The Colorado Avalanche have been without Valeri Nichushkin for the past two weeks after he suffered a lower-body injury against the Anaheim Ducks. It looks like Nichushkin is getting closer to making his return, and head coach Jared Bednar shared an update on the player, according to Jesse Montano of Guerilla Sports.
“With back to back afternoon games this weekend, Jared Bednar confirmed to me that Nichushkin will NOT travel to Minnesota with the team. Sounds like there’s a good chance he plays Saturday at home against MTL,” Montano wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The Avalanche have been without Nichushkin throughout the past few seasons because of different reasons, and there's no doubt that his absence has hurt them. Not only does it show in the stats, but his teammates know the kind of impact that he makes when he's on the ice.
“We know from the past that obviously Val is such a key piece for us and top two lines there, and losing a guy like that, it’s not easy to fill those roles,” Cale Makar said via Colleen Flynn of Mile High Sports. “But this year, I feel like we have more depth than we ever have. So whoever they put up on that line tonight’s going to do a great job, and it’ll be a big key for us to be able to — it’s not just filling his role, but everybody will need to step up.”
The hope is that Nichushkin can make his return for the Avalanche soon, but they've been playing really well without him. They're currently 17-1-5, and are atop the Central Division in the Western Conference.
