s 5-0 rout of Belarus on Friday.
And speaking about international hockey tournaments, congrats to Team USA defenseman K’Andre Miller and Team Canada forwards Serron Noeland Akil Thomas –three potential first-round picks at the 2018 NHL Draft in June – for their play at the 2018 IIHF U18 World Championship that ended last weekend in Russia.
OHL Niagara IceDogs center Akil Thomas scored a goal at the IIHF U18 World Championship in Russia (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).
Noel, a right wing for the Ontario Hockey League’sOshawa Generals who’s ranked the 10th-best North American skater eligible for the draft by NHL Central Scouting, had 2 goals and 4 assists in five games for Canada.
Thomas, a center for the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs, tallied a goal and an assist in four games. Thomas is ranked the 15th-best North American skater in the draft by Central Scouting.
Forward Serron Noel of the OHL’s Oshawa Generals scored two goals for Canada at the IIHF U18 World Championship (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).
Miller, ranked as the 23rd-best North American skater available for the June 22-23 draft in Dallas, had a goal and 2 assists for the silver medal-winning U.S. team that lost 3-2 to Finland in the tournament final.
K’Andre Miller helped anchor the defense and chipped in with a goal and 2 assists for the United States at the IIHF U18 World Championship.
Whichever NHL team selects Miller will have to wait for his services. He’s committed to play hockey for the University of Wisconsin Badgers starting this fall.
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The Calgary Flames‘ 3-2 win Saturday over the Edmonton Oilers had little impact on the standings – neither National Hockey League Western Conference team is within Stanley CupPlayoffs range.
However, the game at Calgary’s Saddledome was meaningful in terms of the diversity that was on display, further showing that the face of hockey is steadily changing.
The game featured the NHL debut of Flames forward Spencer Foo, a high-scoring former star at NCAA Division I Union College. An Edmonton native, Foo played 12:45 minutes, including 1:20 minutes on the power play, and registered a shot on goal.
Giving instructions to Foo and other Flames players was assistant coach Paul Jerrard, currently the only black NHL coach who stands the bench during games. He traded a stick for a clipboard after a minor league hockey career that spanned from 1987-88 to 1996-97. He did appear in five games for the Minnesota North Stars in 1988-89.
“There isn’t anybody of color I emulated in coaching, I just wanted to push hard and work and see where it would take me,” Jerrard told Canada’s Sportsnet in February. “It would be interesting to see what would happen if there was a black coach in the league. There might be one someday, I don’t know.”
Trying to keep Foo and the youthful Flames at bay on the Oilers back end Saturday night were defensemen Darnell Nurse and Ethan Bear and goaltender Al Montoya.
Nurse was the seventh overall pick in the 2014 NHL draft, one of two black blue-liners chosen in the first round. The other was Columbus Blue Jackets defender Seth Jones (chosen fourth overall by the Nashville Predators). Nurse has 6 goals and 19 assists in 79 games for the Oilers.
Bear, who is from the Ochapowace First Nation in southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada, was an Edmonton 2015 fifth-round draft pick. The NHL rookie has a goal and 3 assists in 15 games with the Oilers.
Montoya, who was traded to the Oilers by the Montreal Canadiens, became the NHL’s first Cuban-American player when the New York Rangers chose him with the sixth overall pick in the 2004 NHL Draft.
Oilers left wing Jujhar Khaira, a Canadian of South Asian heritage, logged 11:02 minutes of ice time Saturday night, including 59 seconds on the power play and 1:15 minutes killing penalties.
Khaira, an Oilers 2013 third-round pick, has 11 goals and 10 assists in 66 games for Edmonton.
And, of course, David Amber manned the broadcast studio as host of Hockey Night in Canada’s late game.
Hockey Night in Canada hosts David Amber (L) and Ron MacLean (Photo/CNW Group/Sportsnet).
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GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREASarah Nurse went top shelf and her father went over the moon.
