The Avalanche are cursed and foiled by No. 13. Again. And again. ‘And again.

When will the naive management of this Colorado hockey organization learn it can no longer play the sympathetic fool for Val Nichushkin?

For the third time in 13 months, Nichushkin has left the team in the lurch and entered the NHL’s player assistance program to battle his demons.

 There’s no polite way to put this:

 Chu Chu is a trainwreck.

“Val is obviously struggling with something,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said Monday, after a lopsided 5-1 loss to the Dallas Stars pushed Colorado within one loss of elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Hockey can’t save Nichushkin from himself. So with sincere wishes that a talented but troubled man can regain his health and get his life back on track, the Avs were misguided to trust him to wear a No. 13 burgundy and blue sweater for them.

From a hockey standpoint, Bednar admitted: “It sucks …  it hurts our team, there’s no question, he’s a great player.”

In his heart, however, Bednar’s heart aches for Nichushkin and his family.

“Hockey is not life and death, although we treat it like it is,” said Bednar, hoping Nichushkin can find peace and get help.

Compassion for a fallible human being does not excuse his failure to uphold his responsibilities as a highly paid athlete.

Nichushkin awoke Monday as the league’s leading goal-scorer in this year’s playoffs and was on the ice at Ball Arena during the Avs’ morning skate in preparation for a critical Game 4 in a best-of-seven series against Dallas. Before sunset, however, the 29-year-old forward left Colorado with a massive hole in its lineup during the playoffs for the second year in a row.

Unlike last year, when Avalanche management irresponsibly tried to pretend there was nothing to see here after Nichushkin’s awkward and mysterious departure from the team hotel in Seattle led to the reigning champs being unceremoniously dumped from the opening-round against a clearly inferior Kraken squad, there’s no hiding the scale of Nichushkin’s immense problems now.

The league has suspended him six months without pay. The burden of proof that he’s fit to represent the sport is now on Nichushkin, who can’t apply for reinstatement until November.

After winning the Stanley Cup in 2022, the Avalanche signed Nichushkin to an 8-year, $59 million contract extension, a big stack of money the team might as well have doused in gasoline, dumped in a big steel drum, lit a match and watched it burn, baby, burn.

Although Nichushkin letting down his teammates should no longer be considered a surprise, his absence from the lineup for Game 4 seemed to be a shock to the system of a suddenly struggling Colorado offense that steamrolled Winnipeg during the opening round.

In two home playoff games against the Stars, Colorado has scored a meager total of two goals. With goalie Jake Oettinger forced to make only 24 saves in Game 4, Dallas can now put a quick and merciful end to the Avalanche’s misery as the series shifts back to Texas.

“We were atrocious,” Bednar said.

Despite being blessed with Nathaniel MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen, the shiniest core of stars in the NHL, the Avs are again staring at the unsavory prospect of their all-too-customary early exit from the playoffs.

Now in his eighth season on the Colorado bench, coach Jared Bednar has only guided the Avs beyond the second round of the playoffs one time. While his championship ring will shine forever, is Bednar truly an elite coach or merely the babysitter for players that chronically underachieve?

The Avalanche has fattened Nichushkin’s bank account, held his hand and coddled a grown man, allowing a pro to slip in and out of the locker room like a ghost, often without so much as a peep to the media. That was no problem for me, but it did Nichushkin no favors, because it is hard to build sympathy for a human being that refuses to show even a glimpse of what’s in his heart.

After scoring a hat trick during a resounding 5-1 playoff victory against Winnipeg on April 29, Nichushkin described his emotions during a painfully brief on-ice interview, in words equal in number to the goals he scored on that spring night.

“I feel amazing,” Nichushkin said.

Was he lying? Hiding something? About to be ambushed by demons lurking in the dark corners of his mind?

We may never know. Two weeks after a hat trick that brought down the house, with adoring fans in Ball Arena cheering like crazy, Nichushkin has left the building.

Asked if he can see Nichushkin as a contributing member of the team in the future, Bednar said: “I have no idea.”

The Avs will keep Chu Chu in their prayers.

But they would be foolish to let him wear a Colorado sweater ever again.