Avalanche coach Jared Bednar cites personal reasons for Valeri Nichushkin’s absence after police report released
Colorado Avalanche coach Jared Bednar doubled down on his assertion that Valeri Nichushkin has been absent the team for personal reasons and declined comment Friday when asked about a police report that stated a “heavily intoxicated” woman in behavioral crisis had been discovered inside the forward’s Seattle hotel room last Saturday.
Nichushkin left the team before last Saturday’s Game 3 of Colorado’s opening-round playoff series against the Kraken and hasn’t been seen or heard from in public since.
Bednar did say he’s spoken with Nichushkin but would not divulge his whereabouts nor rule out a possible return to the team if it survives this playoff round, which the Kraken led 3-2 entering Game 6 on Friday night.
“I’ve already told you he’s gone because of personal reasons,” Bednar told reporters during his media availability Friday morning after Colorado’s morning skate at Climate Pledge Arena. “And once it’s personal reasons, then I’m not going to comment on it at all.”
The Athletic reported Friday that Nichushkin’s agent, Mark Gandler, disputed the police report.
“No one was found in Val’s room,” Gandler said in the report. “These events have nothing to do with Val.”
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The Nichushkin news was the latest distraction swirling around the Avalanche as they hoped to stave off elimination Friday night. Colorado was already dealing with the return from a one-game suspension of star defenseman Cale Makar, whose late hit on Jared McCann on Monday in Game 4 knocked the Kraken’s 40-goal man out for at least two games.
A Seattle Police Department incident report dated last Saturday — released Thursday to The Seattle Times following a public-records request — stated that Avalanche employees went to check on Nichushkin in his room at the Four Seasons Hotel downtown. Once there, the report stated, they found a 28-year-year-old woman “in the room” and “heavily intoxicated” from an undisclosed substance.
The police report said information within it was provided to patrol officers by the woman and Avalanche team physician Bradley Changstrom. It stated that Changstrom felt the woman “was too intoxicated to have left the hotel in a ride share or cab service” — and assaulted him at one point — so he phoned 911 about 3:20 p.m. last Saturday to ask for emergency medical service help.
As of Friday afternoon, Seattle police had yet to release audio of the 911 call made by Changstrom.
Officers also spoke at the scene with Lt. Todd Fuller, a Denver police officer traveling with the team for security purposes. The report stated that Fuller told them no criminal activity had occurred in the room.
Public records show a Seattle Fire Department crew was first to arrive at the scene — right as Avalanche players were leaving the hotel to take a bus to Climate Pledge for that night’s game — followed by an ambulance. From there, the police cruiser was called for additional assistance about 25 minutes later via a non-911 number.
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The police report stated that the responding officers first saw the woman in the back of the ambulance upon arrival at the hotel’s entrance and encountered Avalanche team physician Changstrom there as well.
According to the report, the woman told police she was from Russia but born in Ukraine. She was “disorderly” and “disruptive” with “disorganized” speech and communication the officers believed was “chemical” in nature. The report stated the woman was “emergently detained” by being strapped to a medical gurney “for being a danger to others due to her assaultive behavior and gravely disabled for being so intoxicated to a point that she is unable to care for herself out in public.”
She was driven by ambulance to Virginia Mason Medical Center but no further update on her condition was provided.
The report did not specify whether Nichushkin was inside the hotel room with the woman when team employees arrived looking for him. It also did not mention whether Nichushkin waited at the hotel for police and medical assistance to arrive, though he was listed on the police report as an “involved” party in the incident.
The report states Changstrom told police there was no family connection he knew of between the woman — who has no fixed address — and the married Nichushkin.
The Avalanche have not said why they went looking for Nichushkin at his hotel room that day or when he left the team. Bednar declined Friday to answer whether Nichushkin violated team rules or was now absent from the squad by his own choice or someone else’s.
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“I’m not going to get into it, because it’s personal,” Bednar said. “It’s not a professional decision. It’s a personal decision.”
Bednar said this week that Nichushkin’s absence was not disciplinary in nature. He was asked Friday whether he’d consider disciplinary action in light of the police report. Bednar said he would not. When asked to explain why, he repeated: “Because it’s personal.”
Nichushkin signed an eight-year, $49 million contract extension last July and had 47 points in 53 games this season. He also scored against the Kraken in Game 2 of this series right before leaving the team.
Tense Game 6 expected
Missing several key players and down 3-2 in the first-round playoff series, the visiting Avalanche are backed into a corner.
“Their season’s on the line, and that’s always when they play a little bit harder,” Seattle’s Jamie Oleksiak said.
The Kraken know about playing with desperation. With 3:37 left in the third period of Game 5 in Denver, Evan Rodrigues scored an extra-attacker goal to get the Avalanche within one. The Kraken had to white-knuckle it the rest of the way.
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Yanni Gourde was out there the entire final minute and registered a takeaway. Oleksiak and Adam Larsson handled the lion’s share of the remaining time. A normal hockey shift is around 45 seconds and Oleksiak had just a handful longer than a minute throughout the game, the greatest of which was 1:16.
He hopped on the ice at 17:33 of the third period and saw the Kraken through a tense final 2:27, all the way to the final buzzer. Larsson’s last shift was eight seconds longer. It was a long, painful and hectic stretch for the blueliners.
“You stop looking at the clock. You’re just following the puck and making sure you do whatever you can to make sure it doesn’t go in,” Oleksiak said. “You’re playing off adrenaline at that point.
“I definitely don’t want to do that all the time, but when you’ve got to do it, you’ve got to do it.”
With 10 seconds left, Oleksiak blocked a shot from Colorado’s Artturi Lehkonen.
“That’s playoffs, right? That’s desperation,” Oleksiak said.
Oleksiak was one of several Kraken players who recorded timely shot blocks in Game 5. They made sure 14 bids didn’t get through to goaltender Philipp Grubauer, and Oleksiak (five) was the only Seattle player to have more than one.
“Those are the plays that don’t get the highlight reels and whatnot, but on the bench, those are some of the loudest cheers,” he said.
Source: The Seattle Times
