10 Observations: Only One Person Could Be Happier Than Gabe Landeskog After Breaking His Drought (+)

Gabe Landeskog finally scored a goal, and he’s probably the second-happiest person waking up on Wednesday.

The captain tallied the go-ahead goal in the second period of a 4-1 victory over the surging Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday. It’s the 249th regular-season goal of his career, but the first in 1,347 days. And it was a long time coming.

Against the Utah Mammoth in October, Landeskog scored a goal that was called back following a coach’s challenge for offside. On Saturday in Edmonton, Landeskog again thought he had one before, yet again, the opposing coach opted to challenge for offside and wipe the goal off the board.

But this one counted. And it came in a big moment against a really good team in Anaheim that came to town riding a seven-game winning streak and left with a regulation loss.

The Avs are rolling right now. Everything — Valeri Nichushkin injury aside — is falling in their favor.

From the Gavin Brindley extension to Landeksog’s goal, Scott Wedgewood’s performance, and more. Here’s how it went down at Ball Arena on Tuesday.

And why Landeskog was excited to wake up on Wednesday as the second-happiest person to celebrate that goal.

READ MORE: The Aftermath: Landeskog Nets Game Winner — Avs Beat Anaheim But Lose Nichushkin

10 Observations

1. Landeskog was relieved more than anything. He wasn’t just scoring his first regular season goal since returning from a three-year absence. He was also ending the second-longest goal drought of his career.

His family has grown quite a bit since 2022. Landeskog had kids when the Avs won the Stanley Cup, but they were much younger. This goal is going to feel a lot better. He wasn’t the only one awaiting that first one.

“You’d like to go home and know that you at least got one on the scoresheet, and then just kind of move forward with it,” Landeskog said after the game. “My son will be happy tomorrow morning when he wakes up to the news. So that’ll be good. He keeps asking me. And ‘no, not yet,’ so this will feel good.”

2. Kudos to the crowd at Ball Arena for how they celebrated the Landeskog goal. It was loud. It meant something. Even Jared Bednar noticed it.

“Finally he gets one on the board that counts. It was really nice to see,” Bednar said. “I love the ovation from the crowd, they were into it as well.”

3. I noted this the other day, but I do believe Landeskog’s slump was more than just him shaking off the rust of missing three full regular seasons.

You could tell he was starting to grip the stick a little too tightly and make mistakes on simple plays that he otherwise wouldn’t. It somewhat reminded me of Casey Mittelstadt’s struggles last year. It got between the ears a little bit.

I wonder if scoring a goal is enough to shake that feeling. I don’t think Landeskog is going to score once every 17 games. He’s got more than that.

4. I thought it was funny that the two overturned goals were on great shots. But, in true Landeskog fashion, the one that finally counted was a rebound clean-up right in front of the crease.

5. Before the game began, I agreed with Bednar’s decision to roll with Wedgewood in this one. It was the obvious decision to make. There’s absolutely no reason to push Mackenzie Blackwood into a tough game against the highest scoring team in the NHL when you’re 16 games into the season and have one regulation loss.

Wedgewood has done a fine job this year and was excellent yet again. I don’t believe Wedgewood is the long-term starter, and we will eventually reach a point where Blackwood plays every other night. But again, you don’t need to rush it.

The fact that the next three games are Buffalo, the Islanders, and the Rangers, and they’re all at home, bodes well for Blackwood. Several practice days are coming up, as well as three morning skates.

6. The power play has improved from what we saw earlier in the season. But sometimes it feels like, on any given night, they either have it or they don’t. Like, they’re either scoring four on the Devils, or they’re going 0-for-7 in Edmonton.

They’ve now followed that up with two big games. Colorado was 2-for-3 in Vancouver on the man advantage and 1-for-4 against Anaheim. Those are good numbers after the weird zero in a nine-goal game in Edmonton. 

7. Let’s hope the Nichushkin injury is nothing serious. I don’t recall a play that looked wrong in any way. I just remember sometime in the third period realizing that the bench looked like it was short a man and noticing it was Nichushkin who was missing.

8. If he misses at least a game, I’m curious about whether the Avalanche elevate Landeskog to the second line or give Brindley a look in that spot. It’s not ideal to lose Nichushkin if he misses time. But it opens an opportunity for someone else.

9. The fourth line looked incredible yet again. Even in limited ice time, Zakhar Bardakov has looked much better than he did a month ago, and Bednar is taking notice.

Following the morning skate, Parker Kelly commented on how he believes playing with anyone for any period of time will eventually lead to good chemistry. I’m not sure I buy that theory, but it sounds like he takes it to heart and, more importantly, he practices what he preaches.

Kelly has excellent chemistry with Logan O’Connor and Jack Drury, and I’m sure we’ll see that line reunited at some point. However, before Drury was acquired last season, Kelly formed a strong connection with Joel Kiviranta at both five-on-five and on the penalty kill.

Now? He’s taken rookies Bardakov and Brindley under his wing, and both guys are feeding off of him. Brindley isn’t going to be a fourth liner his whole career, but you can’t undermine the value Kelly has had in helping the 21-year-old get acclimated to the NHL on a Stanley Cup-contending team.

The Avs have a gem in Kelly.

10. As of Wednesday morning, MacKinnon leads the NHL in goals (14), assists (18), and points (32). The only one he’s not leading outright is assists, in which Evgeni Malkin is tied with him.

Cale Makar has a stranglehold on all three categories among defensemen. His 23 points are seven more than the next guy, which is a bigger discrepancy than the six-point difference between MacKinnon and second-place Leo Carlsson.

Oh, and Wedgewood has a league-leading 10 wins, two more than second place.