The wait for Valeri Nichushkin continues.
Colorado’s big Russian winger took part in most of practice on Friday before the team flew to Nashville, but with about five minutes left in the skate, he went to the locker room before the rest of his teammates. That was a sure sign he’s not quite ready to return from injury, and afterward, Avalanche coach Jared Bednar confirmed that.
“He’s not coming on the (road) trip,” Bednar said. “Him and (Josh Manson) will both be here getting some work done.”
Manson hasn’t skated since leaving a game with a lower-body injury nearly three weeks ago, but Nichushkin has joined practice off and on the last few days. His presence for most of practice is a good sign according to Bednar and they’re hoping he’ll be ready to play against New Jersey on Feb. 26, but given how his recovery has gone, that doesn’t seem like a guarantee.
Nichushkin last played on New Year’s Eve and was originally expected to only miss 7-10 days. That time frame slowly turned into three weeks and right when it looked like he was getting set to return, there was a setback. The hope was he’d be ready once the break was done.
That will not be the case.
While the Avalanche won’t have Nichushkin this weekend, they will have all three of their champions from Team Canada available to them.
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“They’re playing for sure. No choice,” Bednar said about Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Devon Toews. “I don’t love the setup of Thursday, Saturday, Sunday afternoon, but I guess that’s the price you pay. It’s not ideal because we have more, we have three guys there and some teams are with one, but they’re going to be feeling it a little bit.”
The Avalanche aren’t the only team starting this stretch run off with a back-to-back. Their opponent on Sunday, the Blues, will also be playing on Saturday. Although they won’t have to travel, it at least evens the playing field a little bit.
Before the break, Bednar wanted his team to treat their final five games like they were in the playoffs. They did just that and he wants to see his team pick up right where they left off.
“We’ve been trying to build something here for quite some time,” he said. “Just the eight games before the break, I liked what we were doing on both sides of the puck.”
Friday’s practice was a rowdy one. After focusing a lot on systems the prior two days, the focus shifted to scoring goals. That’s exactly what happened and every time a puck went in the net, the rest of the team went wild.
Coach was very pleased with what he saw.
“That one today was probably my favorite practice of the year,” Bednar said.
The Avalanche will play in Nashville on Saturday and then fly to St. Louis on Sunday for another game.