May 13, 2024
The official announcement popped into my
email at 6:30 p.m. Monday, or 82 minutes before the puck drop of what turned out to be the Dallas Stars' potentially pivotal
5-1 rout of the Avalanche at Ball Arena in Game 4 of the second round.
NEW YORK/TORONTO
(May 13, 2024) – The National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players’ Association announced today
that forward Valeri Nichushkin of the Colorado Avalanche has been placed in Stage 3 of the Player Assistance Program of the NHLPA and NHL.
Under the terms of the
joint program, Nichushkin will be suspended without pay for a minimum of six months and then will be eligible to apply for
reinstatement.
Jared Bednar after the Avalanche's 5-1 loss
Monday night. His full "presser" is here.
I'm a little out of practice compared to the 20-plus years I often was the lead
questioner at Avalanche news conferences and never, ever asked a two-minute question about the second power-play unit or faceoffs.
But I asked for the microphone Monday night and when Avalanche PR czar Brendan McNicholas called on me to toss out a question
to Colorado coach Jared Bednar, I tried to be sympathetic, to-the-point and blunt when asking about Nichushkin.
The
big Russian winger's bizarre timing and
actions arguably will end up the key issue in costing the Avalanche chances at a second or third hoisting of the Stanley Cup
in the wake of their 2022 championship.
The way this works is that champions must take advantage
of opportunities during their peak years, or they walk away thinking -- as did the Avs of the late 1990s and early 2000s --
that as great as the parades and the adulation were, they underachieved.
That's enough preamble.
Here's
my question to Badnar about Nichuskin, who had 9 goals in 7 playoff games for the Avalanche when the news of his suspension
broke Monday and his teammates looked deflated in losing to the Stars and dropping to a 3-1 deficit in the series.
We know that there's a human element involved here that you look at as important.
But also, how much did Val let down you and this team?
"Well," Bednar began, then paused. The
wheels were turning. This, after all, is a coach who is uncannily consistent. He always is thoughtful and has been that way
with me since 2016, or the first time I sat down with the minor-league pro journeyman player, assistant coach and head coach
the Avalanche took a chance on when hiring Patrick Roy's successor.
"I'm not going to go there," Bednar said. "Like, listen, Val obviously
is struggling with something. Right? I have two thoughts. Yeah, it sucks for our team, we have to turn the page, we have to
play way better than we did today. There's still 20-plus guys in that room that care and want to win and that are here, and
that's what we have to focus on. It hurts our team, there's no question. He's a great player.
'"And
the second one is I've gotten to know Val as a person and have gotten to know him as one of our teammates and a player, and
I want what's best for him. I want him to be happy and I want him to be content in life, whether that's with our team or not
with our team. I want what's best for him and his family. I think a lot of our guys are the same and we hope that he can find
some peace and get help. Certainly, that's the other side of it. Hockey's not life and death, although we treat it like it
is. So Val's a big priority and our team's another one. Now it's separated. We're separated. We're not together. He's done
for six months-plus whatever that looks like so, again, we treat it like it's an injured player that's not able to play for
us."
At first, all of this almost seemed to he a bad joke, considering
erie timing similaries to Nichushkin's bailout on his team on the morning of Game 3 in Seattle almost exactly one year ago. That preceeded his two-month absence this season while receiving care through the Player Assistance Program.
But
no, this was real. (It even got worse when Devon Toews, whio went through the morning skate, was ruled out of the lineup because
he was ill. This ws all adding up to bad karma.
Two
postseasons in a row, Nichushkin has let down the organization that signed him to an eight-year, $49-million contract.
He mocked the front office.
He mocked his teammates, who stuck with him and, on the few occasions they were asked, gushed about what a great teammate and player he was. They
believed that, even while knowing there were personal demons. He was having a great playoff run and was coming off a strong
regular season, when he had 28 goals and magaged to squeeze in 54 games, despite his Players Assistance program stint.
He mocked the fans who in many cases naively embraced him with open
arms after the Seattle fiasco and his absence for a significant stretch of this season.
Two weeks ago, Nichushkin had a hat trick in Game 4 of the first round against Winnipeg and was a beaming No. 1 star on the ice
after the game. He told the fans that he felt "amazing" and that he loved them. Partially in part because he still
is uncomfortable in English, he declined to make himself available to the media in the dressing room after the game, though. That night, I wrote about Nichushkin's progress in seeking to regain the trust of his teammates.
Now, we all can pull for Nichuskin to exorcise his
demons, to get straightened out and then -- only then -- return to the NHL. The wrangling over whether the Avalanche should
or could void his contract for cause can wait, though this much is clear: The Player Assistance Program would be undercut
if players are subject to contractural sanctions for saying they need help.
Nichushkin's career stats
