Darnell Nurse pulling up on his cross-check of Los Angeles Kings forward Quinton Byfield Monday night will keep him in the action for when they and the Edmonton Oilers meet in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The league came down with a ruling Tuesday night, suspending Nurse for the Oilers’ season finale Wednesday night against the San Jose Sharks.

The cross-check in question came during the second period of Monday’s game between the Oilers and Kings, with Los Angeles already up 4-0. Nurse and Byfield battled for position at the side of the Oilers net, before the blue liner hauled the winger to the ice.

Then, Nurse laid a cross-check to Byfield’s head, earning him the rest of the night off due to a five-minute major and a game misconduct. In their ruling, the league said Nurse not delivering the cross-check with “exceptional force” kept the suspension from being any longer.

“With Byfield on the ice and after the play ended, Nurse pulls back his stick and shoves downward onto Byfield, striking him in the head,” the league described in their ruling. “It is important to note Nurse is in control throughout the entirety of this sequence and makes the decision to deliver an intentional cross-check that makes head contact on an opponent lying on the ice, and is delivered with requisite force for supplemental discipline.

“And while we agree with the assertion that this cross-check is not delivered with exceptional force, it is only because of that fact that this incident is not met with much more harsh discipline.”

Nurse is no stranger to the Department of Player Safety, suspended three times and fined once during his 716-game NHL career, they highlighted in the ruling.

The Oilers and Kings will meet days from now in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs marking the fourth straight year such has happened. There’s been bad blood boiling between these teams over the years, but the Oilers have come out on top in each of the previous meetings, beating the Kings in Game 7 in in 2022, Game 6 in 2023, and Game 5 in 2024.

Some of that bad blood came out Monday night in the Kings’ 5-0 win, with Phillip Danault complaining about a chippy game, and the Oilers’ Corey Perry clapping back.

Buckle up, folks. This should be another fun series.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.