Exclusive: Landeskog says Avs won’t shy away from physicality

Gabriel Landeskog gave up hockey in the middle of a Stanley Cup run to coach youth soccer.

But when you have eight days between series, what’s better than coaching your young daughter’s footie team? Landeskog said he spent time with family, including being the conductor of the organized chaos of children playing sports. He said it was fun to get his mind off hockey and even admitted to not watching much of the action around the league. But when you have eight days between series, what’s better than coaching your young daughter’s footie team?

In an exclusive interview with 104.3 The Fan’s The Drive, the Colorado Avalanche’s captain joined D-Mac and Tyler Polumbus to recap the team’s first series sweep against the Nashville Predators and preview Round 2 against the St. Louis Blues.

“They’re a divisional opponent and a lot of those guys have been around for a long time,” Landeskog said. “It doesn’t take much for you to start creating some hate against the guys you play against in the playoffs. It doesn’t matter if it’s four games or seven games; you end up disliking them towards the end of it anyway.”

The Avalanche swept the Blues out of Round 1 last season and took this year’s regular-season series.

“It’s a different team, we got a different team and I’m sure they’re gonna be hungry to get some revenge and get us back but we want to keep moving,” He said. “We don’t want them to be standing in our way in our quest for the Cup. This should be a good series and we’re excited to get going here after some time off.”

One of Landeskog’s strengths is his ability to adapt styles. He can play physically, skilled, and on any line. He said he didn’t mind the Preds or their physicality.

“If teams want to play that way, that’s fine,” he said. “We can handle ourselves physically. You saw that in Nashville, Game 1, that was clearly their game plan. It didn’t work out of them.”

The clashing aspect of hockey is one of the changeling parts of a cup run. To hoist the cup, you gotta get your mitts dirty.

“We all want to win this thing, and whether people believe in us or not, that doesn’t really matter,” Landeskog said. “The regular season, it’s about creating an identity of the team and then to be able to carry that to through 82 games so that when you come to this time of year, it is just sort of habits, and it’s the winning mentality, and you’re like a well-oiled machine.”

The Avs drop the puck for Round 2 on Tuesday, facing the Blues.
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