Denver Post: Nichushkin involved in incident that prompted police/medical response

[Bone Breaker]

after some days off, I return to this thread and.... let me guess... this incident will continue unclear until the start of next season, when we finally see if Nuke is in the opening night lineup or not?

 

[henchman21]

What are you expecting?

The Avs literally hid him and flew him out of Seattle and ditched the woman in the hotel lobby.

Are you expecting the Avs to give up information on what really happened? Never.

 

[The Abusement Park]

Nope

I don't think that's really true. Clearly some new info there imo.

 

[BrickNHL]

What are you expecting?

The Avs literally hid him and flew him out of Seattle and ditched the woman in the hotel lobby.

Are you expecting the Avs to give up information on what really happened? Never.

I just wanna know what’s going on with my fav European (after @Ceremony) gosh

 

[MacKaRant]

Cormac McCarthy is an optimist.

Maybe in comparison to HFAvs...

 

[Ceremony]

2. How in the heck is a player that does prostitutes and drugs on game days still one of the best on the team

Big Val. Built Different.

I just wanna know what’s going on with my fav European (after @Ceremony) gosh

The (apparently) common knowledge about the life of an NHLer makes me think maybe my dream job isn't for me after all.

 

[42k]

I just wanna know what’s going on with my fav European (after @Ceremony) gosh

Actually Val is Asian. Had to look it up haha, his home town Chelyabinsk seems to be fairly close to where Europe and Asia meets

As an "european hockey fan" I'd prefer to keep Russians to their own category. Russians.

 

[wayninja]

It's sort of weird to me how people are mad a journalists or media whomever for how the season collapsed at the end instead of being mad at Nichushkin.

Yeah, yeah, the avs/nuke owes us nothing, but that goes both ways.

 

[Drury_Sakic]

upset # 1 at Nuke for not being more responsible and getting in the situation to begin with.

Upset # 2 at the organization for being far to cloak and dagger about this. Depending on the outcome of what exactly happened and who knew what when, they could go to the top of my blame list.
The media has zero blame here, as if this was a nothing burger and Nuke was not directly involved and somehow just a quasi victim of mental health, alcohol/drugs, and a bad situation, that is pretty easily cleared up by a statement or two by the club/player.

If anything, if some of the rumors are true about some of this bubbling up earlier in the year and causing friction in the room, the media is to blame for not speaking up sooner.

I am frankly shocked we don’t know more from leaks to press. If this was an NBA or NFL players we would have full on minute by minute video of what happened by now.

One of the oddest parts to me in this is a few media folk have played like they know a bit more, but have done nothing with it.

 

[Pokecheque]

upset # 1 at Nuke for not being more responsible and getting in the situation to begin with.

Upset # 2 at the organization for being far to cloak and dagger about this. Depending on the outcome of what exactly happened and who knew what when, they could go to the top of my blame list.
The media has zero blame here, as if this was a nothing burger and Nuke was not directly involved and somehow just a quasi victim of mental health, alcohol/drugs, and a bad situation, that is pretty easily cleared up by a statement or two by the club/player.

If anything, if some of the rumors are true about some of this bubbling up earlier in the year and causing friction in the room, the media is to blame for not speaking up sooner.

I am frankly shocked we don’t know more from leaks to press. If this was an NBA or NFL players we would have full on minute by minute video of what happened by now.

One of the oddest parts to me in this is a few media folk have played like they know a bit more, but have done nothing with it.

This.

 

[pockets]

1. why in the heck do you need to call up a prostitute and do drugs whilst away from home for 2 nights
2. How in the heck is a player that does prostitutes and drugs on game days still one of the best on the team

1. Because you can't call up a hooker and do drugs when you're at home with your wife.
2. What if he got addicted to pain killers because of this ankle/foot injury because the organization was pressuring him to play and that was the only way he could cope with the pain? Wouldn't be the first pro-athlete it's happened to, but as someone who's dealt with close friends and family being addicted to pain killers I can tell you that shit will f*** with your mind, and bad decisions are inevitable...like calling up hookers when you're away from home.

With the team investing as much as they did in Nuke last summer I have a hard time believing they'd just turn their back on him, unless of course there's some criminal aspect that's considered a breach of contract.

 

[PAZ]

Val played a key part in steamrolling through the playoffs last season. The only way he’s there is if he takes strong painkiller and drugs. Even this playoffs you could tell he was playing through another foot injury.

There’s repercussions to these drugs, and we’re most likely seeing it. It’s a two-way street, and it’s weird that the same people who praised Nuke for being a warrior and playing through a broken foot are now reprimanding him for not having his shit together.

Have any of you guys tried doing anything on a foot that was that f***ed up? Of course not, because every single one of us would be sitting on our couch at home, not playing playoff hockey every 2 days. I’m not excusing him for making bad decisions, but I’d bet good money the drugs he took to play through the pain played a major contribution to any substance abuse (if that is the case).

Plus, we still don’t have the full story. For now, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.

