Nichushkin finds fit with Avalanche, delivers again in Game 2 of Final
Forward scores twice in win against Lightning, continues to produce after rocky start to NHL career
Valeri Nichushkin, not Nathan MacKinnon or Mikko Rantanen or Gabriel Landeskog, or even Cale Makar, was robbed on a sparkling glove save by Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy with 5:38 remaining in the second period, keeping hats planted firmly on heads across Ball Arena.
It would have been Nichushkin's first career hat trick, a statistic both utterly surprising and completely not, much like the run the forward has been on this season and into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
It's a blossoming for a player that is finally pulling all his promise together.
"He's built for this time of year," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said.
Nichushkin had to settle for two goals in a lopsided 7-0 win, helping Colorado take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series. Game 3 is at Amalie Arena in Tampa on Monday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, CBC, SN, TVAS).
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Nichushkin has four points (three goals, one assist) in the series. He has 13 points (eight goals, five assists) in 16 games in Stanley Cup Playoffs.
He has been called a train (Makar), a truck (Alex Newhook), and a horse (Newhook, J.T. Compher and Andrew Cogliano). He has been lauded for his speed, his skating, his tenacity, his worth ethic, his defense, his physicality. He has left his coach without any more words to describe him and his impact and what he has meant in getting the Avalanche to this point, two games away from winning the Cup.
"I've said it before: Big, long, strong, fast, tenacious, hungry, relentless on the puck, finishing off the chances he gets," Bednar said. "He can play with top guys; you can move him up and down the lineup. He's power play, penalty kill. I don't know what else to say about the guy."
After making the pass that led to Andre Burakovsky's overtime goal in Game 1, Nichushkin picked up exactly where he left off, opening the scoring 2:54 into the game on the power play, this time off a pass from Burakovsky. His second goal came at 4:51 of the second period, a one-timer in the slot.
"I think 'Val,' some nights, most nights, he's our best player," Cogliano said. "To be honest, he's an absolute horse out there."
But he wasn't always.
Nichushkin broke into the NHL at 18 years old, after being selected with the No. 10 pick in the 2013 NHL Draft by the Dallas Stars. He showed promise early with 34 points (14 goals, 20 assists) in 79 games as a rookie.
But his second season was marred by injury, a hip surgery that limited him to eight NHL games in 2014-15. He would play another season for the Stars before returning to Russia to play with CSKA Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League, then back to Dallas for a 10-assist, no-goal season in 2018-19.
"There are some guys that it takes a while to get there," said Lindy Ruff, who coached Nichushkin with the Stars and is now coach of the New Jersey Devils. "It's never a steady climb. You can look at first-year players and the troubles they can go through the second year or third year, but in Val's case, he's big, strong, physical and skated well.
"He was a big kid and he's a big man right now, and maybe this year whoever he played with most of the time the pieces fit. You get on a roll, and that's a pretty dynamic team with defensemen that are involved. Maybe things just all collided in the right place for him, but I definitely saw that potential."
But it wasn't the right fit. Nichushkin left Dallas after the 2018-19 season and signed a one-year contract with Colorado on Aug. 19, 2019. He integrated seamlessly and set NHL career highs in goals (25), assists (27) and points (52) in 62 regular-season games.
"I don't think he was comfortable there," said Cogliano, who played with Nichushkin in Dallas in 2018-19. "Honestly, I can't even describe the player Val is. He's phenomenal. He's just the guy that drives the play all night. He's relentless on the forecheck. He's been scoring, but the details of his game.
"In Dallas, he was always very good defensively. I just think he got in a rut scoring wise, but since coming here, I haven't seen a level of play from a guy consistently -- a 200-foot game offensively and defensively -- like I've been seeing in Val."
The one thing that has been clear to the Avalanche is the effort Nichushkin has put in to get here. When Bednar is at the rink late, cutting video, trying to get a jump on the next day's work, it is Nichushkin who is often the only one left at the end, finishing lifting, leaving after even the trainers have gone home.
"I have to say yes, I'm a little bit surprised at where he's gotten to with his game," Bednar said. "And on the other hand, there's a lot of reasons why it's not surprising for me. … This is a guy that is highly dedicated, highly motivated and that he puts in a lot of work. He's one of our hardest-working guys."
It has been the same in the Stanley Cup Final. On Thursday, the day after a 4-3 overtime victory in Game 1, a day when most of the team stayed away from the rink to rest and recover, Nichushkin put in more work.
So, it makes sense the Avalanche have worked for him. He has worked for them too.
As Bednar said, "He's found his place here."
NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen contributed to this report
