EDMONTON, Alberta — The Avalanche’s game of roster musical chairs continued Sunday night against the Edmonton Oilers.
With and Nathan MacKinnon out because of knee injuries, Gabe Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen were scheduled to be on the ice for the final game of the Avs’ swing through western Canada.
Landeskog hadn’t played since March 9, having served his to the head of Anaheim’s Simon Depres. Landeskog had been relegated to cheerleader duty, a position that didn’t sit well with the Avalanche captain.
“I’m really excited to get back,” he said before Sunday’s game. “It seems like any other point of the season it would have been three, four, five days at the most. It felt too long, but I’m ready to get back at it.
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“Everybody that watched it with me knows I don’t have the nerve to watch. I’d much rather be out there.
“This time of year every shift means so much and every play means so much, it really was tough watching.”
Rantanen, , was called up Saturday night from the San Antonio Rampage of the American Hockey League in the wake of the knee injury to MacKinnon.
Avs coach Patrick Roy had no update Sunday at the morning skate as to the severity of Mac- Kinnon’s injury.
“When we get to Denver, he will meet with our team doctors and from there we’ll have a better idea,” Roy said.
Rantanen played in Colorado’s first six games without registering a point.
The Avalanche’s first-round pick in the 2015 draft (10th overall) found his groove in the AHL, registering 21 goals and 52 points in 44 games.
Rantanen was drafted as a winger, but he had transitioned to center in the AHL before the Avalanche promoted him. The move could prove to be fruitful, now that the Avs are for an undetermined period.
“I played center in the AHL for the last 15 games, so it’s not new, but the players (in the NHL) are faster and better,” Rantanen said. “You have to play defense better and bear down on face- offs. There’s some really good faceoff guys in this league.”
Roy said before Sunday’s game that the Finn would start out on the fourth line between Jack Skille and Cody McLeod.
“We’re not going to put too much pressure on him to start with,” Roy said, “but we’ll give him the chance to go on the ice and adapt and we’ll see from there.”
The question about Rantanen isn’t an issue of where he slots in, but for how long. If the 19-year-old forward plays four games more with Colorado, he will burn a year of his entry- level deal, costing the Avs a year of cost-effective control.
Roy wouldn’t say how long Rantanen’s call-up would last. Count on Rantanen to give his best effort in an attempt to stay with the Avalanche long term.
“It’s a dream to play in this league,” he said. “It’s nice to play with this team when they are doing well right now.”
