Oilers' Nurse suspended 1 game for cross-checking Byfield

Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse was suspended one game for cross-checking Los Angeles Kings forward Quinton Byfield during Monday's contest, the NHL's Department of Player Safety announced Tuesday.

The Oilers have one matchup remaining on their regular-season schedule, meaning Nurse will be available for the start of Edmonton's first-round series against Los Angeles.

The incident occurred in the second period of Edmonton's 5-0 loss to the Kings on Monday. Nurse was handed a major penalty and a game misconduct for hitting Byfield in the back of the head while he was down on the ice.

Byfield was eventually ruled out for the remainder of the contest with an upper-body injury and didn't play Tuesday against the Seattle Kraken. Kings head coach Jim Hiller had no further update on his status.

The league found that Nurse was "in control throughout the entirety of the sequence" and made "a decision to deliver an intentional cross-check."

Though the NHL acknowledged that the hit wasn't delivered with "exceptional force," that was the only factor preventing the blue-liner's punishment from being longer.

Nurse has been suspended three other times during his 716-game NHL career.

He sat out three contests for acting as an aggressor during an altercation with the San Jose Sharks in 2016, he was handed a one-game ban for headbutting Kings forward Phillip Danault during the 2022 playoffs, and he also missed one postseason contest in 2023 after taking a late instigator penalty against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Nurse has chipped in with five goals, 33 points, 161 hits, and a team-leading 136 blocks in 76 games while seeing 22:22 minutes of ice time per contest this season.

Edmonton recalled defenseman Connor Carrick from the AHL on an emergency basis earlier on Tuesday.

The Oilers will conclude their regular season Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. ET against the San Jose Sharks.