The pre-season is a time where emotions can get a little bit higher than expected, as several players are quite literally fighting for jobs. While this can be the case for guys who play lower in the lineup, there are certain guys whose jobs are pretty much guaranteed. That's the case for Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse.
Even with Nurse's position guaranteed, he's still a competitor, so you know he's going to play hard regardless. However, when he threw a reckless and irresponsible hit on Canucks' Dakota Joshua in pre-season action, it was clear that he doesn't care whether it's the pre-season or not. He's going to try to hurt you.
In the video below, see that the puck isn't anywhere near Joshua when Nurse decides to engage him behind the net. Instead of making any sort of hockey play, Nurse decided to give Joshua a dangerous shove into the boards.
Plays like this have no place in hockey. What was Nurse's intent here if not to injure Joshua? There was no puck battle, there was no engagement on Joshua's part, really. Still, Nurse didn't pull up. Instead, he forcefully shoved Joshua on a play that could very well have had a far worse result. I'm surprised that the league's Department of Player Safety has yet to address this one, as it seems like a pretty clear cut intent to injure.