Forward Sarah Nurse scored her first Winter Olympics goal Thursday (Photo/Hockey Canada).
Nurse, a forward for the Canadian women’s hockey team, fired a wrist shot that bounced off United States goaltender Maddie Rooney’s right shoulder and found a small hole on the short side of the net. It proved to be the difference-maker in a 2-1 contest against the two best teams at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Nurse’s goal at 14:56 of the second period gave Canada a 2-0 lead. U.S. forward KendallCoyne scored early in the third period but Canadian goaltender Genevieve Lacasse withstood an onslaught of U.S. shots – stopping 44 – to preserve the win.
“We played a full 60 minutes and I think we have some things to improve on, but we’re definitely confident in where we’re at and where we’re going,” Nurse told reporters after the game.
Nurse’s tally was her first Olympic goal. She was named to the Canadian team after she completed a collegiate career at the NCAA Division I University of Wisconsin where she tallied 76 goals and 61 assists in 150 games.
She’s the Badgers’ eighth all-time leading scorer, keeping company with the likes of U.S. stars Brianna Decker and Hilary Knight, who are also playing in PyeongChang seeking Olympic gold.
Her father was feeling somewhat anxious before Canada’s match against its arch-rival for international women’s hockey supremacy. He felt exalted when his daughter’s shot went in the net.
“I’m still trying to come down,” he told me between periods following the goal.
Michelle and Roger Nurse cheered on their daughter, Canadian women’s Olympic hockey player Sarah Nurse, at the Canada-U.S. game Thursday. Sarah Nurse scored her first Olympic goal in that contest (Photo/William Douglas/Color of Hockey).
For Roger and his wife, Michelle Nurse, watching their daughter represent Canada in Pyeongchang triggered memories of how it all began.
“We did a lot of long car rides (to tournaments), me and Sarah. At one point, we’re driving all over North America,” Roger Nurse told me. “For me and Sarah in the car, we laugh, tell a lot of jokes, trying to make the ride shorter. That’s kind of what we’ve been doing since she was 7 years old.”
Sarah reflected on her hockey journey, too. She posted a tweet prior to the Olympic hockey tournament thanking her dad for doing the things that enabled her to play the game.
Thank you for giving me every opportunity to reach me dreams. For driving all over North America & for working nonstop to put every penny into my hockey career. To the one who put me on those double blades at 3 and never let me look back.. Dad, thank you ❤️#WeAllPlayForCanadapic.twitter.com/hVxWm1NaXx
But for all her success, Sarah and her parents never fully knew where she stood with Hockey Canada. Last year was Sarah’s first centralizaton – or tryout – camp with Canada’s national team from which the Olympic squad was picked.
“There are some kids who just smooth through – they’re the best player, they go to every camp, every event, every Four Nations (tournament), every worlds tournament,” Roger Nurse told me. “For Sarah, it was kind of a fight. No matter how good you thought she was, no matter how well you thought she was doing, it was a fight.”
“And, you, know, she’s still standing, and that’s a great testament to her ability to fight through it,” he added.
Part of that resilience comes from being part of a highly-competitivefamily. Sarah’s cousins are Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse and University of Connecticut women’s basketball point guard Kia Nurse, who played hoops for Canada at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Sarah’s younger brothers are hockey players: Issac Nurse plays right wing for the HamiltonBulldogs of the Ontario Hockey League.Elijah Nurse is a left wing for the Dundas Blues of Canada’s Provincial Junior Hockey League.
Sarah Nurse’s brother, Isaac Nurse, plays for the Hamilton Bulldogs of the OHL (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).
Her father was a renowned Canadian lacrosse player. Her uncle Richard Nurse – Darnell and Kia’s father – was a wide receiver for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CanadianFootball League. Former National Football League quarterback Donovan McNabb is an uncle.
Sarah Nurse told CBC Sports that she’s proud of her family’s athletic roots stressed that “I’m here to create my own path.”
It’s something that Roger Nurse’s children occasionally have to remind him of when he’s dispensing hockey advice.
