DENVER — Colorado Avalanche coach Jared Bednar mentioned the pregame information of ahead Valeri Nichushkin being suspended for at the very least six months was not “an excuse” for his workforce’s 5-1 loss Monday to the Dallas Stars in Sport 4 of their Western Convention semifinal collection.
The Avalanche have misplaced three straight video games since coming again to win the collection opener, with the Stanley Cup contenders now dealing with elimination.
“We’re not going to make use of that as an excuse. We won’t. We can’t,” Bednar mentioned. “Once more, we deal with it identical to [Logan O’Connor] — injured, performed for the 12 months. You get information like that on a regular basis. You proceed to play with the gamers that you’ve got, and we’ve got the flexibility to play a heck of so much higher than we did at the moment no matter any information.”
The information of Nichushkin being positioned in Stage 3 of the NHL/NHL Gamers’ Affiliation participant help program was introduced slightly greater than an hour earlier than puck drop. No additional info was given about why Nichushkin was admitted into this system.
Avalanche ahead Casey Mittelstadt mentioned that he and some teammates discovered about Nichushkin as they entered Ball Area hours earlier than they took the ice for pregame skate.
“We’re hoping Val’s OK and hoping for one of the best for him,” Mittelstadt mentioned.
Avalanche defenseman Jack Johnson advised The Denver Submit after the sport, “[Nichushkin] made his choices. That is all I’ll say on that. He made his choices.”
Earlier within the day, Nichushkin was on the ice for morning skate. After the sport, the Avalanche had already eliminated his nameplate from his stall within the workforce’s dressing room.
A league supply advised ESPN that the NHL/NHLPA participant help program has 4 phases. Stage 1 is the primary in-patient remedy for which there isn’t any penalty. In Stage 2, following a violation of the Stage 1 remedy plan, a participant could be suspended with out pay throughout the lively part of remedy after which turn into eligible for reinstatement.
Stage 3, following a violation of the Stage 2 remedy plan, carries a suspension with out pay for at the very least six months after which a participant can turn into eligible for reinstatement. Stage 4, following a violation of the Stage 3 remedy plan, carries a suspension of at the very least one 12 months, and reinstatement is just not assured.
Nichushkin will likely be suspended for at the very least six calendar months, which implies the earliest he might return could be mid-November.
His absence meant the Avalanche had been with out their main playoff objective scorer after Nichushkin recorded 9 objectives and 10 factors in eight video games.
Bednar adjusted a lineup that was additionally lacking defenseman Devon Toews due to sickness however returned Jonathan Drouin, who had been out since April 20 due to a lower-body damage.
In Saturday’s Sport 3, the Avalanche used an aggressive strategy to regulate possession and launch photographs from all angles just for the Stars to attain the primary objective for a 3rd straight sport en path to a 4-1 Colorado defeat.
On Monday, the Stars had been the extra aggressive workforce. They outshot the Avalanche by a 16-2 unfold within the first interval and took a 2-0 lead by means of Wyatt Johnston, who on the eve of his twenty first birthday scored lower than six minutes into the second body after additionally scoring within the first.
Dallas pushed it to 3-0 when defenseman Miro Heiskanen’s shot from the left level beat Colorado goaltender Alexandar Georgiev. Somewhat greater than a minute later, the Avs reduce the result in 3-1 when Mittelstadt scored on a objective assisted by Drouin.
A story of the collection has been how the Stars maintain getting early leads solely to have the Avalanche win, as they did in Sport 1, or come actually shut, which is what occurred in Video games 2 and three.
Mittelstadt’s objective was as shut because the Avalanche would get. The Stars padded their result in 4-1 off a objective from Evgenii Dadonov about midway by means of the third, whereas Sam Metal’s empty-netter with lower than two minutes left made it 5-1.
“Us, as a bunch, as an entire, we acquired higher than that. That was our worst sport of the collection,” Bednar mentioned. “It seemed prefer it was a battle for our guys. It seemed like we lacked power. It seemed like we had been the actually drained workforce, they usually had been the recent workforce. I haven’t got the reply for that. I want I did.”
Bednar would later describe his workforce’s four-goal defeat as “atrocious.”
Even for all of the questions dealing with the Avalanche about avoiding elimination, a lot of the eye remained on Nichushkin, as this will likely be his third absence up to now 13 months.
The 29-year-old Nichushkin’s earlier absence from the Avalanche was in mid-January when he was admitted into the participant help program for undisclosed causes. On the time, it was introduced that he could be out for an indefinite interval.
Nichushkin resumed skating with the Avalanche in late February earlier than returning to the lineup March 8 of their 2-1 extra time win towards the Minnesota Wild.
His first absence away from the Avalanche was in April 2023 when he missed the ultimate 5 video games of a first-round collection that ended with the Avs dropping to the Seattle Kraken. That point, the workforce mentioned Nichushkin left for private causes. His absence got here after cops responded to a disaster name on the workforce’s lodge in Seattle on the afternoon earlier than the Avalanche and Kraken performed Sport 3 of their quarterfinal collection.
A 28-year-old girl was in an ambulance when officers arrived, and medics had been advised to talk with an Avalanche workforce doctor to obtain extra particulars.
The police report, which was obtained by ESPN, amongst different shops, mentioned the Avalanche’s doctor advised officers that workforce workers discovered the lady after they had been checking on Nichushkin. The doctor advised police that the lady gave the impression to be intoxicated and was too intoxicated to have left the lodge “in a journey share or cab service,” and wanted EMS help.
When the Avalanche returned for preseason camp, Nichushkin advised reporters, “I feel we must always shut it. It is a new season proper now. We now have to give attention to that.”
A primary-round decide by the Stars in 2013, Nichushkin spent 4 seasons with the membership that drafted him. He scored 23 objectives and 74 factors in 223 video games and by no means fairly reached the heights that had been anticipated of a first-rounder.
The Avalanche signed him firstly of the 2019-20 season on a one-year deal price $850,000. Nichushkin labored his means from a bottom-six function to changing into one of many workforce’s most vital gamers. It led to him signing a two-year deal price $2.5 million yearly in 2020 earlier than he signed an eight-year deal price $6.125 million per 12 months that began firstly of the 2022-23 season.
“I’ve two ideas: Yeah, it sucks for our workforce … however we acquired to go play means higher than we did at the moment,” Bednar mentioned. “There’s nonetheless 20-plus guys in that room that care and that need to win, and that is what we’ve got to give attention to.
“And the second is I’ve gotten to know Val as an individual. … I would like what’s finest for him. I would like him to be completely happy and I would like him to be content material in his life whether or not that is with our workforce or not with our workforce. I would like one of the best for him and his household.”