In the much-hyped return to the ice of Valeri Nichushkin, the Avs’ wayward son contributed exactly the same thing to the team as he did during a six-month suspension:
Absolutely nothing.
He produced one shot and was a team worst minus-3 in a 5-2 loss to Washington on a forgettable Friday night for all 18,083 spectators in Ball Arena.
Nichushkin is back from suspension. The hockey life has been bad for his health. So I wanted to know: What is he confident that returning to the grind and strain of hockey will work for him this time?
“Confident?” Nichushkin replied, furrowing his brow.
Two seasons in a row, Nichushkin has let down his teammates at the worst possible time, in the playoffs. What makes him believe his life is back together and he’s ready for all the challenges presented to a pro athlete?
“I hope I understand you right,” Nichushkin said. “For six months, I worked pretty much every day.”
With help from people in his homeland of Russia, Nichushkin said he has made “huge progress. I changed my lifestyle a little bit.”
Given time to shake off the rust, we know Choo Choo will get his game back on track and score big goals.
But his return cannot mask a huge problem for the Avs: goaltending.
With Alexandar Georgiev on the shelf, nursing what’s hoped to be a minor upper-body injury, Justus Annunen got the start in goal.
And to be generous, he was wretched.
Annunen allowed two scores in the opening seven minutes, 48 seconds of the first period, on each of the first two shots produced by the Capitals.
When Connor McMichael scored an unassisted goal to put Washington ahead 3-1 fewer than two minutes into the second period, coach Jared Bednar had seen enough.
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He benched Annunen and summoned Trent Miner to duty between the pipes for his first action as a goaltender at the NHL level.
But enough about that. Goaltending is a mess for another day.
Asked how Nichushkin played in his return, Bednar said, “OK.”
At the morning skate, the Avalanche hung a “Do Not Disturb” sign on Nichushkin, with team personnel refusing to let a 29-year-old professional returning from a six-month suspension to speak for himself in the presence of pesky media members rooting for his future success.
It was left to Nathan MacKinnon to celebrate Nichushkin’s return.
“He’s just a great teammate, obviously a hell of a player,” MacKinnon said. “Really, really happy he’s back, and it’s a big boost for us.”
All of us wish nothing but health and happiness for Nichushkin, and not merely because his scoring prowess is invaluable to Colorado’s pursuit of the Stanley Cup, but because there’s a family at home that loves and needs him.
So any of us who have experienced setbacks large or small in life can feel empathy for Nichushkin.
At the same time, it is also fair to wonder why the Avs keep treating Nichushkin like a coddled, overprotected child, while expecting him to act like a grown man that takes responsibility for his mistakes.
That seems like a naive way of doing business, not to mention an epic fail of Parenting 101.
The Avs treat Nichushkin as if he’s a new immigrant incapable of handling the English language or integrating into American culture, instead of a pro athlete who has played for two NHL teams based in the United States since 2013.
That nonsense needs to stop.
After the game, Nichushkin said he’s living one day at a time to rebuild the trust of his teammates, by working to “stay focused on my problems. And hopefully it’s going to work.”
In this great country, which believes in granting second (and
