Don Cherry Shares His Take on Oilers Defenceman Darnell Nurse's Reaction to Hit From Ryan Reaves

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Liam McCormick
November 25, 2024 (2:48 PM)

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Edmonton Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse was majorly in the news the last few weeks after he got rocked by Ryan Reaves, and now hockey icon Don Cherry is shoring his opinion.

Nurse was very critical of Reaves' hit after the fact, even going as far to say that Reaves intended to hurt the Oilers defenceman.

« You can argue about the intent, but there are certain guys in the league that each shift they go out there, they try and go inflict pain. And I think it's pretty obvious what was going on there. «
- Darnell Nurse

This prompted a passionate rant from the 90 year old Don Cherry on his Grapevine Podcast. In Cherry's opinion, Reaves did deserve to be suspended for the hit, but Darnell Nurse put himself in a brutal position to be lined up for a hit like that.

»You know, it's a funny thing. Nobody ever come around (the net) like that with their head down, because the wingers would leave, and as soon as they saw you do that once, they'd get you the next time.»
- Don Cherry

Not only that, but Cherry went after Nurse's insinuation that Reaves was indeed trying to injure the Oilers defender with the dirty hit. Cherry said that hurting people is a fair part of hockey.

»Well, I mean, isn't that the name of the game? He got a goal the next game.»
- Don Cherry

Even Ryan Reaves' brother, Jordan, joined in on the controversy by calling out Nurse's criticism in a comment on social media.

However unpopular his comments are, Nurse's criticism of Reaves and the hit are entirely true. Reaves' role on the Leafs isn't really to play hockey, it's to bring physical intimidation to their roster.

It brings up the debate of whether there's still a place for pure enforcers in the modern day NHL. Nobody wants to see star players get injured by depth players, but that's exactly what their role is.

Of course Don Cherry would be on the sode of the old school, blaming Nurse for putting himself in a vulnerable position - but the reality is, the NHL should stop allowing players to get away with exploiting those vulnerabilities.