Colorado Avalanche: Managing the Loss of Captain Gabriel Landeskog

Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landesko has gone down indefinitely with a lower body injury. The team will have to accommodate the loss.

The Colorado Avalanche have fallen out of favor with the hockey gods. How else to explain the loss of star winger Mikko Rantanen to a freak skating accident followed quickly by the loss of captain Gabriel Landeskog to… no one knows what.

Today before practice, the team announced that Landeskog was out “indefinitely” with a lower body injury:

What? When? How? Landeskog played the entire game on Saturday against the Anaheim Ducks. He also practiced with the team on Sunday:

There were no reports after Sunday’s practice that anything was amiss. Rather, the reports of his injury come after a day off — and the team’s Halloween party. I’m not going to speculate in that direction except to point out that it’s been snowing since Sunday. I can personally attest to the fact that sidewalks are treacherous.

That’s not the case, though. Turns out, Landeskog was playing hurt the last couple games. He’s going to miss “significant time.” I don’t want to speculate, but… could be surgery.

And, to add insult in the form of more injury to injury, Colin Wilson tweaked something in practice. He left, and Ryan Graves donned a forward sweater to take his place. Wilson will not play on Wednesday. I assume Colorado will make a call up rather than leave Graves on a forward line.

Well, however the injury to Landeskog happened, we know that we have to move forward for now without our two top wingers. Who gets the promotion — or, really, promotions?

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JT Compher skated on the top line for two periods in the game against Anaheim. However, Jared Bednar moved him back to the third line when the Avs couldn’t score. Valeri Nuchushkin spent about two shifts skating with Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog before Bednar just broke that line up altogether.

Our fourth-best forward is Nazem Kadri. He’s our second-line center, and I don’t think he’s really played wing too much. Would Bednar risk trying it out, though?

Kadri is flanked by our next two best wings, Andre Burakovsky and Joonas Donskoi. Both have skated on the top line briefly. However, Bednar was hesitant to break up that second line because they’ve been so consistent.

So, do you look to the third line? I like Tyson Jost at center, but he can play wing. It’s not his best position, but he can. JT Compher had his shot at the top line — might he get another?

Meanwhile, this happened at practice:

What a weird time for Bednar and I to be on the same page.

Here’s how the power play went in practice:

As Nathan MacKinnon remarked in his post-practice presser, the team got worse when it lost two of its best players. However, he expects everyone to “play our best like always” to “weather the storm a few weeks” until one or both come back.

Good news on one front, at least, thanks to our affable Jost who can’t keep a secret. He published a picture on his Instagram from the team’s party, and Mikko Rantanen just happened to be a costume mate:

Look at Rantanen’s left leg. It appears to be fully functional. We may at least be getting our star winger back sooner rather than later. What’s more, he did skate today. He won’t be available Wednesday, but… hopefully soon.

The Colorado Avalanche had some bad luck come their way. Time for some good luck to come back.