Avalanche demolish Stars to even series, Gabriel Landeskog scores: Takeaways

New York Times

27-04-2025

DENVER — When is the Hollywood movie called 'Landy's Return'' coming out?
Gabriel Landeskog brought the house down Saturday night with his first goal since his return — after a three-year absence — from a career-threatening injury, and the Colorado Avalanche cruised to a 4-0 win over the Dallas Stars to even this spectacular first-round playoff series at two wins apiece.
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A series hyped as worthy of a conference final is giving us exactly that.
Already up 2-0 and tilting the ice big time on the Stars — only Jake Oettinger kept the game close for 30-plus minutes — Brock Nelson carried the puck into the offensive zone and dropped it into the high slot for an oncoming Landeskog, who blistered a snap shot past the Dallas netminder at 13:10 of the middle period.
What ensued was pure bedlam at Ball Arena, the crowd going ballistic as their captain scored his first goal since June 20, 2022, in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final versus Tampa Bay.
He scored on his first shot of the series in his second game back.
What a moment here Saturday night. The reaction from his teammates on the ice to celebrate the goal and a big hug from Nathan MacKinnon on the celebration drive-by at the bench were all precious moments. You can't make this stuff up.
LANDY 🗣️#GoAvsGo | #BuiltDifferent pic.twitter.com/RzySqWtO5p
— x – Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) April 27, 2025
The Avs as an organization had no idea what kind of player Landeskog could be after missing three years. The early returns have been incredible.
MacKinnon, Logan O'Connor and Samuel Girard also scored — with Landeskog earning an assist on Girard's third-period goal — as the Avs easily played their best game of the series. They needed to in order to avoid falling into a 3-1 series hole with Game 5 set for Monday night in Dallas.
Mackenzie Blackwood earned a shutout, while in the Dallas net Casey DeSmith replaced Oettinger to start the third period, which was not about the goalie's performance but rather meant to give him a rest before Monday night. It also sent a message to the rest of the Stars that their second period performance was not very good.
Back and forth this series goes. Take a breath everyone, the Avs and Stars have more drama for us over the coming week.
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Logan O'Connor opened the scoring 12:39 into the game on a short-handed goal. His pressure at the point on Thomas Harley led to the Stars defender falling at the Avs' blue line, and the speedy O'Connor flew away on a breakaway and buried it top corner, stick side.
MacKinnon made it 2-0 with a one-time blast on the power play with just 24 seconds to go in the opening period. Head coach Jared Bednar talked between games about needing better execution from his power play. He got it on that power play. The late-period goal stung Dallas.
Landeskog needed one NHL game after three years away to gain further trust from the coaching staff, elevated for Game 4 Saturday night to the second line with Brock Nelson and Valeri Nichushkin. He was also elevated from PP2 to the PP1 unit.
'Well, it's remarkable, really,'' Avs head coach Jared Bedar said Friday of elevating Landeskog 's role. 'When you think about the time he's been away, and then you see the way he played the other night, I thought he was incredible under those circumstances.
'I mean, he just has a skill set that we hope to utilize in a bunch of different ways in this series and that's a credit to him, the work that he's put in and just like the poise he had with the puck, like in the last few practices, in the game, I thought it was really impressive.''
What did Landeskog think when the coaching staff apprised him of his elevated role for Game 4?
'I didn't really have any plans or expectations other than going out and trying to play hard,'' Landeskog told The Athletic after the morning skate Saturday. 'I think we have so many good players that you can really slot anybody anywhere. I think that's a luxury of ours.
'Having said that, we have to go out and play our best. You can look good on paper but you have to go out and play and execute and perform.''
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For a second day in a row, Landeskog answered the most obvious question: How's he feeling? It's a question Landeskog hopes he won't get every single day. But he understands why, after a three-year return, the media would be inquisitive on that front.
'I understand it, and I think what it is for me, it's been my reality in my life for three years plus,'' Landeskog said Saturday. 'So I get it. It's unique. But it's helpful for me to play, I'm not going to go out there and think about, 'Oh, I missed three years of hockey.' I'm more of a no excuse, no ifs, ands and buts about it, just go out and play. I have a job to do out there.
'But physically, I do feel good. So that's a continued positive for sure.''
Landeskog played 14:37 on Saturday night. His goal, and once again his overall performance, suggests we can stop asking him how he's feeling for a while.
