{"id":375018,"date":"2025-11-13T03:17:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/375018\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T03:17:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:17:15","slug":"valeri-nichushkin-will-miss-time-with-lower-body-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/375018\/","title":{"rendered":"Valeri Nichushkin Will Miss Time With Lower-Body Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin is going to miss some time, according to head coach Jared Bednar.<\/p>\n

Nichushkin left Tuesday\u2019s game against the Anaheim Ducks early in the third period and did not return. It was later confirmed to be a lower-body injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe hasn\u2019t been looked at yet since last night,\u201d Bednar said during Wednesday\u2019s optional practice. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a concern that he\u2019s not here today and left the game early last night. He\u2019s going to miss some time, I just don\u2019t know how much.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Avs have been lucky on the injury front through the first 17 games of the season. They\u2019ve had 10 forwards appear in all 17 games, which included Nichushkin. He\u2019ll be the first piece of the top nine up front to miss a game when Colorado hosts the Buffalo Sabres at Ball Arena on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Nichushkin has five goals and 12 points in 17 games, along with a +2 rating. He\u2019s spent all year on the second line with center Brock Nelson and has consistently been the net-front guy on the top power-play unit.<\/p>\n

Artturi Lehkonen regained that spot on the PP after Nichushkin left the Anaheim game.<\/p>\n

The Avs have plenty of options to replace him on the second line. Rookie forward Gavin Brindley, who has five points in 15 games, has done an excellent job producing from the fourth line. He even scored the overtime game-winner on Sunday in Vancouver while playing with Nathan MacKinnon.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a candidate to get a bigger role, especially after signing a two-year contract extension earlier on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Another choice is Victor Olofsson. The 30-year-old winger has spent all year on the third line but regularly plays on the top PP unit. Olofsson has been a pleasant surprise, posting five goals and 14 points in 17 games.<\/p>\n

The third choice would be to elevate captain Gabe Landeskog back to the second line. Landeskog started on that line before switching places with Ross Colton. Landeskog scored his first goal of the season on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Bednar also said earlier on Wednesday on Altitude Sports Radio that Samuel Girard is nearing a return, and could be in the lineup as early as the next one or two games. Logan O\u2019Connor is still non contact but also getting close, although he\u2019s still at least a week away.<\/p>\n

The Avs sent defenseman Jack Ahcan back to the AHL following the Ducks game.<\/p>\n


\n\"Contribute
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin is going to miss some time, according to head coach Jared Bednar. Nichushkin left…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":375019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[4830,2995,1322,293,62,67,132,68,68429],"class_list":{"0":"post-375018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-avalanche","9":"tag-colorado-avalanche","10":"tag-featured","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-valeri-nichushkin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115540227234355181","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}