Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog out “indefinitely” *Updated

*UPDATE BELOW: A not-so-fun text from the Avalanche to my phone not long ago: Gabe Landeskog will be out “indefinitely with a lower-body injury.” What, no “have a nice day” Avs?

Well then. Some jarring, very bad news suddenly for this Tuesday morning. We’re still trying to gather more facts on this, but that is the news. How long is indefinite? Well, by definition of the word, we can’t know. We’ll see what Jared Bednar says. Maybe he’ll say something like he did with Mikko Rantanen’s own injury status, which he said would be “significantly less” than 4-6 weeks – or that he was hopeful of that anyway.

Obviously, we also don’t know the specific nature of the injury. Lower body. If I’m thinking out loud, I’m worried that this might be some kind of torn groin or torn hip muscle. Those are often harder to diagnose and harder to give a firm timetable on. But it could be anything. Just thinking out loud here.

Wow, suddenly the Avs have two-thirds of their top line out. I still think Bednar won’t want to break up that second line of his. But we’ll see.

About Landeskog: He hadn’t been playing well of late, and maybe now we know more as to the reason why. He did seem slower. He’d only had one point in the previous six games. He got hit pretty good a couple of times in the Anaheim game (and was whistled for a couple retaliation penalties in the process).

It didn’t seem that there was anything too noticeable about anything physically hindering him, but Landy is a guy who usually will never let you know if anything hurts.

Obviously, the medical team found something that hurts enough to keep him out now.

Indefinitely.

*UPDATED: OK, first a confession. I didn’t make it to any of the Avs’ practice or availability on time? Why? Because I got caught in a hellacious traffic jam, in the snow. Some accident completely backed me up for about an hour. I’m writing from a McDonald’s. So, I’m going on other social media reports here.

First off, here are the new lines:

#GoAvsGo forward lines at practice sans Landeskog and Rantanen:

Kadri-MacKinnon-Donskoi
Burakovsky-Jost-Compher
Kamenev-Wilson-Nichushkin
Nieto-Bellemare-Calvert

— Conor McGahey (@ConorMcGahey) October 29, 2019

Kadri on the wing? Interesting. Not sure I love that move, but Bednar needs three quality guys up top I guess. Tyson Jost is back to being a second-line guy. He needs to step up.

Colin Wilson apparently hurt himself at practice too. Not going to play in the next couple games, so you can scratch him from those lines. Might see a call-up from the Eagles now. Bowers? Megna? Tynan?

I don’t see how the Avs will call up either a Shane Bowers or a Martin Kaut at this point. Even though they are both former first-round picks, either has yet to get a point so far in seven games apiece with the Eagles. Meanwhile, T.J. Tynan and Jayson Megna have a combined 12 points in 14 games. Usually, Jared Bednar likes to really reward the best players at the moment with the Eagles, and not just go “Well, I gotta call up a Kaut, because the organization drafted him 16th overall one year.” His mind doesn’t work like that, but we’ll see.

From Marc Moser:

Mikko skated today still not available, Landeskog hurt over last 2 gms will miss significant time, Wilson injured today, will not play tomorrow and who knows when. #Avalanche pic.twitter.com/IavMFH6tCF

— Marc Moser TV (@RadioMoser) October 29, 2019

“Significant time.” We’re talking into the months now, folks. Damn, what a loss. Played hurt with it the last two games. I can’t say I noticed anything horrible, but obviously he was in pain.

Sorry I wasn’t there. Should have left earlier than I did, but I still left pretty early. Earlier than usual anyway.

Well, at least Mikko skated.