Avalanche Gameday: Landeskog Skates With The Boys, Preparing For Hostile Environment

We knew Gabriel Landeskog was going to be traveling with the Colorado Avalanche for games three and four, but it was a bit of a surprise when he hit the ice with the team at morning skate ahead of Saturday night’s game.

Don’t get too excited, though. There’s no change to his status. He mostly spent the skate as an extra coach, dishing the puck to his teammates during drills.

Still, his presence is a little boost for the squad.

“He’s obviously the leader of this team and brings a good attitude,” Evan Rodrigues said of Landeskog. “He’s always upbeat and just having him around the locker room is big for us.”

Landeskog was not the only new player out at morning skate. Andrew Cogliano, who missed both games one and two, did join the team for the skate and was the first player on the ice, as he usually is. He was not available to the media after he got off the ice, and when Bednar was asked about his status for the night, we got the standard playoff answer.

“We’ll see.”

Val Nichushkin did not take morning skate, but it’s just a maintenance morning for him. He’s taken a lot of those this season. Jack Johnson was the only player on the team not present at morning skate. Lars Eller skated after leaving game two a little early, and said he thinks he’ll be okay to play in game three.

The Avalanche are preparing for a very hostile environment on Saturday night. It will be the first home game in Seattle Kraken history, and the fans will be excited. Colorado finished the regular season with more road wins than any other Western Conference team, and knows they need to come out better than they have the previous two games.

“Should be a good one,” Mikko Rantanen said after morning skate. “They should be fired up. We’ve got to be ready to start the game. We haven’t been ready to start the game two games now, so we got to find a way right away.”

Rantanen is someone who doesn’t mind the hostile environment of a road playoff game.

“I don’t mind it when they’re kind of giving it to you and they’re against you,” he said. “I kind of, maybe, feed off of it, but try to keep it out, whatever their fans are yelling or their team is yelling. We just try to focus on our game and not worry about the extra stuff.”

Game three starts at 8 PM MST. Alexandar Georgiev will be in net again for the Avalanche, but with the status of Cogliano in the air, we won’t know what the official lineup is until it gets closer to game-time. Stay tuned to CHN for any updates.