Avalanche winger Valeri Nichushkin prefers not to talk about it — his mental state, his NHL career or anything else — until he succumbs to slight persuasion from a familiar face.
“No talk,” he often says, before usually trying to identify a better time to be interviewed.
Making eye contact in the locker room seems impossible from afar. And with tribal tattoos attached to his physically imposing 6-foot-4, 220-pound frame, some might think Nichushkin is unapproachable.
But if that were true, the soft-spoken Russian would have to stop being so happy.
Happiness defines Nichushkin these days, although he rarely shows it without working on his English.