Avalanche Power Play Turns Corner As Landeskog’s Message Holds True

DENVER — If there’s anyone who understands patience, it’s Gabriel Landeskog. Back on November 26, The Hockey News pressed the captain on the struggling power play of the Colorado Avalanche—a unit that, at the time, was underperforming despite the team’s dominant start. Colorado owned a 16-1-5 record but found itself stuck in the middle of the league pack on the man advantage, tied for 15th alongside the Montreal Canadiens, St.

Louis Blues, and New Jersey Devils. Even then, Landeskog wasn’t concerned. “The power play is one of the things we continue to work on,” Landeskog stated.

“We’re understanding where we’re at; we’re understand that if our power play can start chipping in goals on a nightly basis, obviously that makes a big difference. But despite the inconsistency—and the growing outside criticism—Landeskog never wavered in his belief that the unit would eventually find its rhythm. “It’s early on in the season; we’re working on a few things and trying a couple different looks.

It’s one of the things when it’s not working, it’s easy to start overthinking it, start pointing fingers, try to re-invent the wheel, but at the end of the day, sometimes you just got to stick with it. “Sometimes there are tweaks to be made we make them no problem, but I think the power play is kind of the same as the rest of our game as we continue to work on it; we’re going to find ways (to succeed), and I’m not worried about it. ” Frustration to Fuel As the season progressed, however, the struggles only intensified.