Elliotte Friedman Talks Avalanche of Injuries on 32 Thoughts

On Saturday night, Elliotte Friedman talked on Sportsnet about the Captain of the Colorado Avalanche, Gabriel Landeskog.

On Monday morning, he went into more detail on what he’s heard regarding the other players. You can listen to the podcast here.

On Cale Makar, it sounded like good news.

“It doesn’t sound like there’s a ton of news around Makar,” Friedman said. “That sounds preventative.”

That was my belief as well. Makar didn’t skate on Friday of last week, but played in the big Saturday night game against the Dallas Stars. Then he missed practice on Monday and sat out the entire road trip. I’d be surprised if he didn’t play again in the regular season, but the Avalanche may just be careful there.

Friedman then went into more detail on Gabriel Landeskog’s injury, and what he’s hearing, specifically around the playoffs.

“I was very careful how I talked about him in the playoffs,” Friedman said. “Someone said to me you used the phrase ‘when,’ so you’re convinced he’s going to play. My response to that was, it’s more like ‘I don’t want to use if’ because, I thought ‘when’ was a better choice for words than ‘if’ because nobody has shut him down, and if you say ‘if,’ you’ve been told there’s a chance he doesn’t play. And I have not been told that. I know people have speculated that. You know, I have had people say to me, they believe this year, that Landeskog will not play. But one thing we’ve learned is don’t underestimate hockey players and their will to do things. And number two is, what might be true the other day, may not be true today. I don’t like to guess like that.”

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had heard the Avalanche were not expecting Landeskog to be ready for the start of the playoffs. I still have not heard otherwise, and we’re only a week away. He’s not taken a full practice with the team, and is still donning the non-contact jersey. The Avalanche are still hopeful he can come back at some point.

The Avalanche will be back at it on Tuesday night, and we’ll see if any injured players join the team for morning skate.