Avalanche’s Valeri Nichushkin scores OT winner in return to lineup vs. Wild

Meet the new Avs, deeper than the old Avs.

For the moment, also more discombobulated than the old Avs.

Colorado’s 2-1 overtime win against Minnesota on Friday night at Ball Arena served as a get-to-know-you mixer for Jared Bednar’s team, which for the first time rolled out its four new trade-deadline additions and welcomed back winger Valeri Nichushkin from a nearly two-month absence.

If more of the 18,134 on hand here doubled back to the concourse for a game program than normal, they couldn’t be blamed.

All the new faces would be hard to keep straight for a spectator, let alone teammates or a coach on the bench navigating 60 minutes against the Minnesota Wild.

There was Casey Mittelstadt, acquired Wednesday, centering Colorado’s second line, flanked to his left by Nichushkin, himself playing for the first time since he entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program in January.

“We think an awful lot of (Mittelstadt),” Avs general manager Chris MacFarland said about an hour before the revamped group debuted. “We think he’s going to have a big role here and tonight’s the start. Hopefully it’ll be a good marriage. We’re excited to have him.”

They were excited to have Nichushkin back, too, when he buried the overtime, power-play winner at the 2:32 mark of the extra session.

There was Brandon Duhaime, skating against the team that signed his paychecks barely 24 hours before and wearing the No. 12 Avs sweater previously donned by jettisoned center Ryan Johansen.

There was Yakov Trenin popping off the bench to play on Colorado’s top penalty killing unit, which on this night was busy working off eight short-handed minutes over the first two periods against the Wild.

There was Sean Walker, too, paired with Jack Johnson as the only of the new quartet who actually got to town in time to take part in an optional skate Wednesday.

The rest had morning skate Thursday, punched in the directions to Ball Arena and cut it loose.

“We’ve uprooted their lives,” MacFarland said about an hour before this revamped group debuted. “You make a trade, some of them have families, some of them have children. It might be seamless for some of them and for others it might be systemic structures that take a few games to fit in. But I feel really good about the way our coaches handle these situations and I think the guys in our room are really good at being coaches themselves and helping the players adjust.”

The core also happens to be mighty talented, and they put it on display on the night’s first shift. The Avs’ top line struck 42 seconds into the game when Nathan MacKinnon extended his home scoring streak to 32 games by finding Artturi Lehkonen for a first-minute goal.

From there, it was mostly a slog for the better part of two periods. Minnesota’s Brock Faber tied the game with a point-blank look from the right circle midway through the second period.