“I’d say something to her about a game she’d play at Wisconsin, she’d look at me and say ‘Dad, you never played a game of NCAA hockey,'” Roger Nurse said. “And Issac would say to me ‘Dad, you never played one game in the Ontario Hockey League.’ Point taken.”
These days, Roger Nurse keeps his advice simple.
“‘Go have fun, step up, and do what you have to do,'” he tells them.
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The former University of Wisconsin forward was named to the Canadian women’s hockey team that will compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea in February.
Forward Sarah Nurse is headed to the 2018 WinterOlympics (Photo/Hockey Canada).
Nurse, the cousin of Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurseand University ofConnecticut basketball point guard Kia Nurseand niece of former National FootballLeague quarterback Donovan McNabb, tallied 76 goals and 61 assists in 150 games for the Badgers from 2013-14 to 2016-17.
She was the Badgers’ second-leading scorer in her senior year with 25 goals and 28 assists in 39 games.
Nurse led NCAA Division I women’s hockey players with three hat tricks last season, including the first three-goal game by a Badgers player against the University ofMinnesota last December. Nurse is the 22nd Wisconsin hockey player in program history to reach 100 career points.
The 5-foot-8 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, native brings a wealth of international experience to Team Canada. She was a member of the country’s gold medal-winning team at the 2013 International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s Under-18 Championship in Helsinki, Finland, in 2013.
She also helped Canada capture gold at the 2015 Nation’s Cup in Germany and silver at the 2017 Four Nations Cup in Tampa, Florida. She has 3 goals and 1 assists in 11 international games.
The Olympics are becoming a Nurse family tradition. Cousin Kia represented Canada on its women’s basketball team at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
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U of Wisconsin and Team Canada forward Sarah Nurse (Photo/Hockey Canada).
Congratulations to University of Wisconsin women’s hockey forward Sarah Nurse for reaching the 100-point mark in her collegiate career.
She achieved the milestone on a third-period goal that helped cement the Badgers’ 6-0 win over Bemidji State University in Madison, Wis., Sunday. It was Nurse’s second goal of the game and her 11th of the 2016-17 season.
“It’s a pretty cool accomplishment, it was actually really cool that (Wisconsin senior forward Sydney McKibbon) made that pass out to me, I think that brought it all back to where it kind of all started, so I think that was really cool,” Nurse said after the game.”
Nurse, the Badgers’ leading scorer this season, is the 22nd player in the university’s history to tally 100 points. While getting into the history books is nice, Nurse said there’s one achievement that matters more to her: winning an NCAA hockey championship.
“This is my last year, so I kind of wanted to come in and have a big impact on this team,” she said. “I want to ultimately win the big title at the end of the year. I came into this season with a lot of confidence.”
Nurse is the cousin of Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse and Kia Nurse, a star guard for the 2015 and 2016 NCAA champion University ofConnecticut women’s basketball team and a member of Canada’s women’s hoops squad that competed at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
She’s also the niece of former National Football League quarterback DonovanMcNabb.
Nurse was a co-captain for Canada’s U-22 squad that played a mini-series against the United States in August. The Hamilton, Ont., native led Wisconsin’s women’s team in scoring last season with 25 goals and 13 assists in 36 games.
.@adesbiens30 wasn't the only Badger to make history today!
While hockey fans anxiously await next month’s World Cup of Hockeyand the start of the 2016-17 National Hockey League season in October, there’s quality hockey underway in Calgary where women’s teams from the United States and Canada are resuming one of the fiercest rivalries in sports.
U of Wisconsin forward Sarah Nurse is one of Team Canada’s captains (Photo/Hockey Canada).
There’s little friendly in the friendlies that the U.S. and Canadian Under-22 and Under-18 teams will play in the series, which started Wednesday night.
The series has all the ingredients, including talented players of color and, of course, a Nurse.
