It was another day of Colorado Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin going to work at Family Sports. Things looked a little different than they did on Tuesday, though.
On one side of the rink, Nichushkin worked with Avalanche assistant coach Toby Petersen on some high-tempo drills. Between every drill, Nichushkin went to the bench to take a quick breather, and as soon as he got back on the ice, it was full steam ahead. It’s really something to watch this guy work. The combination of size, speed, and skill is something to behold. Whatever injury he’s dealing with doesn’t appear to be slowing him down too much on the ice.
At the other end of the rink, Nikolai Kovalenko worked with Marc Popovic, a former NHL player who runs Ignite Performance Hockey. Unlike the day before, the two Russian wingers stayed on separate sides of the red line. Nichushkin looked like a guy who could play right now, while Kovalenko looked like he’s still getting his conditioning back up, in addition to recovering from his injury.
On Altitude radio Wednesday morning, Bednar mentioned that Nichushkin will meet the team in Minnesota, but won’t play against the Wild.
“Hopefully, everything goes well and he’s able to play against Edmonton,” Bednar said. “Jumping in from a lower-body injury to back-to-back games is not the smartest thing, so we’ll likely try and get him into the Edmonton game here.”
The key words there are “hopefully” and “try.” I don’t think the Avalanche will push it if he’s not completely ready, even if he does meet the team on the road.
Later on Wednesday, Bednar reiterated to the media on the trip that he will hopefully play on Friday. Similar news for Yakov Trenin, who skated in a non-contact jersey at practice. Bednar said Trenin has a lower-body “tweak” and they’ll see how he feels tomorrow before the game against the Wild. Again, they aren’t going to push it if someone isn’t 100% because they’d rather make sure these guys are feeling good for the playoffs.
Other news of note from Bednar – Justus Annunen is expected to play against the Wild, while Alexandar Georgiev will get the Oilers.
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