Gabriel Landeskog details his return from injury & Avs’ success

Gabriel Landeskog details his return from injury & Avs’ success | ESPN NHL

Colorado Avalanche are taking on the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. I’m at my old teammate and ABS captain Gabe Landiskog’s house. Let’s go have a quick chat. [Music] Wonder if he’ll let me in. Hey man, come on in. What’s going on? How are you? Hey, Ly. Remember me? Give me a hug. Come here. You remember Milo too? I do. How are you, buddy? Okay, come on in. Should we go downstairs? Good to see you, man. Thanks. Good to see you. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. This is my my first feature interview, so Yeah. I take take it easy on me. Yeah, I will. Luki, I’m going to make it easy on you. Show me the uh show me the trophy room. Show me where we going. Where should we put EJ? Hey, Ly. Ly, where should we put EJ? Daddy and EJ, where should we put EJ? right here. The Colorado Avalanche are Stanley Cup champions and they will lift Lord Stanley a mile high. Your first game when you got hurt right when we won the cup in 22. Yeah. And then your return. I could have never imagined that it was going to take close to 3 years to come back. Like if you would have told me in 22, hey, you’re not going to play against us until 2025, you’d have said, we’re crazy. Right. Yeah. I would have said, I I can’t do that. And to for somebody to say, you’re going to rehab hard, you’re going to get knocked back down and have setbacks and then get back up. I I would have said, I’m not I don’t think I can do that. So, I think I learned during the process like how much the the drive and the passion and just the overall will of the human mind is capable of, you know what I mean? And not to toot my own horn, but it’s like it took a lot for me to just keep getting back up after getting knocked down and set back after setback. But I mean, today it’s a an experience that I I’m going to lean on for the rest of my life really. You know what I mean? Like just that adversity and be able to handle it and uh you know, been able to raise uh two amazing young kids as well, now three. So, I know like what a great dad you are and husband and all that, but how much did you want to do it for like Luke and Lana and Melissa and now Ella so they could see you play again? Like that picture of them on the glass when your first first came back in warm-ups like and I mean I was in warmup and I got emotional and teared up seeing them on the glass like how how did you must have felt like I got to do this for them too, right? They want to see their dad play. Yeah. And it was funny because during the whole like obviously you see all the hockey stuff around here and there’s pictures and you know when you go all the way to win the Stanley Cup, we kept reminiscing looking back at the celebration and as the kids continue to get older once in a while they you know we put on the the cup celebration and and kind of the last period of the game six and and it was like to Luke like I was bluffing the whole time. He’s like but is that you? Like do you play hockey? And like so it became a little bit like a little bit like I got to prove it to them that this is still what dad does. Back door land. He scores. You’re humble and I know you’re not going to give me anything in regards to this. But you guys are the best team in the NHL. And I don’t think there’s any doubt why because you’re back, right? And like when we didn’t have you, it was like such a huge hole in the room. And you have to manage a personality from Nate, you know, who’s so intense. And then Kale, who’s like a science kid, you know, like kind of dorky and like Nate’s so intense. You have to manage all these personalities and put them together. And you’re kind of the straw that stirs the drink. I said it before, you’re the most important person in that whole team. So is that just who you are? like how how do you manage all that? I I don’t know. I wish I had the answer for you. I don’t I mean, you know, I’m not going to take any of that credit. I think it’s just a matter of really just like the pieces kind of falling into place. And I think yes, you have to have the balance, right, of balancing the personalities and balancing the game on the ice and and making sure the guys are are in a good spot, but when you’re winning, that solves all the problems, right? We’re just a very hungry group. Yeah, we’re we’re a good team and and we’ve been playing like it. Well, this picture has a lot of importance to me, right? You gave me the Stanley Cup first and we won in 2022. And I I want to ask and you might not divulge this to everybody, but have you thought about who you’re going to give it to first this year if you guys are lucky enough to do it again? Brent Burns has to be up there, right? Yeah. Yeah. Burns would probably be the number one guy down the road, right? But yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but I think I mean, listen, we you and I talked about it years before it actually happened. Like, it’s something about manifesting things and and uh believing in them and making them kind of come true. So, I’m not going to hide the fact that Bernzie would be would probably be the first guy on the list, but you know, we got a lot of work to do as you know. Well, thanks for doing this, man. I appreciate it. Of course. Yeah. Thanks for coming. Good luck tonight and I’ll see you at the rink. Appreciate it. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music]

Gabriel Landeskog gives his former Avalanche teammate Erik Johnson a tour of his home in Colorado as they reflect on winning the Stanley Cup, returning from injury and the team’s success this season.