Forward Sarah Nurse is one of the captains for Canada’s U-22 squad. The Hamilton, Ont., native led the University of Wisconsin women’s team in scoring last season with 25 goals and 13 assists in 36 games.
BostonUniversity’sVictoria Bachopened the scoring with a goal at 8:03 in the second. Harvard University Forward Sydney Daniels scored for the U.S. at 02:41 of the third period.
Canada’s U-22 team goes up against its U.S. counterpart in Calgary. Sarah Nurse, fourth from the right. Katilin Tse, second row, seventh from the left.
Joining Nurse on Canada’s U-22 squad is Harvard defenseman Kaitlin
Harvard University defenseman Kaitlin Tse (Photo/Hockey Canada).
Tse,who registered an assist on Bach’s goal Wednesday night. Tse played 32 games in 2015-16 as a freshman for the Crimson, tallying a goal and 10 assists.
She was a member of Canada’s Silver Medal-winning team at the 2015 IIHF Under-18 World Championship and the 2014 Canadian squad that defeated the U.S. in a three-game series in 2014
Like Nurse, she comes from an athletic family. Her older brother, Matthew Tse, plays for Hong Kong’s national lacrosse team.
USA Hockey National Women’s U-22 team. Kelsey Koelzer. second row, fifth from the right. (Photo/Nancie Battaglia).
Nurse and Tse will face Team USA’sKelsey Koelzer, a defenseman from Princeton University. The junior from Horsham, Pa., notched 17 goals and 16 assists in 33 games for the Tigers last season and finished second on the team with 8 game-winning goals.
Her game balances with offense and defense: she took 122 shots and blocked 61 pucks last season. The New York Riveters chose Koelzer in the first round of the 2016 NationalWomen’s Hockey LeagueDraft last month.
on its U-18 squad. She’s a blue-liner for the Toronto Jr. Aeros of the Provincial Women’s Hockey League.
Mitchell tallied 3 goals and 11 assists in 34 games for the Aeros last season. She collected a Bronze Medal playing for Ontario Blue at the 2015 National Women’s Under-18 Championship in Huntsville, Ont.
Canada’s 2016 Under-18 women’s team faces the United States in a three-game series in Calgary. Defenseman Avery Mitchell is the fifth person from the left, back row.
The never-ending sports tour for the Nurse family – one of Canada’s most athletic and competitive clans – continues.
Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse.
Kia Nurse, the sister of Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse, looks to up her bragging rights over her big bro by bringing home an Olympic medal from Rio de Janeiro as a member of Canada’s basketball team.
“Obviously we have the goal to go in there and get a medal,” she told Canada’s 570 News. “I think need to play really hard together and peak at the right time. So I see our success as playing our best basketball over the last four years at the Olympics.”
Kia’s one of the Great White North’s best basketball players and one of the best collegiate players in the United States. She helped guide the University ofConnecticut’s storied women’s basketball team to NCAA championships last season and in 2015.
Kia and Darnell come from a highly athletic family. Father RichardNurse was a wide receiver for the Canadian Football League’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats; his wife, Cathy, was a stellar basketball player for Canada’s McMasterUniversity.
With the games starting this weekend, couldn't be more proud of my little sister playing in her… https://t.co/c7oA0PmyA8
Their older daughter, Tamika, played basketball at the University of Oregon and Bowling Green State University. Richard Nurse’s brother, Roger, was a standout lacrosse player in Canada. Their sister, Raquel, was a Syracuse University hoops standout and is married to former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.
Sarah Nurse, daughter of Roger Nurse and cousin of Kia and Darnell, is a forward on the University of Wisconsin’s women’s hockey team that played in the 2016 NCAAWomen’s Frozen Four tournament.
The 2013 National Hockey League Draft was as deep in talented defensemen as it was steeped in diversity.
And some defensemen from diverse backgrounds selected in that draft at New Jersey’s Prudential Center are beginning to make their mark in the professional game.
The Columbus Blue Jackets expect big things from defenseman Seth Jones.
