Landeskog looksworthy of promotion to captain

Adrian Dater, The Denver Post

Turns out, Gabe Landeskog makes a pretty good captain after all. I’ll confess: When the Avalanche made Landeskog its captain Sept. 4, 2012, at age 19— he became the youngest team captain in NHL history— I thought it was a bit of a stunt.

Was Landeskog really the best choice for captain, or was this a ploy by an underachieving franchise to get some cheap publicity? I thought more the latter than the former. Now, can I giveMr. Landeskog some Swedish meatballs from Ikea as a peace offering?

Now, I see why he was the captain of his junior team, the Kitchener Rangers— a team that never before had a Europeanborn captain. I appreciate better the qualities the 21-year-old brings to a team, not just on the ice.

According to the Avalanche, Landeskog doesn’t say a whole lot in the dressing room. There is no podium by his locker to give nightly speeches, no daily memos passed from his hands to teammates. He’s not a cheerleader on the bench.

Landeskog just goes out every game and sets an example through quiet strength. He goes up and down his left wing every game with bullish determination, never taking a shift off, never letting opponents think they’ve gotten anything over on him. Give Landeskog a big hit, and he’s not writhing in pain or whining to the ref about it. He quietly takes a number and gets his retribution on his own time, but in the meantime gets his focus back on the job of winning the game.

He’s a tremendous player, but you never see Landeskog hot-dogging it after goals or trash talking the opposing bench. Landeskog acts like he’s been there before when scoring a goal, and that more will come.

Landeskog is, above all, accountable. He’s the first to admit his mistakes, the first to say they must be rectified by him and only him. He is accountable to the media, answering as many questions as reporters want to throw at him. If he plays a great game, he always credits the teammates around him for making his job easier. If he plays a bad game, he doesn’t spread blame on others. Just him.

Landeskog probably wasn’t a great captain right away last season. The Avs were a team beset with internal strife, and Landeskog seemed ill-equipped with how to best deal with it. He was probably caught a little too in between, feeling a bit too green to say things to players many years his elder.

The Avs’ core now is more in his image: young, talented, hungry. He can rightfully be a better leader because he is one of them. His intelligence and sense of humor are coming out more too. His “hard hat” award, given to the player who works the hardest in a victory, is a nice innovation to a dressing room that previously had all the life of a CPA meeting.

If it seemed a little out of place at first, it doesn’t anymore: The C on Landeskog’s

sweater is where it belongs.