Avalanche prepare for postseason run without captain Gabriel Landeskog

With each passing game, week and month over the regular season, Bo Byram figured his captain’s knee injury must be more serious than anybody initially thought.

Nathan MacKinnon knew he’d play the rest of the year without Gabriel Landeskog a month ago.

Coach Jared Bednar said the news wasn’t final until today, when the club announced the man who wears the “C” on his chest would miss Colorado’s postseason run in addition to the entire regular season due to an injury that dates to September 2020, but allowed that conversations have been ongoing for several weeks.

The postseason is a 24-hour trip to Nashville away, and Landeskog won’t be lacing up the skates. It may not be a shocking outcome at this point, but it’s a difficult one for Colorado nonetheless.

“It sucks, he’s our leader,” Byram, the 21-year-old defenseman, said after Colorado finished off a lackadaisical yet important 4-2 win over Winnipeg on Thursday night. “A lot of guys have done a good job of stepping up in this dressing room and filling his role, but at the end of the day he’s a really good player — in my opinion one of the best in the league. He’s kind of a unicorn.

“It’s a big miss for us but there’s nothing we can do about it now.”

After a Friday night regular-season finale at Nashville — a win clinches the Central Division crown for the Avalanche — the team’s task turns to defending its Stanley Cup title.

That’ll be no easy job without Landeskog, particularly considering he put together a brilliant postseason for Colorado last year, scoring 11 goals and tallying 11 assists in 20 games and tying for the team lead at plus-15 for the postseason.

He said Thursday that he was hoping to be around his teammates as much as possible even if he isn’t yet sure how to captain a team while sporting a suit instead of a uniform.

“I don’t think I’ve quite figured that out yet,” he said. “You know, it’s one thing to be around the team and go through an injury in the regular season but playoffs is just a different type of focus and different type of preparation and all of that. So, I’ll be around as much as the guys want me. Obviously, nothing will change in terms of how I act around the guys or things like that. I just might need to get up to speed on some of their superstitions as they evolve here during the playoffs. But yeah, we’ll see, we’ll figure that out as we go.

“But I’m not planning to change and I know the guys aren’t planning to change the way they treat me, and I still take take a lot of heat in that locker room, which is the way it should be, so that’s a positive.”

That held true Thursday night. Byram laughed at the notion he could provide any words of wisdom to Landeskog, citing the fact that the Swede, “has been around a century longer than me.”

Byram, though, added that Landeskog will make an impact with “ just his presence in the locker room and seeing him every day. He’s a good friend to everyone on this team, so just having a smile on his face and seeing him around the locker room has been nice since he’s been back in Denver.

“I’m sure that’ll continue into the postseason.”

Landeskog said he’s found support in being around his teammates on a daily basis and plans to travel with the team as much as possible around his rehabilitation and potentially another surgery on his right knee. He finds solace in the dressing room, even as the playoffs approach and the intensity dials further up almost nightly.

“Obviously, a lot of players have been on this side of things where you’re on the outside of the team looking in, and the last question a lot of guys want to ask is ‘How you feel?’ and ‘How’s your knee?’” he said. “So guys avoid that, but it’s just about kind of staying connected with the group and staying connected with, whether it’s coaches or staff or players. And even though you’re not necessarily inside that locker room on a daily basis, you still feel like a part of the team, and I think that’s important moving forward as well. Those guys are amazing hockey players over there, but not only that, they’re quality people and good friends of mine, and they have most definitely helped me throughout this journey.”

Though the news only became public Thursday, Landeskog said he started to lose hope about returning even for the postseason in recent weeks as his recovery “plateaued.”

“He didn’t decide today,” MacKinnon said bluntly. “He didn’t wake up and decide he’s going to be done for the year.”

The Avalanche’s leading scorer, however, wasn’t downplaying the severity of the loss.

“It’s unfortunate. It kills us for sure,” said MacKinnon, who added that he thought the team could survive without Landeskog. “We have been all season. We haven’t had healthy lineups at all. It sucks and it will be nice to get some guys back, eventually.”

Not the captain. He’ll be relegated to the role of part assistant coach, part mentor and power-play consultant, according to forward Mikko Rantanen.

“He’s going to be out in the biggest games of the season, so try to be vocal myself and, you know, talk to the team a lot,” Rantanen said of filling the void. “That’s what we need, because Landy is one of the guys that talks a lot and obviously is a leader on and off the ice.

“We’ve got to step up.”

Landeskog will find it difficult at times to watch the postseason, but he’s got an idea of what’s coming next for the Avalanche.

“Whoever we’re lined up against,” he said, “I like our chances.”

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