Inside the Avs’ Locker Room: What makes Nuke tick?

BUFFALO, N.Y. – For you audiophiles, here is your serving of uncut sound from my tape recorder, in the Avalanche locker room tonight in Buffalo. Avs win 6-1, so it was a happy atmosphere in there.

There was a bit of laughing in the room after I tried – and struck out – in getting sound from Valeri Nichushkin, talking about his three-point night.

Nuke begged off, as he often does. He doesn’t speak a ton of English, but he’s also just a guy very, very shy in the spotlight. I think, anyway. Some of the boys had a laugh at my expense, including Nikita Zadorov.

“He’ll talk when we win a Cup,” Big Z said with a laugh.

I did talk to Nathan MacKinnon, Gabe Landeskog and Jared Bednar, and Nichushkin’s name was brought up by my in all three conversations.

So, here you go:

NATHAN MACKINNON: