Darnell Nurse hurt in fight with Nikita Zadorov

The fight didn't look like much at first. The ending is the problem: the scrap finished with Nurse going down hard, and the people in the press box saw it right away.

Cory Lavalette

@corylav

He looks OK, but it looked like Nurse's head got slammed into the ice at the end of his fight with Zadorov

This one had a reason behind it. Zadorov had leveled Marchment in the second period, and Nurse went after the guy who did it. That's a big ask, because Zadorov is listed at 6-foot-7 and 244 pounds. He got the better of it, throwing Nurse awkwardly into the boards and down onto the ice. It's the right thing to do in a hockey room. It also came at a bad time, late in the third with the Sharks down 1 and still in the game.

steve conroy

@conroyherald

Don’t like the timing of that bout.

Then it got worse. Nurse didn't go to the box and come back. He went down the tunnel and never returned to the bench, and Boston pulled away from there. Charlie McAvoy scored in his season debut, Fraser Minten had 2, and Jeremy Swayman made 35 saves. Macklin Celebrini scored twice for San Jose and Ivar Stenberg got his first NHL goal, but none of that was what people were talking about afterward.

Sheng Peng

@Sheng_Peng

Nurse went straight to room after fight, hope he's OK, Sharks can't afford to lose him

Ryan Warsofsky didn't help clear it up after the game. The Sharks coach said he hadn't gotten an update yet and wouldn't guess whether Nurse would miss any of the road trip. That isn't bad news, but it doesn't settle anything either, and the Sharks leave town tonight without knowing.

Next up for the Sharks is a 6-game road trip that starts Thursday in Nashville, after an off day Wednesday to travel. San Jose is 3-3-0 and has lost 2 of its last 3. Boston is 5-2-0 and has won 3 straight. Teammate Cagnoni summed up the room's thinking: Nurse is a big part of the team, and they hope he's ready for the next game.

What matters now is whether Nurse gets on the plane, and whether he's in the lineup at Nashville. A guy who answers a hit on a teammate like that is exactly who a young Sharks team can't afford to lose for a long trip. Until San Jose says something, this one sits in the worry column.