Dater: Someone's Lying In The Valeri Nichushkin Mess

Fans Deserve More Answers

It’s a matter of public record that a woman was in the Seattle hotel room of suspended Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin on the night before Game 3 of the 2023 first round of the playoffs. It’s a matter of public record that someone called 911 to request medical attention for the woman because of intoxication. It’s a matter of public record that the Avalanche said Nichushkin immediately left Seattle the next day because of “personal reasons” and nothing more than that was said about him or why he left the team so suddenly.

But now, in a YouTube interview with Nichushkin by a Russian journalist, Nichushkin - through translation - apparently is saying that he had nothing whatsoever to do with that woman or who she is or how she got so intoxicated in his room. Oh, and that the only reason he left the team was because of a pre-planned flight back to Denver to treat a shoulder injury and that he would have been just dandy to play in the second round had the Avs made it that far.

Oh, except that Nichushkin is now suspended for six months for flunking a drug test before Game 3 of the second round of this year’s playoffs because it was his third “strike” in the NHL’s player assistance program. Strike No. 2 supposedly was during the regular season, when he was admitted to the program. I reported at the time that this was, indeed, his second stint in the program, and nobody from the Nichushkin camp or the Avs corrected me on that.

So, wouldn’t the incident in Seattle have been the first strike? Not if it was just a shoulder injury and he was just following team orders. Confused?

Somebody is lying and has been lying throughout this whole mess, and my head hurts from trying to keep track of all the stories we’ve been told. You, the Avs fan who funds the entire operation of the team, deserve a hell of a lot better than this.

Here is a translation of what Nichushkin is said to have said, via Denversports.com:

“It was the most difficult season, there were a lot of injuries in the team all season. I missed 2 months due to bursitis. I also had a shoulder injury, which constantly bothered me. I always had problems sleeping, but because of the pain in my shoulder, the situation with my sleep got worse. They did an MRI and they couldn’t decide whether to have surgery or not. In the end, they decided not to do it and gave me injections in my shoulder. These injections stopped helping and they decided to inject me with another drug. When we flew to Seattle, they decided that I would not play the match due to a shoulder injury, because I needed to not bother my shoulder for a while until the drug starts working and everyone on the team knew that I would not play until the end of the round. It put a lot of pressure on the psyche and was very annoying. I had friends in Seattle at that moment and I made the wrong decision, we hung out with them at night and in the morning I flew to Denver. This girl in my room has nothing to do with me. The club advised me not to give any comments, and I myself was not emotionally ready to explain all this. This was probably the wrong decision and it was necessary to tell the whole situation right away so that there weren’t a bunch of different rumors. If we had made it to the second round, I would have been ready to play.”

Here is the video. It’s in Russian:

OK, first off: If I’m an Avalanche credentialed, traveling beat writer, which I was for 28 years but am not anymore, I am pissed right now watching that whole video. PISSED.

While the Avalanche’s bumbling media relations staff has consistently shielded the local beat media from any kind of meaningful access to Nichushkin since Seattle - and Nichushkin himself has ducked anyone local - they grant a Russian vlogger complete behind-the-scenes access with him, including the backroom of the Avs’ practice facility (which I had NEVER seen before until this video), and unlimited time for interviews about Seattle and whatever else he wanted to ask?