Nichushkin suspended just before Avs lose Game 4

DENVER — Colorado Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said the pregame news of forward Valeri Nichushkin being suspended for at least six months was not “an excuse” for his team’s 5-1 loss Monday to the Dallas Stars.

Losing to Stars now means the Avalanche have lost three straight games since coming back to win Game 1, with the Stanley Cup contender now facing the prospect of being eliminated in the Western Conference semifinal round in just five games.

“We’re not going to use that as an excuse. We can’t. We won’t,” Bednar said. “Again, we treat it just like (Logan O’Connor) — injured, done for the year. You get news like that all the time. You continue to play with the players that you have, and we have the ability to play a heck of a lot better than we did today regardless of any news.”

The news of Nichushkin being placed in Stage 3 of the NHL/NHL Players’ Association Player Assistance program was announced a little more than an hour before puck drop.

No further information was given about why Nichushkin was admitted into the program.

Avalanche forward Casey Mittelstadt said that he and a few teammates found out about Nichushkin as they entered Ball Arena hours before they took the ice for pre-game skate.

“We’re hoping Val’s OK and hoping for the best for him,” Mittlestadt said.

The Denver Post spoke with Avalanche defenseman Jack Johnson after the game who said, “(Nichushkin) made his decisions. That’s all I’m going to say on that. He made his decisions.”

Earlier in the day, Nichushkin was on the ice for morning skate. After the game, the Avalanche had already removed his nameplate from his stall in the team’s dressing room.

A league source told ESPN that the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program has four stages. Stage One is the first in-patient treatment for which there is no penalty. Stage Two, which in violation of the Stage One treatment plan, a player can be suspended without pay during the active phase of treatment and then become eligible for reinstatement.

Stage Three, which in violation of the Stage Two treatment plan, carries a suspension without pay for at least six months at which point a player can become eligible for reinstatement. Stage Four, which in violation of the Stage Three treatment plan, carries a suspension of at least one year while reinstatement is not assured.

Nichushkin will be suspended for at least six calendar months which means the earliest he could return would be mid-November.

His absence out of the lineup meant the Avalanche were missing their leading playoff goal scorer with Nichushkin recording nine goals and 10 points in eight games.

Bednar adjusted a lineup that was also missing defenseman Devon Toews due to illness but saw the return for Jonathan Drouin, who had been out of the lineup since April 20 with a lower-body injury.

Game 3 saw the Avalanche use an aggressive approach to control possession and launch shots from all angles only to watch the Stars score the first goal for a third straight game en route to a 4-1 loss.

On Monday, it was the Stars who were the more aggressive team. They outshot the Avalanche by a 16-2 spread in a first period that saw them take a 1-0 lead through Wyatt Johnston before the 20-year-old, who turns 21 on Tuesday, scored his second for a 2-0 lead less than six minutes into the frame.

Dallas pushed it to 3-0 when defenseman Miro Heiskanen‘s shot from the left point beat Colorado goaltender Alexander Georgiev. A little more than a minute later, the Avs cut the lead to 3-1 when Mittlestadt scored on a goal assisted by Drouin.

A narrative of the series has been how the Stars keep getting an early lead only to have the Avalanche win, such as they did in Game 1, or come really close which is what happened in Games 2 and 3.

Mittlestadt’s goal was as close as the Avalanche would get. The Stars padded their lead to 4-1 off a goal from Evgenii Dadonov about halfway through the third while Sam Steel‘s empty-netter with less than two minutes left made it 5-1.

“Us, as a group, as a whole, we got better than that. That was our worst game of the series,” Bednar said. “It looked like it was a struggle for our guys. It looked like we lacked energy. It looked like we were the really tired team, and they were the fresh team. I don’t have the answer for that. I wish I did.”

Bednar would later describe his team’s four-goal defeat as “atrocious.”

Even for all the questions facing the Avalanche about their chances of avoiding elimination, much of the attention remained on Nichushkin as this will be his third absence in the last 13 months.

The 29-year-old Nichushkin’s previous absence from the Avalanche came in mid-January when he was admitted into the player assistance program for undisclosed reasons. At the time of his absence, it was announced that he would be out for an indefinite period.

Nichushkin resumed skating with the Avalanche in late February before returning to the lineup in their 2-1 overtime win March 8 against the Minnesota Wild.

His first absence away from the Avalanche came last April when he missed the final five games of a first-round series that ended with the Avs losing to the Seattle Kraken.

At the time of his absence, the team said Nichushkin left for personal reasons. His absence came after officers responded to a call at the team’s hotel in Seattle on the afternoon before the Avalanche and Kraken played Game 3 of their quarterfinal series.

A 28-year-old woman was in the ambulance when officers arrived with medical being told to speak with an Avalanche team physician to receive more details.

The police report, which was obtained by ESPN, among other outlets, said the Avalanche’s physician told officers that team employees found the woman when they were checking in on Nichushkin. The physician told police that the woman appeared to be intoxicated and was too intoxicated to have left the hotel “in a ride share or cab service,” and needed EMS assistance.

When the Avalanche returned for preseason camp, Nichushkin told reporters that “I think we should close it. It’s a new season right now. We have to focus on that.”

A first-round pick by the Stars in 2013, Nichushkin spent four seasons with the club that drafted him. He scored 23 goals and 74 points in 223 games, and never quite reached the heights that came with being a first-round pick.

The Avalanche signed him at the start of the 2019-20 season on a one-year deal worth $850,000. Joining the Avs saw Nichushkin work his way from a bottom-six role to becoming one of the team’s most important players. It led to him signing a two-year deal worth $2.5 million annually in 2020 before he signed an eight-year deal worth $6.125 million annually that started at the beginning of the 2022-23 season.

“I have two thoughts: Yeah, it sucks for our team … but we got to go play way better than we did today,” Bednar said. “There’s still 20-plus guys in that room that care and that want to win and that’s what we have to focus on.

“And the second one is I’ve gotten to know Val as a person … I want what’s best for him. I want him to be happy and I want him to be content in his life whether that’s with our team or not with our team. I want the best for him and his family.”

Source: www.espn.com