Darnell Nurse was the overtime hero for the Edmonton Oilers in a 3-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night.

Nurse, who leads all NHL defencemen with 12 goals this season, scored 17 seconds into overtime to snap Edmonton’s four-game losing streak in head-to-head meetings with Toronto.

Twelve goals are already a career-high for Nurse, who scored 10 goals in 82 games in the 2018-19 season.

He needed just 36 games to do it.

As of this morning, Connor McDavid (21) and Leon Draisaitl (19) are the only Oilers with more goals this season.

And those two have more goals than anybody not named Auston Matthews or Mikko Rantanen.

Here is the Morning Coffee for March 30, 2021.

Nurse The OT Hero For Oilers

Edmonton’s first win in its last five attempts against the Maple Leafs came as a +125 underdog.

While they haven’t been dogs very often, it’s worth pointing out that the Oilers are 5-1 on the puck line in their past six such instances.

After scoring the overtime winner on Monday night, Nurse now has four goals and seven points in his past five games.

TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button joined Jay Onrait to weigh in on Nurse’s development after the win.

Meanwhile, when talking to reporters after the game, Nurse took the opportunity to shout out his sister Kia for the excellent job she’s done for this network.

Edmonton is once again two points back of Toronto in the standings with one more game played.

However, as of this morning the Oilers are the third choice to win the North Division at +400 odds, behind the Maple Leafs (-150) and the Winnipeg Jets (+350).

Scheifele Leads Jets Past Flames

The Jets (-105) closed to within one point of Toronto for first place in the division with a 5-1 win over the Calgary Flames.

Mark Scheifele scored twice and finished with three points.

Nikolaj Ehlers registered three assists, while Kyle Connor chipped in a pair of apples.

Winnipeg has now won four of its last five and is 13-6-1 since Feb. 19.

I know I’ve written this over and over before, but until it changes it’s worth stating again: the Jets continue to be disrespected by the oddsmakers.

I would have been caught off guard by the fact that they were essentially a pick’em against the Flames if it wasn’t a trend that I’ve seen all season.

On the topic of trends, another push means that the under (6.0) is now 4-0-2 in Calgary’s past six games.

The Flames have been held under their team total in five of their past six games.

It will be interesting to see if that trend continues when they go up against Thatcher Demko and the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night.

Baylor, Houston Headed To Final Four

Baylor and Houston both snapped lengthy Final Four droughts with Elite Eight wins on Monday night.

Baylor (-7.5) beat Arkansas 81-72 to advance to the Final Four for the first time since 1950.

Meanwhile, Houston (-7.5) beat Oregon State 67-61 and while they failed to cover, the Cougars are headed back to the Final Four for the first time since 1984.

The final two spots in the tournament semifinal are up for grabs tonight on TSN, beginning at 4:15 p.m. ET when the No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga (-8.5) clashes with No. 6 USC.

The Zags have registered 26 straight double-digit wins heading into tonight’s showdown, which is the longest streak by any team in the last 60 years.

No. 1 Michigan (-6.5) will need to hold off the Cinderella No. 11 UCLA in order to book its ticket to the Final Four.

The Wolverines have won 10 straight NCAA tournament games against double-digit seeds. 

UConn Advances Following Controversial Finish

On the women’s side, the UConn Huskies advanced to their 13th consecutive Final Four with a 69-67 win over Baylor, extending the record for the longest such streak in college basketball history.

This one wasn’t without a little controversy though.

That’s a tough way to lose for a Baylor side that gave up a 19-0 run and still had a chance to win the game in the final seconds.

On the flip side, the Huskies get the break they might have needed as they compete for another national title.

NBA MVP Discussion

Our Monday morning NBA call featured a healthy debate over the current state of the MVP conversation.

While Nikola Jokic remains the favourite at -115, there is a new face that has forced his way into the discussion in recent weeks.

As of this morning, James Harden is now the second choice to win MVP at +500 odds.

Harden, who scored 38 points as part of a triple-double in a 112-107 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night, has garnered a ton of attention in MVP futures markets of late with Joel Embiid and LeBron James both sidelined.

Does he deserve it? The numbers certainly indicate that he does.

However, are MVP voters willing to just ignore everything that happened to Harden earlier in the season and vote for him?

Maybe they are.

Embiid is currently the third choice at +650, followed by LeBron at +750.

However, with those two stars sidelined, the door seems wide open for a true contender to step up and challenge Jokic for MVP status.

Is that player Harden?

Just a week ago, Harden was +1000 to win the award. Now he’s the second choice after his odds were shortened by half.

A lot can change in a short period of time.

It will be very interesting to see how the MVP race plays out over these next couple of weeks.