 

[Hasbro]

It's sort of weird to me how people are mad a journalists or media whomever for how the season collapsed at the end instead of being mad at Nichushkin.

Yeah, yeah, the avs/nuke owes us nothing, but that goes both ways.

Two things can be true.

 

[Ceremony]

I said this either in here or in the injury thread, but if it actually is an addiction to or some problem with painkillers then given the organisation's history of keeping injured players out for what seems like forever and a history of players like Svatos, I don't see him being rushed back. I'm sure he'll get every resource available. Whether or not that achieves anything obviously remains to be seen.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

Val played a key part in steamrolling through the playoffs last season. The only way he’s there is if he takes strong painkiller and drugs. Even this playoffs you could tell he was playing through another foot injury.

There’s repercussions to these drugs, and we’re most likely seeing it. It’s a two-way street, and it’s weird that the same people who praised Nuke for being a warrior and playing through a broken foot are now reprimanding him for not having his shit together.

Have any of you guys tried doing anything on a foot that was that f***ed up? Of course not, because every single one of us would be sitting on our couch at home, not playing playoff hockey every 2 days. I’m not excusing him for making bad decisions, but I’d bet good money the drugs he took to play through the pain played a major contribution to any substance abuse (if that is the case).

Plus, we still don’t have the full story. For now, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.

I guess we don’t know if it’s something painkiller related, or not, but Val Nichushkin is far from the 1st player in the league to play through bad injuries in the playoffs.

Many, many other players have done it without it becoming a substance abuse problem.

Even just on the Avs in that playoff there were players who played with cracked ribs, broken fingers, and separated shoulders.

We’ll see what ultimately happened with Val, but I don’t think a sequence of events coming from the injury is an excuse. There are so many others guys in this league who have dealt with some awful pain and issues stemming from injuries.

 

[Bonzai12]

I don’t fault anyone for becoming addicted to pain meds. Maybe I’m wrong but I believe genetically some of us are unfortunately predisposed to addiction. I knew about my family’s struggles with addiction growing up but I’m not sure everyone has that luxury.

 

[Turbonium]

I guess we don’t know if it’s something painkiller related, or not, but Val Nichushkin is far from the 1st player in the league to play through bad injuries in the playoffs.

Many, many other players have done it without it becoming a substance abuse problem.

Even just on the Avs in that playoff there were players who played with cracked ribs, broken fingers, and separated shoulders.

We’ll see what ultimately happened with Val, but I don’t think a sequence of events coming from the injury is an excuse. There are so many others guys in this league who have dealt with some awful pain and issues stemming from injuries.

Many soldiers have gone through things and not gotten PTSD while someone right next to them has.

While I think the speculation in this thread about what happened is crazy I did want to note that just because someone else played through pain and took pain killers without any issues doesn't mean that it won't negatively impact another player. Unless one is actually educated on these types of things it might be best to not speak on them.

 

[Balthazar]

Pain meds don’t make you call a prostitute on game day.

 

[Balthazar]

Nuke (while also probably being wasted for the fact he called a prostitute) called 911 (he did the right thing).

You got that part wrong. He called the team doctor, they moved the woman to the hotel lobby and then the doctor called 911 while Nuke was moved somewhere else.

 

[The Moops]

I don’t fault anyone for becoming addicted to pain meds. Maybe I’m wrong but I believe genetically some of us are unfortunately predisposed to addiction. I knew about my family’s struggles with addiction growing up but I’m not sure everyone has that luxury.

My dad and uncle are both bad alcoholics. I promised myself when I was like 12 that I'd never drink because I knew what it'd do to me. Luckily opioids make me very sick so those haven't been a temptation and the surgeries I've had I've been able to get by without them.

 

[Snow Arc]

Pain meds don’t make you call a prostitute on game day.

Maybe she was his dealer.

 

[JLo217]

Something else that was interesting is that she was said to be Ukranian in a few outlets.

 

[S E P H]

You got that part wrong. He called the team doctor, they moved the woman to the hotel lobby and then the doctor called 911 while Nuke was moved somewhere else.

Thanks for the correction, I still think Nuke did the right thing when presented with a very bad situation (one in which he 101% put himself in and deserves all the blame).

 

[Balthazar]

Thanks for the correction, I still think Nuke did the right thing when presented with a very bad situation (one in which he 101% put himself in and deserves all the blame).

I mean they were afraid that the woman was going to OD (that's on the 911 report). It was either asking for help to the team doctor or the risk of ending with a dead prostitute in his hotel room.

So yeah, I'm not giving Nuke credit for asking for help at this point.

Let's not forget that all that happened at 3:30 PM on game day and he had missed morning skate.

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

Unless I missed it I didn't see reports that Nuke called the docs. I saw reports they went to check on him and found her, and he wasn't there. We have no confirmation on when she went to his room originally (likely it was the night before and so not on game day), nor do we have confirmation of who else may have been present. We know he wasn't present in the room when she was found.

Also wasn't the skate an optional skate.