Hope For Landeskog? Lonzo Ball Back Scrimmaging

Since the season-ending press conference involving Gabriel Landeskog and Chris MacFarland in May, we haven’t really gotten an update on the Avalanche captain. Maybe that’s for the best, as no one really needs daily, weekly, or even monthly updates at this point. Just let him rehab in peace and we’ll learn more in a month.

However, while this news doesn’t involve Landeskog himself, it may give everyone some hope that everything will turn out okay for the 31 year old Swede.

Lonzo Ball, the NBA star who had the same cartilage transplant surgery that the Colorado forward had, is back scrimmaging according to the Chicago Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley. And the news seems to be only positive.

“The Bulls confirmed that Ball has started playing in full-contact five-on-five scrimmages – as he was scheduled to do once the calendar flipped to August – and according to one source, has done so with no setbacks,” Cowley wrote on Wednesday afternoon.

Ball had his cartilage transplant surgery in March of 2023, while Landeskog’s was performed in May of 2023. The last time the Avalanche played a game with their captain in the lineup was on June 26, 2022

Hockey and basketball strain the knee in different ways, but this has to at least be encouraging news for anyone following the Avalanche. We won’t know for a while if Ball will be able to play in an NBA game again, but no setbacks is great news. The last time we spoke to Landeskog, he noted that he had also not dealt with any setbacks for a while.

“I’ve felt really good now for two straight months, physically with no setbacks, minor or major,” Landeskog said when I asked him about important benchmarks in his recovery. “That’s a real positive. Without sharing too much, it’s a bumpy road and I knew that coming into it, but I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be, especially when you do hit those bumps. There’s no point in me setting a timeline or setting even a benchmark for whatever. You’re just setting yourself up to be disappointed and pissed off if it doesn’t happen. There is a program and there are steps that need to be met, but they’re fluid. If things go well, then we’ll follow this plan and if they don’t, then we’ll tweak it and adjust as we go.”

Landeskog made those comments back in late May. Will it only be positive news when the Avalanche report for training camp next month? We’ll have to wait and see, but the Lonzo Ball news has to at least give everyone a bit of hope that a return can happen.