A ton of eyes are on Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog as he is nearing a potential return onto game day ice. Landeskog can put a smile on his face on Wednesday for multiple reasons.
For one, if you haven’t heard, Landeskog was assigned to the Colorado Eagles in the AHL for a short conditioning period. He’s expected to play in a couple of games during his time down in Loveland as he continues to improve on his game shape and getting his knee back to 100 percent.
Secondly, Landeskog was nominated for the Bill Masterton Trophy on Wednesday. The Bill Masterton Trophy is given to a player who best sportsmanship, perseverance, and dedication to the game of hockey. Landeskog has had a lot on his plate over the last three years, rehabbing his surgically repaired knee from several procedures.
Landeskog has been trying to get onto the ice for a while now. While there was some hope earlier in the season this year, even if he was truly able to go, it was going to be tough salary cap-wise.
Not only is the journey Landeskog has been on tough physically, a lot of the toughness comes through mentally. In a recently-released clip from the Avalanche’s home opener, Landeskog was introduced to Ball Arena as the team’s captain, while the rest of the team was also announced during the pregame stuff. In that video, he was seen going somewhere where nobody was at and was visibly upset due to the fact that he couldn’t play. Not being able to play alongside and for your teammates really can take a toll on a dedicated competitor. It clearly has, and while it was sad to see the emotions, it’s hard not to feel bad for him.
I would be pretty surprised if Landeskog doesn’t end up winning this award given everything he has had to go through since even before the Stanley Cup win. He played through an injury which, at the time, the severity wasn’t known.
You can take a look at why every player who has won the award was given it on its Wikipedia page.
The type of injury Landeskog had would have ended the careers of most players. Landeskog has been determined to come back from this awful situation to help his teammates win games. While I previously suggested he could take on a role like Andrew Cogliano did with the Avalanche, that won’t be happening in the near future. It could happen years down the road, but right now, his focus is strictly on making his on-ice return.
The Colorado Eagles’ next game is on Friday, April 11th. It will be interesting to see 1.) How many minutes he’s going to play and 2.) If he’s going to play on back-to-back days for the Eagles. Given that the conditioning stint is only for a short period of time, it wouldn’t surprise me if he suits up for all of the games he is eligible to play in. Gear up, Avs fans. We should be seeing something special happening soon.