No more stashing No. 92 away for a rainy day. Storm clouds are forming near Chopper Circle.
“Gabe wanted to get in a groove and take warm-up and get in the room and be part of it,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said of captain Gabriel Landeskog’s activation and subsequent scratch before Monday’s overtime loss at Dallas. “So, that’s why he did that.”
No more grooves.
No more dry runs.
No more mind games.
The Avs need to win Game 3.
Bednar needs to throw everything he’s got at the Stars on Wednesday night. And everyone.
It’s time to drop the emotional hammer.
It’s time for Ball Arena to go completely mental.
It’s time for Captain Comeback.
Ordinarily, you’d take a 1-1 split on the road to start a seven-game series 75% of the time. But the Avs gagged away a 4-3 defeat in Texas against a Dallas roster that was without its leading goal-scorer (Jason Robertson) and its best defenseman (Miro Heiskanen).
Worse yet, some old, awful ghosts of Lord Stanleys Past began rattling their chains and howling at the moon.
Stars coach Pete DeBoer, who’s cut short three of Colorado’s last six postseason appearances with a rusty chainsaw, vexed Bednar on the strategic front again. The former tweaked his lines late in Game 2, snatched momentum back midway through the third period, and spoiled the best postseason performance yet by Avs plugger Logan O’Connor (one goal, one assist, plus-2).
Monday was gravy. Wednesday could be the ballgame.
In their collective Stanley Cup history, the Avs and Stars have met a half-dozen times in the postseason since 1996. The team that’s held a 2-1 series lead went on to win the kit and caboodle four times out of six.
DeBoer before this month had faced Bednar in the postseason three times since 2019, with three different franchises (Sharks in ’19; Golden Knights in ’21; Stars in ’24). He’s 3-0 against the Avs coach over those three Game 3s and used those victories to springboard his clubs to three consecutive series wins.
“Every time you lose a game that you played pretty good, you lose an opportunity to take control of a series,” Bednar told reporters. “But they are going to have something to say about it, too. So, we controlled part of that game, and they controlled part of it, and a lot of it was played pretty even. That’s life when you are playing a team like the Dallas Stars. So, we have to be better than we were in the third and capitalize on some of our chances, and we have to prevent a few more chances than we did (Monday) as well.”
The Avs need every tool in the box now. Every wrinkle. Every edge.
They’ve got fuses up and down the lineup. They just need someone to strike a match and light the way.
Landy at 70% is still better than 100% of Miles Wood, at least on this stage.
As to where to slot No. 92, that’s easy. Bednar’s second line was a no-show during Game 2, which is another red flag, but let’s keep this simple. The fourth line is playing with its collective hair on fire, given that O’Connor’s already tied with Nathan MacKinnon for the team lead in points (four) so far this series.
That leaves the third line, and a fairly easy switch: Landy in on the wing, Wood out.
It’s not entirely fair to scapegoat the latter here, but the playoffs are no time for kid gloves. Or sentiment.
Wood had a solid playoff run last season. He was all over the map Monday.
The veteran winger’s not the major reason why the Avs slipped up. He just didn’t make much of a case to stick after drawing a penalty early. Wood finished with a minus-3 on the night and then finished off the Avs in OT. His collision with Eric Johnson created a loose puck near Mackenzie Blackwood’s crease that Colin Blackwell pounced on for the game-winner.
“The last play,” Wood told reporters, “was my fault.”
The Stars don’t fear the altitude. They don’t fear the best fans in hockey. They don’t fear MacKinnon’s speed or Cale Makar’s skill.
But, by golly, they’d fear an elbow to the kidney. They’d fear consequences. They’d fear retribution the next time Mason Marchment flops onto the ice like a dead fish.
They’d fear Gabe.
“It wasn’t necessarily (us) changing anything,” Blackwell explained. “It was just putting pucks behind (Colorado’s) defense … and making them go 200 feet, and forechecking and playing a little bit grindier and greasy.”
Translation: More rough stuff. More physicality. More bull junk.
Colorado had a knee on Jamie Benn’s thorax and let him off the hook. I know somebody who won’t put up with any of that nonsense. With Landeskog, the puck stops here.
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