Oilers Must Recall Top Defenseman Prospect
With less than 10 games left of the season, the Edmonton Oilers should recall their top defense prospect.
Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK - Oilers Must Recall Top Defenseman ProspectEDMONTON -- Fortunately for the Edmonton Oilers, the playoffs are creeping closer.
There are nine games left of the season after last night's 5-0 embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Dallas Stars. The Stars were flat out the better team, and the Oilers stars didn't have an answer.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLKmaScPMSY[/embed]
Unfortunately for the Oilers, a few veteran players made costly errors last night - namely Leon Draisaitl and Darnell Nurse. While neither of those players should be benched for making one error when they provide so many other things to the team, the rest of the team needs to band together when that happens.
That's what was missing last night.
As far as Nurse is concerned, he played the least of any defenseman last night. He is averaging 21:56 a game this season - he played 16:27. Brett Kulak typically plays around 15 minutes - last night he skated for 19:04. It's clear to me that Kris Knoblauch knew he needed to change something to make Nurse accountable without completely taking him out of the game.
Philip Broberg should be recalled by the Oilers - even if he will just start a couple of games to give guys like Kulak and Nurse a rest for a game. It would be more than beneficial for the coaching staff to see what he'd bring to the table especially after a confidence boosting stint in the AHL.
The Oilers have some games against teams that aren't playoff teams - two games against the Arizona Coyotes, one against the Calgary Flames and one against the San Jose Sharks. Those four games could easily feature Broberg playing in at least three.
While the sky isn't falling and it isn't the end of life as we know it - time is running out to recall their top prospect defenseman.
Subscribe to Inside the Locker Room for exclusive interviews, as well as sights and sounds from Oilers practices.
Bookmark The Hockey News Edmonton Oilers team site to never miss news, interviews or any other updates on the Oilers.
