Oilers’ Darnell Nurse welcomes first child hours after marathon Game 4

Darnell Nurse spoke about the mixed emotions of being swept by the Jets and ending the Oilers season, but having a baby the very next day.

Darnell Nurse won’t get much of a break after his marathon performance Monday as the Edmonton Oilers defenceman became a father for the first time only hours after stepping off the ice.

The Oilers announced the birth of baby Aiden on their social media channels Tuesday.

Nurse was on the ice for 62:07 in the Game 4 loss to the Jets, which eliminated the Oilers from the playoffs. That number is the third-highest ice time recorded in a single game since the NHL officially began tracking the stat in 1998. Nurse finished the four-game series — which included three games needing overtime — with 154:36 of ice time, which is a new NHL record for a player through the first four games of a playoff series.

“It wasn’t too bad,” Nurse said of the ice time after the game. “You want to go out there and be a part of it the whole night, not sitting back and watching. As crazy as it sounds, it wasn’t too bad.”

While Nurse will certainly be disappointed to no longer be playing this season, the 26-year-old is now free to spend time with his growing family – but he probably won’t have any time to rest.

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