Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog is scheduled to go home next season — for two games.
The NHL and the Players Association on Friday morning announced the Avalanche will play two 2017-18 regular-season games in Stockholm, Sweden, against the Ottawa Senators on Nov. 10 and 11.
The matchup at the Ericsson Globe arena is especially attractive for the host country because both teams have Swedish captains — the Avalanche’s Landeskog, a native of Stockholm, and Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson, who is from Landsbro, about 210 miles south of the capital city. The Avalanche currently has two other Swedes on its roster, defenseman Anton Lindholm and center Carl Soderberg.
“I didn’t think it was real at first,” Landeskog said Friday at Family Sports Center. “It’s super exciting. I’ve played in the World Championships there before and during the lockout I was there playing for Djurgarden. But playing in an NHL game, or two NHL games, in your hometown, in front of family and friends, that’s going to be really exciting. I think all my friends and family are real excited too.”
Landeskog said of Karlsson also wearing the “C” for Ottawa: “If anything, it adds to the game and adds to the atmosphere around it, and for the fans to be able to pick sides and cheer — basically pick one or the other. It should be fun, it should be a great turnout.”
He noted Soderberg and Lindholm’s presence on the Colorado roster and added of the Senators, “They have one of my childhood buddies on that team, Fredrik Claesson. … And Stockholm has a great hockey tradition and a good fan base for hockey. And I think the NHL is going to take that city by storm and I think it will be a lot of fun.”
Each team will relinquish one regular-season home game to make the two-game set in Sweden possible. The Avalanche will be designated the home team for the noon Mountain time Nov. 10 game, the Senators for the 11 a.m. Nov. 11 game.
In the league release, Avalanche president Josh Kroenke said: “We are excited and proud to have the opportunity to play regular-season games in Sweden as part of the 2017 SAP NHL Global Series. Sweden and the city of Stockholm have a rich history of hockey, and we look forward to playing in front of their great fans and continuing to showcase the NHL overseas. Hockey is truly a global sport and the Avalanche’s roster includes players from not only the United States and Canada, but from Sweden, Finland, Russia and Switzerland. We are especially pleased that our fans across Europe and especially Sweden will be able to enjoy this series.”
These will be the first NHL regular-season games in Europe since several games in Berlin, Helsinki and Stockholm in 2011. They’ll also be the league’s seventh and eighth in Sweden and the 21st and 22nd in Europe. It will be the Avalanche’s second visit to Europe, following a 2001 exhibition game trip.
On Sept. 16, 2001, with the Avalanche coming off a Stanley Cup championship, Colorado met Brynas IF of the Swedish Elite League in Stockholm in an exhibition and won 5-3 as Alex Tanguay had a hat trick. Two more exhibitions, scheduled against Djurgarden on Sept. 15 and against Jokerit in Helsinki on Sept. 18, were canceled and the Avalanche returned home earlier than planned in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York.
That trip also was scheduled to be a showcase for Avalanche star Peter Forsberg in his homeland, but he announced during the visit that he was taking an indefinite leave of absence because of his continuing foot problems and ended up sitting out the entire regular season before unexpectedly returning for the playoffs.
Landeskog, then 8 years old, attended that game in Stockholm with his father and brother and was disappointed to miss seeing Forsberg too.
The Avalanche’s star power has dimmed considerably since that visit, and there even seems to a chance that Landeskog could be traded in the offseason, which would detract from.the matchup in Stockholm. The Avalanche was 20-50-3 as Landeskog spoke early Friday afternoon, after he and his teammates went through off-ice workouts at Family Sports before heading to the airport for its charter flight to Edmonton. After blowing a 4-2 third-period lead against Edmonton and losing 7-4 in the Pepsi Center on Thursday, the Avalanche faces the Oilers in the Rogers Center on Saturday night.
Landeskog wouldn’t completely agree with coach Jared Bednar’s assessment that the Avalanche had looked afraid to lose when ahead.
“I don’t want to put it that way,” he said. “I feel like we’re a pretty confident group because we’ve been playing some solid hockey. We just haven’t been able to put it together, the last 10 minutes of the game, and that’s usually the most crucial part of it as well. It feels like we’re making key mistakes as key times. Especially (Friday) night, you’ve got two minutes left and it’s a tied hockey game and it’s a defensive breakdown and things like that can’t happen.
“We keep talking about it, we keep watching video, but at the end of the day I know it’s hard playing like this with nine games left and you’re out of it already, but we’re professionals. You have to put things aside and just go out and perform, and we haven’t done that. I think that’s the most embarrassing part of it.”
He said the goal in the final nine games should be “to put together some fill 60-minute efforts. I’ve been talking about it for a couple of months now about now it’s about preparing for next year, to make sure we learn and get better and we grow as a group.”
Footnote. The collegiate season ended Friday for North Dakota freshman center Tyson Jost, the Avalanche’s No. 1 draft choice last June, when the Fighting Hawks lost 4-3 to Boston University in double overtime at the NCAA West Regionals in Fargo.
After Colorado drafted Jost last summer, he , he had an impressive freshman season and the Avalanche need immediate help. So a collegiate “one and done” for Jost isn’t out of the question. That said, the precedent for the program’s NHL standouts — including Chicago’s Jonathan Toews, Jost’s idol — has been to play through at least their sophomore years before signing.
Last week, when North Dakota knocked off No. 1 Denver in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference’s Frozen Faceoff at Minneapolis, Jost told The Denver Post’s Mike Chambers: “I haven’t really thought about it much. I’m just focused on this year. My goal was to come to North Dakota, develop as a player and win a national championship. I’ll focus on (signing) when the time comes.”
COLORADO AT EDMONTON, 8 p.m., Saturday, ALT, 950 AM
Spotlight on: Oilers LW Patrick Maroon
Playing much of the season on a line with Connor McDavid, Maroon has had by far a career year. The 28-year-old power forward has 25 goals for the Oilers. His previous high was 12, and that was when he played 56 games for Anaheim and 16 for the Oilers after coming to Edmonton at the trading deadline. A hint of things to come, though, was when he had eight goals in those 16 games with the Oilers.
Avalanche: The Avs went through off-ice workouts at Family Sports Center on Friday. … Colorado coach Jared Bednar again discussed what he labeled his team’s “fear of losing,” saying he believed the Avs “have played some of our best hockey of the year” recently, including in some of the losses. “The fear of losing in the third period when something goes wrong for us, the culmination of our mistakes or just the mistakes we’re making are very costly to us,” he said. “It’s a fine line between winning and losing. … We have to believe that we can get it done and we have to be loose and continue to play.” … Bednar said Calvin Pickard would be back in the net against the Oilers. … Asked if the Avalanche have considered recalling goalie Spencer Martin from San Antonio in the wake of Jeremy Smith’s recent struggles, Bednar said: “That’s not my department. Maybe there is some thought there, I don’t know for certain.”
Oilers: Edmonton coach Todd McLellan — whose son, Tyson, is a freshman forward for the No. 1-ranked Denver Pioneers — said he had “mixed emotions” about the Oilers’ come-from-behind, 7-4 win over the Avalanche in the Pepsi Center on Thursday night. “I didn’t think we were the best team on the night,” he said. “We were lucky to win the game. We didn’t skate well, maybe it was the back-to-back, maybe it was getting in late (3 a.m. at the hotel after playing in Anaheim on Wednesday). We weren’t very sharp on our skates with or without the puck. Give them credit.” … McDavid’s two-assist night enabled him to open up a six-point lead over Sidney Crosby and Patrick Kane going into Friday’s games in the race for the NHL scoring title.
