{"id":417449,"date":"2026-01-20T07:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T07:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/417449\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T07:27:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T07:27:13","slug":"nichushkin-in-crash-before-game-held-from-game-against-capitals-as-precaution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/417449\/","title":{"rendered":"Nichushkin in crash before game, held from game against Capitals as precaution"},"content":{"rendered":"

DENVER (AP) \u2014 Colorado forward Valeri Nichushkin was involved in a car accident on his way to the rink Monday and was held out of the Avalanche’s 5-2 victory over<\/a> Washington as a precaution.<\/p>\n

Coach Jared Bednar said after the game that Nichushkin got checked out at the facility and suffered minor injuries but that \u201ceverything seems to be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust not good enough to play tonight,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see what tomorrow brings for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Colorado Avalanche<\/p>\n

MacKinnon has 2 goals and an assist to reach 1,100 points, Avs beat Capitals 5-2<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Bednar didn’t have much information other than saying the roads were icy after an overnight snowfall and that it was a multi-vehicle accident.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a fender bender, but serious enough to keep him out of lineup,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, I don\u2019t know all the details.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nichushkin missed eight games this season with a lower-body injury. He has 11 goals and 16 assists.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old Nichushkin drew a suspension of at least six months in May 2024 and placed in Stage 3 of the NHL\/NHLPA Player Assistance Program<\/a>. The announcement came in the middle of Colorado\u2019s playoff run that year, marking the second straight postseason where the right winger was unavailable because of circumstances away from the ice.<\/p>\n

He played in just 43 games last season but was still fifth on the team with 21 goals. It was the third 20-goal season of his career.<\/p>\n

With Nichushkin being a late scratch, Colorado quickly placed a call to forward Alex Barr\u00e9-Boulet, who plays for the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League. Barr\u00e9-Boulet made the drive down from Loveland, Colorado \u2014 about 60 miles \u2014 in time for the game and had an assist on the opening goal by Parker Kelly.<\/p>\n

It was Barr\u00e9-Boulet’s first NHL point since 2023-24 with Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

Colorado is already missing Gabriel Landeskog (upper body), defenseman Devon Toews (upper) and forward Joel Kiviranta (forward). Forward Logan O\u2019Connor has yet to play this season as he recovers from offseason hip surgery.<\/p>\n

At 34-5-8, the Avalanche have the best record in the NHL. They’re paced by the scoring prowess of Nathan MacKinnon, who had two goals against the Capitals to give him a league-best 38 this season. He also had an assist to reach 1,100 career points, joining Hall of Famer Joe Sakic as the only players in franchise history to reach that milestone.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s had a hell of a career to this point, and there\u2019s no signs of him slowing down,\u201d Bednar said of MacKinnon. \u201cI\u2019m sure he\u2019s well on his way to another however many points he\u2019s going to get.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER (AP) \u2014 Colorado forward Valeri Nichushkin was involved in a car accident on his way to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5116],"tags":[193,4001,2122,4003,4004,4005,1116,192,144,5277,5,4,3922,52186,52187,52188],"class_list":["post-417449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-colorado-avalanche","tag-avalanche","tag-avalanche-stanley-cup-final","tag-avs","tag-avs-game-recaps","tag-avs-scores","tag-avs-stanley-cup","tag-cale-makar","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-coloradoavalanche","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-valeri-nichushkin","tag-valeri-nichushkin-car-accident","tag-valeri-nichushkin-car-crash","tag-valeri-nichushkin-crash"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115926246711854821","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}