Gabe Landeskog's legacy as one of the Avalanche's all-time greats is secure

Watching Gabe Landeskog this week has been a fun ride.

From throwing out the first pitch at a Colorado Rockies game to working the register at a local Raising Canes, Landeskog is the radiant face of joy. By the time you read this, he’s probably already had plenty to say during the Avalanche parade.

From where I’m sitting, this feels like the finish line to the inevitable.

Back in 2011, I was adamantly against the idea of the Avs using the second overall pick on Landeskog, a high-floor, low-ceiling wing lauded for his leadership ability and maturity. It drove me nuts the Avs were about to complement their young star centers (Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly) with a wing who might max out on their second line someday. It didn’t sit well that they were prioritizing leadership the way they were.

Yes, we had seen the impact a great leader could have during Joe Sakic’s tenure in Colorado, but he was also Joe Sakic, you know? He was one of the ten best NHL players of all time! That he was also an all-time great leader, well, that just boded well for the Avs back then.

Sakic hadn’t taken over again when the Avs targeted Landeskog in 2011. He was still working his way through learning the ropes of the NHL front office as an “executive advisor”, a title that sounds cool but leaves open the question of just what that even meant he was doing all day.

The Avs took Landeskog over Jonathan Huberdeau and a litany of interesting players who have gone on to have really good NHL careers. He showed up with that bright smile and won everyone over immediately by shooting the puck every single time he touched it (go look at his shots on goal throughout his career if you ever want a laugh), running dudes over who dared step to him and playing with reckless abandon.

Then the Avs made Landeskog the youngest captain in NHL history at the time as Milan Hejduk relinquished the “C” to Landeskog, realizing he was going to the man in that room and he needed to learn the ropes sooner than later.

I’ve only ever covered the Avalanche in my sports media career, but I’ve met and talked with a lot of other captains around the league by now. Let me tell you this straight –  there is one Gabe Landeskog, and there are probably at least 20 teams that would kill to have that guy in their room leading the way.

Talking with him reveals an intelligent human being who considers all the angles. I wrote a lengthy feature on him back a few years ago when he touched on him going to Sakic and asking him not to be traded as the team was switching gears and going from building around Duchene to building around Nathan MacKinnon. Duchene wanted out, Landeskog (and Erik Johnson) wanted in.

Landeskog specifically wanted to bring the success Sakic had back to Denver. He wanted to bring the Stanley Cup to Coors Field for a beer-fueled night of shenanigans from their suite. He wanted the parade through the city. He wanted to stand up on the stage and hold the Stanley Cup for the city of Denver, the same as Sakic had done back in 1996 (hopefully Landeskog doesn’t go with the same white shorts Sakic did, but that’s neither here nor there).

There was a sincerity from Landeskog to take the torch from Sakic as the longtime leader of the Avalanche. To learn from the best, to become the best, the student becomes the master kind of thing.

Watching the Avs mature the last few years, there was a moment that always sticks out to me. Game 7 against San Jose, the game-tying goal in the second period is called back because of offside as Landeskog was slow getting on the bench. We all remember that moment. That was whatever.

It was Landeskog’s postgame response that always stuck with me.

“It’s a clumsy mistake. Get off the ice, you know?” Landeskog later added, after saying he hoped the linesmen got the call correct, that he was the only person to blame in that situation. “Ultimately, my skates are the skates there were on the ice.”

There was no blaming an official, whom he singled out by name and said they had a particularly tough job and that especially was a hard call to make. There was nothing but owning his failure, accepting the reality that he was at the center of a mistake that helped send the Avalanche home that season.

When you’re trying to change a culture from one in which losing had become all too acceptable to one where the highest standard is all you know, it takes moments such as that Game 7 in San Jose to turn the tide.

Talking is the talk is the easiest thing in life. Walking the walk is something else entirely.

Failure can be the launchpad to greatness in pro sports. Players succeed at the highest level all their lives until they reach the pros, when suddenly only one team can be the best and get to the finish line. Colorado had far too frequently underperformed its talent level and part of that was a culture that too easily embraced the promise of tomorrow.

Lord knows that in my position, looking back on things, I was probably too accepting of Colorado’s limitations and not being more vocal in wanting them to push the gauntlet. Not that they’d have cared what I had to say, of course, but I’m more using my experience as an example that things around the Avalanche organization had gotten too cozy with golfing the first week of every April.

Landeskog was at the center of driving this team back from that country club mentality to level of accountability we saw from them this season. Poor Mikhail Maltsev had to learn the hard way that life on a Stanley Cup contender is very different than a group with no expectations that is given leeway to make a lot of mistakes, a la the New Jersey Devils squad Maltsev played for last year.

No, when Maltsev showed up for his first call-up stint with the Avs this year, he made a couple of crucial errors in limited ice time and head coach Jared Bednar sent the message to the young Russian forward that he wasn’t in New Jersey anymore. This is Colorado, where the leash for game-changing mistakes was non-existent for unproven guys. Maltsev was sent back down and while he briefly returned later in the season, that was about it for his shot this year.

One can have a reasonable debate about the best way to nurture young talent in an organization, but the Avs drew their line in the sand and said they were done accepting lazy, selfish mistakes. If they truly wanted to learn from the past and grow into Stanley Cup champions, they had to walk the walk.

Every player accountable to one another, every shift dedicated to playing the game the right way, the Avalanche way.

When Sakic dropped an eight-year contract onto Landeskog’s doorstep last summer to keep his captain from leaving in free agency, he did so knowing Landeskog was the heart of this squad. MacKinnon and Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen might produce better numbers and all that, but everyone knew this wasn’t happening with Landeskog in the fold.

Just one year in, Landeskog’s new contract paid for itself in full as he led the way in locking down the championship the city of Denver has been celebrating all week.

Landeskog’s blocked shot with his foot broke his skate blade and his ensuing desperate attempt to get to the bench with one functional skate was the kind of urgency from expect from the guy wearing the “C” on his chest as his team tries to stave off a comeback attempt in a Cup-clinching game.

When Landeskog lifted up the Stanley Cup and roared with approval, the entire city of Denver roared alongside him. From Sakic to Landeskog, the legacy of leadership had been drawn. The excellence started by Colorado’s former superstar player is best embodied by its current Swedish captain.

Gabe Landeskog was tired of talking about it, so he decided to go and be about it. His “92” jersey is now ticketed for the rafters of Ball Arena whenever he decides to call it a career.

Way back on his draft day, I was all too concerned that he would be the next Brenden Morrow. Instead, he just became Gabe Landeskog. We should all be thankful for that.