Avs Notebook: Assessing Nichushkin's First Game Back

Not so much

Look, I don’t think any of us were expecting peak performance from Valeri Nichushkin, in his first NHL game since May 11 last night against the Washington Capitals. But, yeah, no, it didn’t go so swell.

Looking rustier than a 1978 Chrysler Cordoba, Nichushkin wandered around Ball Arena for 19 minutes, 27 seconds, finishing with one shot on net and a minus-3 playing on a second line with Casey Mittelstadt and Jonathan Drouin.

On to the next one…

He just completed Phase 3 of the NHL Player Assistance program, and naturally everybody wanted to ask more about his life off the ice lately than his first game back.