This has Avalanche fans Absolutely BUZZING... MASSIVE Avalanche Update | Colorado Avalanche News

The abs are buzzing right now with energy and so is the fan base. There are a lot of positive vibes going around in the locker room as the abs move forward for another cup. And Gabe Landeskog has more encouraging news to share. It has just been so great over these last few months to just have my predictions blown away and seeing the captain and handsomest captain in the entire NHL just come back to play in round one. And he has actually been confirmed for an option for all of round one. So it is confirmed he is back. He is going to play an NHL game here very soon. How is it going Abs Nation? This is Avalanche Digest and we're going to get right into the news. So this was Gabe Landeskog earlier just practicing on the ice. This was an optional practice they did right before the game. It's actually I think going on right now still and really the only things being confirmed here are what we already know. So Blackwood is going to be the abs goalie and Ottinger is going to be the Dallas Stars goalie. Shocker right? And really we're kind of just looking at the final lineups that we already know from yesterday. We're going to go over that too and some pretty shocking news that happened to the Dallas Stars as well. Their injury troubles are just happening and just rolling on and on. They are a train of injuries and that is rare to say for a Dallas Stars team that's been healthy the entire time. And honestly it's so great to see Landeskog back too. This is actually what Matt Duchesne had to say about that whole situation. It's been a lot of attention on Gabriel Landeskog and his comeback. Just what are your thoughts on that and having known him and been to them all that? Oh yeah I mean we're still pretty good buds and our wife I mean his wife was my wife's maid of honor in our wedding. I mean we're close with the Landeskogs and you know what him coming back I mean yeah it's so great. I'm rooting for him obviously if he's playing against us I you know I hope he plays well but doesn't have a the effect against us but I'm just so happy that he's you know hopefully gonna come back here and he deserves it. And that's just awesome to see and indeed he has he's been conferred for an option all of round one. It seems like they're not gonna play him game one possibly game two or they might even wait for him to play his first NHL game back in game three which would be the first game in Denver and talk about a crowd pop that that would be. How loud would it possibly get? And just to show the spirit and the vibes and just the leadership that Gabe Landeskog brings to this team. I mean take a look at this quote from his own journal. I mean he said oh that's that's interesting nobody's ever recovered from this type of injury and went on to play sports again. I'll be the first you watch and amazing to see and that's great vibes heading into the playoffs and that first game does start tonight at 8 30. So eastern time so 6 30 Colorado time 7 30 Dallas time for everybody else and really one of the biggest and most shocking pieces of news to come out was this about Jason Robertson. You can see right here that Jason Robertson is still week to week with that lower body injury he suffered in the final regular season game and that is just so unfortunate and really horrible management at every level of the front office. I mean he's gonna miss game one and honestly the way he was limping the way he was playing he hasn't even touched the ice yet he's not gonna be ready for game two. I highly doubt he'll even be ready for game three. If he plays game four I would have some serious questions about his health right now but as you can see players are just on the American airline ice right now that's kind of what everyone's doing just getting ready. These are the projected lines and indeed you can see no Robertson this is from Sam Nestler. He's part of the Dallas all city networks so he has great reports on what's going on with Dallas. You can kind of see what's going on behind enemy lines and just really get an idea of what's happening on the Dallas star side of things and even without Robertson it's such an incredibly deep lineup for the Colorado avalanche but really with these injuries the abs need to take advantage of these early games especially because Muro Hyskanen has now been ruled to be day-to-day and really I don't believe this for a second. I think if Muro Hyskanen comes back any time in the first three games I would have some serious doubts. I don't think he'll play round one at all and I don't think he should. I mean like I said he has knee surgery in late February and you're telling me two months later he's all good to play pro sports. I don't know a single human being that can have a knee surgery two months ago and then just be fine and walking around like nothing happened. That's just and even in with the athletic surgeries and all the new age stuff they have that is just not possible and we're looking at possibly more asset mismanagement by the Dallas Stars front office rushing players back potentially harming their bodies even more. I mean that is just not good and you don't want to see that happen to players but really all this talk about the Colorado avalanche and the great lineup made me think back and I saw this graphic kind of come back into mind about game one of last year's series against the Dallas Stars which didn't end the best for the Avs but really this was the game one lineup. You had Zach Parise line two, Logan O'Connor was out with injury, Jonathan Druin missed the entire first round and you look at it now and you realize the Avs not only took the Dallas Stars to game six even after what happened to the Natushkin in that whole fiasco but also made it close and they have a much better lineup today. I mean look at the offense there are no holes in this lineup. Yoel Kibiranta famously had a hat trick against the Colorado avalanche when he was a Dallas Star so really I mean you're looking at guys that can be playoff dogs when the time comes and they absolutely will and add in the supercharging effect that the Avs have with adding Gabe Landis-Fogg this roster is primed to go on a run. I think they're going to beat Dallas. I'm not afraid of Winnipeg and we're probably going to see a Western Conference final with the Vegas Golden Knights and the Colorado avalanche. Just how fun would that be? This is the defense for tonight. They chose to go with way more of a big body approach. Obviously you got Manson in there, Eric Johnson, Ryan Lingren. They're going for that like big physical grindy type of vibe instead of bringing in a guy like Sam Malinsky. Now I do expect Sam Malinsky to draw into games pretty quickly here. Honestly he could play the next one if all things go well but really that by the way that confirmation that Landis-Fogg would play all of game one also came from Jesse Montano. He's on Gorilla Sports. Also a great podcast that follows the Avs. Definitely give those guys a follow over there. They're just doing great work all the time and really you compare the last two Avs rosters and it's night and day. I mean even our resident villain Pete DeBoer had this to say that the Colorado team here is way different than the team we played last year. I don't think you can carry much over from the last year's playoffs and absolutely. I mean look at this lineup from last season against the Colorado avalanche. I mean the depth there ends six forwards in at Middlestad. I mean you had Zach Parise who was admirable in the Jets series but really fell off as time went on. He was an older guy. He was not meant to play a top six role and unfortunately he was just made to because of all the injuries and now we have Charlie Coyle in there instead. We have so many different guys so instead of having to call up some like not the best depth options you've got Ross Colton slotting in who's been great in the first half and the last half of the season. So he's got momentum heading into the playoffs and really the fact that Charlie Coyle is there to anchor that third line and be a good strong physical presence as well as Brock Nelson. Really we've seen guys slot into Nelson and Coyle especially down the stretch when the Avs were resting guys and they were playing great. I mean Miles Wood Gabriel Landis Cog and Jimmy Vesey all three NHLers. We're not even talking about like oh well 14 forward we got to call in some AHL guys. No that's like the guys are so deep 13 14 and 15 are all bonafide great NHL players. I mean we saw Miles Wood slot into Charlie Coyle here just a little bit ago and he played amazing next to him. They complement each other so well and this lineup is built to take injuries. It's built to keep going forward. This defense is built to do damage. It is so much better than the Dallas Stars defense which is just exposed. It's missing high skin and nails Lundquist. It is really just not served to help their defense play and to help their offense then produce which is what they're built to do a lot like the Avs and the Avs are in so much more of a better position to do some damage in these playoffs. They're built to go on a long run and I just cannot wait. It's been a lot of it's happened and we are just going to be following it all the way here. This is your preview right before the series starts. We're going to be covering this entire series as it goes forward. So don't forget to subscribe. Don't forget to tune in and have a good one Avs Nation.