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Colorado Avalanche: Gabriel Landeskog Is Going To The All-Star Game

By Adrienne Tyler

DENVER, CO - DECEMBER 19: Gabriel Landeskog #92 of the Colorado Avalanche celebrates after scoring a goal against the Montreal Canadiens at the Pepsi Center on December 19, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images)
DENVER, CO - DECEMBER 19: Gabriel Landeskog #92 of the Colorado Avalanche celebrates after scoring a goal against the Montreal Canadiens at the Pepsi Center on December 19, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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It’s official: Colorado Avalanche’s captain Gabriel Landeskog is going to the 2019 All-Star game.

The results for the All-Star “Last Man In” voting are in: Gabriel Landeskog is the final player in the Central Division. And so, the Colorado Avalanche have three players participating in this year’s All-Star game: Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen, and Nathan MacKinnon, who will also captain the Central Division team. What a time to be alive, right?

Our captain was in a popularity contest to win that last spot, and there were some tough contenders on the list: Chicago Blackhawks’ captain Jonathan Toews, Dallas Stars’ Tyler Seguin, Minnesota Wild’s Zach Parise, Nashville’s Predators Filip Forsberg, St. Louis Blues’ Vladimir Tarasenko, and Winnipeg Jets’ Patrik Laine. Justice prevailed, as you can see.

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Per the Colorado Avalanche, this is the first time that three Avalanche players will make it to the All-Star game since the 2003-2004 season, when Rob Blake, Joe Sakic, and Alex Tanguay represented the team. At the time of writing, our top line leads the league in points with 185 (Landeskog with 51, MacKinnon with 66, and Rantanen with 68). They are above Tampa’s magic trio of Nikita Kucherov (72), Brayden Point (60), and Steven Stamkos (49) with 181 points.

Although he took part in the skills competition at the All-Star game during his rookie season (2011-2012), this is the first time Landeskog takes part in the actual game. This is also Mikko Rantanen’s first All-Star appearance so excuse me if I’m a bit emotional.

Also, anyone else finding it entertaining that the captain is part of the team but Nathan MacKinnon is going to be his captain for the weekend? I expect some good media content and chirping.

Landeskog is having his best season so far, with a career-high 27 goals (at the time of writing), and currently ranks fifth in goals league-wide. And just for fun (and because I know some of you like some good-looking numbers), he has also set career highs in power-play and game-winning goals (nine and seven).

He is also an excellent captain that not only brings the best out of his team but will lose the gloves and throw punches when needed and will always look after his teammates, on the ice, off the ice, on the bench, wherever and whenever. Captain deserves this and I am proud of him.

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The Colorado Avalanche still have six more games to go before the All-Star game and bye-week, so let’s see how many points the top line brings (and if we can reclaim our spot among the top 3 in the Central Division).

The All Star festivities start on Friday, January 25 at 7 pm MT with the All-Star Skills event (NBCSN). The game itself is Saturday, January 26, at 6 pm MT (NBC).

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