Keeler: Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog’s return gives Colorado Stanley Cup vibes again

Dallas Tranquility Base here The Eagles have Landy Even if Gabe Landeskog never skates a shift at the American Airlines Center Lone Star faithful oughta be quaking in their chaps The Stars got Mikko The Avs got Miracles I mean sure our old pal Mikko Rantanen got million out of Dallas You can t put a price on mojo Just hand Landeskog the ESPY now No NHL performer has ever skated again after the kind of cartilage repair the Captain had done No NHL performer had even seen a second act Until now And wouldn t you know it In Landeskog s conditioning debut with the AHL s Colorado Eagles on Friday the man wasted no time getting in everybody s hair Eleven minutes into his first competitive challenge in days Landy got sent to the box for hooking Blue Arena was tickled pink of curriculum So he waved Twice He put a kid in a headlock He popped another dude into the boards He camped out in front of the crease just like old times He fired from the slot Fifteen shifts of ice time Two penalty minutes tickets You can t put a price on good vibes Gabe s the cherry on top of this crazy sundae Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland s been building for months In January MacFarland craved to shake up his roster In Nuggetsland that means sitting on your hands and fighting with your coach Not Mac First he shocked us all by shipping Rantanen to Carolina In isolation it felt like insanity In hindsight it was the beginning of a genius makeover The Avs at Christmas offered two lines of stars and two of scrubs the perfect formula for getting bounced early from the postseason MacFarland didn t just solve the franchise s eternal C predicament He went out and grabbed a C He forged five lines of depth Then for good measure he went for the feels by bringing defenseman Erik Johnson a fan favorite back home Now imagine a locker room with EJ holding court in one corner and Gabe doing the same at the other To paraphrase Yogi Berra of winning a Stanley Cup is half mental It s the ultimate spring grind A nine-week battle of wills For two straight Aprils since Landy s been out of action really the Avs have looked soft in crunch time Soft in the head Soft in the spine Soft when it counts You think anybody in that locker room is going to want to dog a shift and have to look Landeskog in the eye Or disappoint Johnson who just turned Colorado will go this postseason as Valeri Nichushkin goes same as it ever was Better believe No and No know how pivotal No is to this franchise s quest to lift Cup No You think Val wants to let Gabe down now You keep putting the work in and day-by-day you keep doing it and keep believing Landeskog advised reporters late Friday night after his AHL return The days become weeks and the weeks become months and conclusively years have gone by and now you re playing again I never thought this was ever going to get to this point and get this big and get this much attention and that was never my intention I m just trying to fight my way back and here we are So yeah it was a fun night Darn straight Looked good didn t he At least from what you could make out via your laptop or smartphone Even if it s on a third or a fourth line seeing Landeskog in burgundy and blue gives you goose bumps all over again MacFarland s getting the band back together kids I ve dependably tried to kind of stay present live in the moment Landeskog reflected I m still going to do that I don t want to look too far ahead but I do know that I feel good Friday Hopefully I feel good Saturday and we can keep working and I can keep practicing And we ll see where it takes us It s miles to Loveland we ve got a full tank of gas and Gabe is throwing dudes around Hit it It was fun Landeskog stated The headlock wasn t necessarily planned Friday morning But it s part of the tournament The Eagles have Landy This flight s starting to smell like another round-trip ticket to Lord Stanley In fact you might even say it s in the Stars