Cale Makar put on a clinic Saturday night, an absolute terror on every shift. It began with an electric rush in the first period where he turned Thomas Harley inside out and hit the post on his shot. And it kept going from there, Makar dancing around the Stars zone all night and finding lanes for shots and passes to his teammates.
It comes a day after head coach Jared Bednar saying this about the world's No. 1 defenseman:
'I think he's probably struggling a little bit in the series on the offensive side of it. We had some guys that beat up the puck pretty good the other night. It's part of the reason why I think our power play wasn't as good as what it could have been. Listen, I trust in Cale. He's had a bad game here or there before, and bounced back. He was still competitive, defended hard. …
'But I think if you ask him or you just get used to watching, it's going to be harder in playoffs to create quality chances. But he'll get better as we go here too.''
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Um, yeah. Like right away in Game 4 Saturday night.
The Avs were by far the superior team Saturday night but overall it continues to be a tight-checking series.
Neither team cheats for offense, every inch of ice is hard-earned.
That's what you get when you have two of the very top Cup contenders in an opening-round series that should actually be played in the conference final.
'You got two teams that are really detailed, I think we have a really intricate understanding of each other's games because of the history of the two teams,'' Stars head coach Peter DeBoer said Saturday morning. 'There's not a lot of room out there. The one are we talked about that we have to clean up is our penalties. I think we've taken way too many penalties against a really good team.
'But I don't expect to be a lot of room here the rest of the series. I don't think that's going to change.''
Bednar echoed a similar refrain Friday after practice.
'Creating the offense in this series is the challenge,'' Bednar said. 'Well, there's challenges on the defensive side of it, too. I just think we've done a really nice job for the bulk of the series in that…
'But we're studying the offensive numbers and we did a better job getting to the net front (in Game 3), coming up with some dirty chances like we did in Game 1. …
'The numbers will tell you that, because all that data is available to us,'' he added. 'For me, we got to find a way to capitalize on a couple of our like quality scoring chances.''
Which, as Bednar said, also includes having a better power play.
The Avs responded Saturday night with more looks and better execution all right.
The second period alone saw the Avs with a 24-4 edge in scoring chances and 8-1 in high-danger scoring chances according to Natural Stat Trick.
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My own sense of it is that a tight-checking series is more comfortable for the way the Stars are built and approach the game. But the Avalanche's aggressive re-do of their roster in-season I believe has made them more adept at dealing with this kind of series. They've got the personnel for it now.
Of course the Avs would rather run-and-go and fly up and down the ice, kind of like they did in the second period Saturday night, but they know the Stars well and understand that's not going to be possible for the most part in this series. They've got to be patient in creating their offense. They played a near perfect game Saturday night that way.
Mavrik Bourque replaced a banged-up Oskar Båck in the lineup for Game 4 Saturday. He played in Game 1 but watched from the press box in Games 2-3, which isn't fun but at the same time you can learn from watching in your first Stanley Cup playoffs.
'You see how tight the game is and for me tonight it's just about playing my game,'' Bourque said after the morning skate. 'We have such a good lineup, every time I have a chance I got to make it work.''
What the NHL rookie appreciates is just how little space there is out there in this series compared to other playoff series in the opening round.
'No, I watch pretty much all the games and you see time and space,'' Bourque said. 'But what I've seen here, there is no time and space. You got to respect the game, respect what the other team gives you. Hopefully bury a few when you get a chance.''
Bourque put up 11 goals and 14 assists in 73 games in his first NHL season, which followed a scintillating 77-point season last year in the AHL. There's more ceiling there for the 2020 first-round pick (30th overall) but Stars head coach Pete DeBoer has lots of forward depth options to choose from game to game.
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'You know what, he's had a good year,'' DeBoer said of Bourque, 23. 'He came in, he had a slow start, I believe he had some injuries in training camp, came out of the gates slow, worked his way up and I think by Christmas he hid his stride. He played some really good hockey for us.
'Now he's in a situation, we trust him, no hesitation in putting him in the lineup,'' added the Stars coach. 'He can play multiple positions, he can help you on the PK, he can play up and down the lineup because of his skill. So, he's just in a depth situation with a lot of other players that we're making tough decisions on every night on where they go in.''