LAS VEGAS — Avalanche left wing and team captain became a cemented franchise figure Monday night by playing his 600th NHL game at T-Mobile Arena. Landeskog, 27, scored a power-play goal in Colorado’s 7-3 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights.
“Six-hundred felt good,” Landeskog said of the Avs’ final game before the NHL’s mandatory three-day Christmas break. “No better way to do it than get a win.”
He added: “You want to be able to stay healthy and be part of the team and play a lot of games. I’ll trade my 600 regular-season for 600 playoff games, I’ll tell you that. But I’ll keep working towards that.”
Landeskog is just the third Avs player to play in his first 600 games with the Avs, following (659) and Milan Hejduk (1,020). (870) and Adam Foote (760) also reach 600 games with the club after beginning their careers with the Quebec Nordiques.
At age 19 on Sept. 4, 2012, Landeskog succeeded Hejduk as Colorado’s captain, making him the youngest captain in NHL history at the time.
Landeskog, who was selected by the Avs with the No. 2 pick in the 2011 draft and never played in the minors, is Colorado’s second-longest tenured player behind defenseman . Johnson, 31, was acquired late in the 2010-11 season from the St. Louis Blues and has played 540 of his 743 career games with the Avs.
Landeskog is second in his 2011 draft class in games played, goals (185) and points (430). He trails Philadelphia’s Sean Couturier (615 games played) and Tampa Bay’s (201 goals and 502 points) in those areas.
Landeskog is the oldest member of his line, with having just turned 24 Sept. 1 and 23 on Oct. 29.
“I saw the other day that the average age on our team is 26 or just below. And I’m 27,” Landeskog said. “It means I’m above-average age on our team. Which means I’m getting old.”
Older and wiser.
Despite missing 16 games with a broken foot from late October to early December, Avs coach said Landeskog is a major reason why Colorado has enjoyed one of the best starts in club history. The Avs (23-11-3) reached 49 points at the holiday break — tied for second-most in club history behind the Stanley Cup-winning team of 2000-01, which had 51 points (23-7-5) heading into Christmas.
“It’s been outstanding, really,” Bednar said of Landeskog’s leadership. “He’s really grown in that area in the four years I’ve been here. Takes a lot of pride in it. He has a way of connecting people — our young guys, our older guys — making everyone feel included.
“I feel that there are areas of his game that have really grown too. I think he knows exactly what he is now as a power forward and a guy who likes to go to the net and gets rewarded for doing that. When we need big goals he finds a way to score them. He does a lot for our team. Some of it is seen by the general public and some of it isn’t. But we certainly know the value that he brings to our team — especially in that leadership role.”
Footnote. The Avs’ charter returned to Denver early Tuesday morning, minus a handful of players who chose to fly elsewhere from Las Vegas for the holiday. The team will reconvene Friday for a morning skate at the Pepsi center ahead of a game against the .