Each player is chasing his dream for National Hockey League stardom, climbing professional hockey’s ladder at his own pace – or that dictated by the team that drafted him.
Jones, taken by the Nashville Predators with the fourth overall pick of the draft, hasn’t spent a day in the minor leagues. But after he spent more than two seasons in Music City, the Predators traded him last week to the ColumbusBlue Jackets for talented but enigmatic center Ryan Johansen.
The swap from Nashville, currently sixth in the NHL’s Western Conference, to Columbus, dwelling in the NHL Eastern Conference cellar, wasn’t a knock on Jones’ play.
The Blue Jackets expect big things from the Texas-born son of former National Basketball Association forward Popeye Jones. In Nashville, Seth Jones was the student to defensive master Shea Weber.
In 40 games with the Predators, Jones tallied 1 goal and 10 assists and averaged 19:42 minutes on ice per game.
With Columbus, he’ll play more minutes and see more power play time and penalty-killing action under demanding Head Coach John Tortorella. He’ll go from being one of the guys on Nashville’s blue line to being The Man on the Blue Jackets back end.
“He’s going to get a lot bigger role with our team,”Blue Jackets General Manager Jarmo Kekalainen told reporters last week. “He’s 21 years old and he’s got the future ahead of him and a lot of room for growth and development. We believe he’s a good two-way defenseman that can add some offense to our game.”
Ironically, one of the last things Jones saw in Nashville was the player he was traded for as he and Johansen passed each other at the airport. Jones expressed excitement about the new opportunity in Columbus.
“They made it pretty clear that they’re going to throw a little bit more at me than I’ve been used to getting,” Jones told reporters in Columbus. “I’m excited and ready to take on the challenge.”
Nurse believed he was NHL-ready from the moment he slipped on an Oilers jersey on draft day. But the team’s brain trust thought otherwise and sent him back to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, his junior team inthe Ontario Hockey League, for the 2013-14 season. He went back to the Soo again in 2014-15.
He was assigned to the Bakersfield Condors, the Olilers’ AHL affiliate,after this season’s
After being promoted from the AHL, Darnell Nurse is averaging 21 minutes per game.
training camp and was called up to the parent club after some of its defensemen suffered injuries.
Since then, Nurse has tallied 2 goals and 5 assists while averaging 21 minutes of ice time per game in 34 games. He’s also added a little toughness to an offensively-talented but grit-challenged Oilers lineup. He’s amassed 19 penalty minutes, five of them coming from a fight against Milan Lucic, the Los Angeles Kings’ physically-imposing and feared veteran forward.
Some thought the bout was too much too soon for the rookie Nurse. He didn’t.
“My mum was like, ‘What are you doing?’ My dad said he was proud of me,” Nurse told The Edmonton Journal. “This (fighting) is something I’m going to have to do the way I play.”
Madison Bowey is only a two-hour drive from where he hopes to eventually be: With the Washington Capitals. The team took Bowey in the second round with the 53rd pick of the 2013 draft.
After he captained his Western Hockey League Kelowna Rockets to the MasterCardMemorial Cup Final last season and teamed up with Nurse on the blue line to help a diverse Team Canada win the Gold Medal at the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, the Capitals sent Bowey to the AHL’s HersheyBears.
He has 2 goals, 11 assists, and 24 penalty minutes in 33 games with the Bears.
“I think it’s been going pretty well,” Bowey told PennLive last month. “It’s a learning process and I’m learning a lot every day.”
Madison Bowey hopes to be an impact player with the AHL Hershey Bears – and eventually with the Washington Capitals (Photo/Courtesy JustSports Photography).
Bears Head Coach Troy Mann agrees.
“From the bench as you watch him play, when he’s moving the puck and limiting his turnovers, he’s having a good game,” Mann told PennLive. “Like any young defenseman, there are nights where his gap control might not be as good as we need it to be, or his defensive-zone coverage. But I think he’s progressing the way we all thought he would. He’s a second-round pick that’s going to need some nurturing in the AHL for a couple seasons.”
