Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog has come a long way since hoisting the Stanley Cup after the 2021-22 season. It was after that, that he knew he’d be out of commission for a little while because of a terrible knee injury, which required multiple surgeries including a cartilage transplant.
Landeskog felt another sort of pain on Wednesday, after he and his Team Sweden teammates were eliminated from the competition in Italy. However, he provided a good attitude following the loss.
Landeskog had to endure a lot of perseverance in his career. The highs. The lows. He knows how it feels to be at the very bottom emotionally, as well as being on top of the world. There is nothing like being able to celebrate a huge win with your teammates, as he and they found out in that 2021-22 season.
If there is one thing that I know, it is that to enjoy the best parts of whatever you’re doing, you have to experience some low points. I’d rather have this happen than seeing a player get bored because they win all of the time. Plus, it adds a sort of excitement to when your team ends up hoisting that Stanley Cup trophy.
In the end, the only thing that was a guarantee is that a team(s) would be going home without having a medal of whichever tier being put over their head and onto their shoulders. It’s the bitter part of sports, and the fact that three medal tiers will be awarded makes it tougher because it’s not just one team that was able to succeed—it was three.
The Colorado Avalanche resume play on February 25 when they head to Utah to take on the Mammoth. When that time comes, the Olympians will have had a couple of days to rest back in North America. However, the job is not done. They’ll have their sights set on helping their regular team get back on track as they continue to try to be the best team in the entire NHL.
Landeskog finished the tournament playing in four games and recording two goals and two assists. He had a plus-minus of +3. He had a power play goal in Sweden’s Olympic opener against Italy on February 11. Hopefully the team’s power play success increases following the break after we saw multiple Avs players and their teams show dominance on the man-advantage.