Valeri Nichushkin opens up about the hotel incident during the 2023 playoffs
The contentious Colorado Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin recently spoke out about the Seattle hotel room incident during the 2023 playoffs in an interview.
While serving a six-month suspension for entering the third stage of the Player Assistance Program, Nichushkin opened up in an interview about another incident: the one during the 2023 playoffs.
He explained his perspective, noting that he could have been back on the ice for the second round if the Avalanche had overcome the Seattle Kraken in the first round.
Nichushkin mentioned that the uncertainty from the Avs' medical staff regarding whether he needed surgery for a shoulder injury played a crucial role in worsening his mental state, leading to his poor decision-making.
Here is the full interview, translated from Russian:
They did an MRI and they couldn't decide whether to have surgery or not. In the end, they decided not to do it and gave me injections in my shoulder. These injections stopped helping and they decided to inject me with another drug.
When we flew to Seattle, they decided that I would not play the match due to a shoulder injury, because I needed to not bother my shoulder for a while until the drug starts working and everyone on the team knew that I would not play until the end of the round. It put a lot of pressure on the psyche and was very annoying.
I had friends in Seattle at that moment and I made the wrong decision, we hung out with them at night and in the morning I flew to Denver. This girl in my room has nothing to do with me.
The club advised me not to give any comments, and I myself was not emotionally ready to explain all this. This was probably the wrong decision and it was necessary to tell the whole situation right away so that there weren't a bunch of different rumors. If we had made it to the second round, I would have been ready to play."
You can watch the interview in the video below:
Nichushkin might be back on the ice in November, and the Avs have confirmed that he is still included in their future plans, despite his suspension.
More to come.
Source: Hockey Patrol
Valeri Nichushkin breaks his silence on the hotel incident in the 2023 playoffs
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