Tuesday's Gossip Column

Jack Johnson could not hide his frustration. Fresh off a 5-1 loss to the Dallas Stars that put this Avalanche season that began with championship aspirations on the brink, the veteran defenseman did not hold back as well as some of his teammates. The Avs were without Valeri Nichushkin, the team’s leading goal scorer in this postseason, in Game 4 against the Stars.

Colorado Avalanche lost 5-1 to the Dallas Stars in Game 4 of the second round of the 2024 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Ball Arena in Denver on Monday night, May 13, 2024. Colorado, now down 3-1 in the series, faces elimination in Game 5 on Wednesday in Dallas. Related Articles Colorado Avalanche | Avalanche players express shock, disappointment in Valeri Nichushkin news: “He made his decisions” Colorado Avalanche | Avs-Stars Game 4 Quick Hits: Avalanche’s 3-1 deficit and this much bad mojo feels like too steep a hill to climb Colorado Avalanche | Stars use dominant start in Game 4 win to push shorthanded Avalanche to brink of elimination Colorado Avalanche | Keeler: Avalanche gave Valeri Nichushkin a second chance.

SAN DIEGO — The Rockies walked the high-wire Monday night at Petco Park. Their pitchers teetered and tottered. They walked 11 Padres batters. Count ’em, 11. But somehow, someway, the Rockies held on to win 5-4, notching their fifth consecutive victory. The Padres loaded the bases in the ninth against Jalen Beeks on three walks, but Beeks got Manny Machado to ground into a 5-4-3 double play to end the game. “That was exhilarating, for sure,”  a frazzled but happy Rockies manager Bud Black said.

Instant reaction from the Avalanche’s 5-1 loss to Dallas in Game 4 of their second-round Stanley Cup Playoffs series. 1. No mojo = hard road: Whatever the Avs did to you, hockey gods, they’re sorry. Honest. Because it feels as if anything that could go wrong for the ’22 Stanley Cup champs went wrong over about 90 minutes before a critical Game 4 at Ball Arena.

For about 16 minutes Monday night, the shorthanded Colorado Avalanche, buoyed by a sensational start from goalie Alexandar Georgiev and a full-throated Ball Arena crowd, looked capable of pulling off the improbable. Alas, reality set in soon after that. The Dallas Stars took full advantage of an Avalanche team missing both Valeri Nichushkin and Devon Toews, and cruised to a dominant 5-1 victory in Game 4 to take full control of this second-round series and put this once-promising Colorado hockey season on the brink. Dallas will have the first of three chances to knock Colorado out of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Wednesday night in Game 5 at American Airlines Center. “We looked frozen in the first period.

Valeri Nichushkin is done for the rest of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Colorado Avalanche forward has been placed in Stage 3 of the Player Assistance Program, the NHLPA and NHL announced Monday. Under the terms of the joint program, Nichushkin will be suspended without pay for a minimum of six months and then will be eligible to apply for reinstatement. The news came roughly an hour before the Avs were set to play the Dallas Stars on Monday night at Ball Arena in Game 4 of their second-round Stanley Cup Playoff series.