There was a palpable level of shock in Scotiabank Arena Saturday night when Edmonton Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse was left dazed and dripping blood after finding himself on the receiving end of a dirty hit.

Nurse was looking to make a pass up the ice after coming the back of the Oilers net, and as quickly as the puck left his stuck, Ryan Reaves’ shoulder caught his head. It left Nurse spinning to the ice, hitting it hard as Reaves continued on.

The Oilers blue liner struggled to collect himself, clearly looking dazed as he eventually rose to his knees. But as soon as he did, blood poured into his visor dripped down to the ice. Reaves would be ejected from the game, as the Oilers would eventually lose the game 4-3 in overtime.

After the game, Nurse’s teammates expressed their displeasure with the dirty hit.

“The game is fast and… I mean just avoiding the hit, we’re professional athletes,” said forward Adam Henrique, who was on the ice when the hit was laid. “We’re able to make those decisions quick in our head, and you know when a guy in vulnerable, or in a bad spot, those sorts of things, around the ice. It’s one you don’t want to see.”

Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins echo’d Henrique’s comments.

“It’s a dangerous play,” he said. “(Reaves has) got to know Nursey doesn’t see him coming, and choose the right path there, and he doesn’t.

“It’s tough to see one of your teammates on the ice like that. You don’t ever want to see something like that.”

There was no update on Nurse’s condition after the game, but it didn’t take long for the Oilers to rule him out with what they called an upper-body injury. After the game, Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch spoke about how much Nurse means to the team.

“Darnell is very important,” he said. “Penalty kill, power play, five-on-five minutes, he’s a very important piece of our team, especially how well he had been playing this last week or two.

“Fortunately we had seven defencemen dressed tonight, and those guys really stepped up… (Troy) Stecher and (Travis) Dermott, (Ty) Emberson, those guys stepped up with his absence, but you can’t replace Darnell.”

The Oilers schedule continues Monday night when they visit the Montreal Canadiens on Amazon Prime for a 5:00 p.m. puck drop, and have a game with the Ottawa Senators Tuesday night at the same time.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist, making up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.