It’s been more than a year since the mysterious incident in Seattle during the NHL playoffs, an incident after which Valery Nichushkin did not go out in public for a long time, which scared a large number of fans. But Colorado decided not to say anything specific about that situation.
The main thing is that Val disappeared for a while and the Avalanche were eliminated from the Stanley Cup.
All the details of that incident:
“He was taken away for his own safety.” New details of the scandalous Nichushkin case
It was full of mysteries. What happened to Valéry? Who was the girl they found in his hotel room? What will happen next?
We received the answer to the last question during the 2023/2024 season. The rest remained.
And now Nichushkin has finally revealed the details of that incident. In an interview with the Cherkasy Atlant YouTube channel, the hockey player told what happened to him, commented on Colorado’s actions and the situation with the girl who was drunk in his room.
What did Valery say?
Valery Nichushkin
Photo: LM Otero/AP/TASS
First, Nichushkin recounted what happened in that same Seattle hotel. Apparently, due to the injury, he was taking painkillers.
“The situation in Seattle. It was a very difficult season, the most difficult season possible. We are behind the Cup, we had a lot of injuries. I missed two months when I had bursitis removed (inflammation of the joint capsule. – Note from the Championship). Then, when I came back from Finland, we had a very tight schedule. You can look at last February. I think they set a record for consecutive games (games in a row, without days off. – Note from the “Championship”). We definitely had three games in a row there, and several more in a row. March is the same.
I also had a shoulder injury that bothered me. I also have trouble sleeping, which got worse in the future. I’ve always had trouble sleeping, but the shoulder kept me from sleeping even more, it hurt. They did an MRI. As for the operation, it was not clear whether it would help or not. So in the end we chose to play like this. The injection was chosen. They gave me an injection. It helped, it helped, it helped.
And just when we arrived in Seattle, we decided that I would not play the match and fly to get an injection. And it turned out that I had friends in town. I knew that I would miss this round, I would definitely not play, because after the injection you need to rest for a while, otherwise it will have no effect. But naturally, when you sleep little, when you are in constant pain, all this puts a lot of pressure on your psyche. At some point I could no longer bear it emotionally; I already wanted it all to end as soon as possible.
Well, in the end, of course, I didn’t make the best decision. We sat there with our friends…” said Val.
What will happen to Nichushkin after another problem?
“There’s a pit in your stomach.” Will Nichushkin stay in Colorado after another scandal?
Nichushkin said directly that the girl he found had nothing to do with him: “It turned out that in the morning he had a plane, he had already left the city. [из Сиэтла]. And this situation with the girl… she actually has nothing to do with me.”
Valery also revealed Colorado’s reaction to the whole incident.
“It’s a shame that the team didn’t make it to the next round, because I would have played calmly. Everyone would have understood that everything was fine. In the end, the whole thing was blown out of proportion. And again, because of my emotional state, I decided to withdraw. The club also told me: ‘Don’t pay attention to him, let’s not say anything, it will only be in the news once again. ’ Probably the wrong decision. It was necessary to tell everything at once, to put everything in its place. Then people wouldn’t have to guess. It would even be easier for me. Now, thank God, we have the opportunity to tell everything, when everything has calmed down, it has calmed down,” concluded Valery.
Well, it turned out that not everything was as scary as initially expected. It is even more surprising that the parties remained silent for more than a year! Silence about such important situations, of course, rarely leads to good results.
Val has already entered the anti-topic:
“It’s disgusting.” Three Russians let down the United States in the NHL playoffs
In any case, this story shows how important it is to take care of your psychological and physical well-being. Nichushkin was unable to cope, and this had such serious consequences in the form of pain, an unstable emotional state and sleep problems.
Now I just want to hope that the NHL Assistance Program will really help Valery deal with all the problems that we may not know about yet.
And we look forward to Val’s continued progress on the hockey rink in the new season!