Jordan Subban was chosen in the fourth-round of the 2013 draft by the Vancouver Canucks with the 115th pick. His older brother, MontrealCanadiens superstar defenseman P.K. Subban, declared before the draft that Jordan was a better, more cerebral blueliner than he is.
Like his big brother, Jordan is about offense from the back end. The 5-foot-9 defenseman notched 25 goals and 27 assists for the Ontario Hockey League’s Belleville Bulls last season.
Utica Comets defenseman Jordan Subban (left) doing what he does best – shooting (Photo/Lindsay A. Mogle/Utica Comets).
He’s continuing his offensive ways in his first season with for the Utica Comets, the Canucks’ AHL farm team, where he has 5 goals and 14 assists in 29 games.
“The (AHL) is a little more skilled than I thought it was going to be,” Subban told Utica’s Observer-Dispatch in November. “It was a bit of an adjustment. There are a lot of good players…I think I’ve taken a big step in my zone, but I still have work to do.”
Jonathan-Ismael Diaby will be the first to admit that he’s still very much a work in progress. At 6-foot-5 and 223 pounds, he’s described himself as “bigger, taller and slower” compared to other hockey players.
Nashville Predators 2013 draft pick Jonathan Diaby (left) working on improving his game with the AHL Milwaukee Admirals (Photo/Milwaukee Admirals).
But the Predators love his size – a “monster,” one scout called him – and his ruggedness. Nashville took him in the third round with the 64th pick in the 2013 draft.
Since then, the former Victoriaville Tigres defenseman has bounced between the Milwaukee Admirals, the Preds’ AHL affiliate, and CincinnatiCyclones, Nashville’s ECHL farm team.
The son of a soccer player from the Ivory Coast, Diaby is scoreless in five AHL games this season but has 21 penalty minutes. He has 1 assist and 11 penalty minutes in 17 ECHL games.
“I just want to show more consistency and show that I’m more poised and more in control of the game,” Diaby told The Tennesseanduring the Predators’ training camp in September. “As a hockey player, you come to training camp, you want to make the team, but it’s a learning experience. I’ve still got a lot to learn and a lot to improve on. The AHL’s a great league.”
Defenseman Darnell Nursecame straight outta Bakersfield to score the first goal of his National Hockey League career Tuesday night.
Edmonton’s Darnell Nurse.
Nurse, the Edmonton Oilers’ 2013 first-round draft pick, was called up from the Bakersfield Condors – the Oil’s American Hockey League farm team in California – and inserted into the lineup in a 4-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center.
He responded to the promotion by scoring on a slap shot at 3:38 of the third period that gave the Oilers a brief 3-2 lead. Defenseman Oscar Klefbom and left wing Benoit Pouliotassisted on the tally.
In 19:20 of ice time, Nurse fired two shots, had three hits and two blocked shots.
The Oilers assigned Nurse to start the 2015-16 hockey season in Bakersfield. There, he had no goals, one assist, and seven penalty minutes in six games for the Condors.
The former captain for the Ontario Hockey League’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, Nurse helped power Team Canada to the Gold Medal at the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in Toronto and Montreal.
He had one goal, no assists, and a plus-minus rating of +8 in seven tournament games and opponents didn’t score while he was on the ice. He was named one of Canada’s three best players in the tourney.
Nurse hails from an athletic family. His younger sister, Kia Nurse, is a point guard for the 2015 NCAA Division I champion University of Connecticut Huskies women’s basketball team and a member of the Canadian women’s national team. Older sister Tamika played basketball for the University of Oregon and Bowling Green State University.
Their father Richard Nurse, was a wide receiver for the Canadian Football League’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats; their mother Cathy was a basketball standout at Canada’s McMaster University.
When he was younger, Darnell Nurse spent time with his uncle, former PhiladelphiaEagles quarterback Donovan McNabb. A cousin, Sarah Nurse, plays hockey for the University of Wisconsin.
