How will Gabriel Landeskog’s absence impact Colorado’s Cup chances?

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, Matt Larkin and Steven Ellis discussed the potential ramifications of the Colorado Avalanche going without captain Gabriel Landeskog for the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Landeskog, 30, has missed the entire 2022–23 regular season with a knee injury and the club confirmed on Thursday that he will not return in the postseason. The Stockholm product played a huge role in the Avalanche winning the Stanley Cup in 2022.

Here’s what Matt and Steven had to say about the Landeskog news and Colorado’s Cup chances:

Matt Larkin: The Colorado Avalanche have announced that their captain, Gabriel Landeskog, will miss the entire playoffs. He’s already been out the entire year, so it’s going to be a lost season for Gabriel Landeskog, Stanley Cup champion. So, I’m curious for your thoughts. They’ve gone through the entire season without him anyway, they’ve been fine, but do you think this is a death knell for Colorado’s push to repeat as Stanley Cup champions?

Steven Ellis: Like you said, they haven’t had him all year long, so it’s not like it’s anything any different, but I think when you compare this team to last year’s team, the high-end offense is definitely missing. Again, not having Landeskog, not having Kadri, guys like that, is a big difference. But one of the things for Colorado last year that made them so good was their depth, and you were looking at guys like J.T. Compher playing good games. Andrew Cogliano was a big addition when he came back from injury.

I think the depth here, when they went out and got Lars Eller and Denis Malgin, I think that’s something where they still kind of kept true to that. They still wanted to make sure that bottom six was tough to play against, they were speedy, they were strong. And then you look at that defense, where, as long as Cale Makar can stay healthy — which isn’t always a guarantee at this point — I think the Avalanche still have a very good defense. For me, obviously, the big question still is in net, in Georgiev, but he’s shown that he can steal games, he can rise to the occasion here.

So, I don’t think the Avalanche are going to win the Cup. I don’t think there as strong of a team as last year and not having Landeskog doesn’t help, but I still think they had to have planned for this all year long, considering he hasn’t played — so, I don’t think anything truly changes there.

Watch the full episode here: