LOVELAND, Colo. — Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog is one step closer to making his NHL return.
The 32-year-old forward made his American Hockey League debut with the Colorado Eagles in a 2-0 win against the Henderson Silver Knights at Blue Arena on Friday.
“Physically, I feel great. Obviously, it’s the first game in a long time, so I got plenty of things to work on and get better at, but it was a lot of fun,” Landeskog said. “Obviously, some nerves going into it, and I said out there in the interview on the ice that [during] on ice warm up I was trying to figure out ‘What did I used to do again? What was my routine?’ But I was just trying to enjoy it too, right?”
The game served as a major milestone for Landeskog, who hasn’t played since June 26, 2022, a 2-1 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final. Landeskog had an assist in that game to help the Avalanche win their third championship in franchise history.
That was 1,021 days ago.
“It was awesome. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and envisioning this and envisioning being in a competitive hockey game again, and obviously, there were times where I didn’t know if that was ever going to happen,” he said. “I was trying to do some visualizing before tonight and just calm myself down. I knew it wasn’t going to be a problem to get energized for this one and get up for it.
“So if anything, I just had to kind of calm my nerves a little bit and do kind of my breathing routine and whatnot, just to settle myself down. But I just went out there and tried to enjoy every second of it, and I did.”
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