Edmonton Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch continued to shuffle his deck ahead of Monday’s Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final. Luke Fox and Mark Spector take a look at that and more ahead of the big game.
SUNRISE, Fla. — Hello, Vincent Desharnais, So long, for now, Cody Ceci.
Edmonton Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch continued to shuffle his deck, bringing six-foot-seven defenceman Desharnais out of the press box and on to a pairing with six-foot-four Darnell Nurse for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, which goes Monday night.
“Twin towers,” said a chuckling Desharnais, who was removed from the lineup for Philip Broberg halfway through the Western Conference Final. “Two pretty long sticks, and when we work together, we communicate well, and we make a very good pair. We’re hard to play against and we try to be as physical as possible.”
The move is to combat two things: Desharnais’ big frame works well against Florida’s voracious forecheck; and, the Nurse-Ceci pairing just hasn’t worked, on for both goals against (not the empty-netter) in the Oilers’ 3-0 loss in Game 1.
For the 28-year-old from Laval, Que., this marks a milestone in a journey that wound through the Providence College, the ECHL, the AHL and an Oilers training camp where the No. 6 spot on Edmonton’s defence was Philip Broberg’s to lose.