It was a random moment during training camp, months from when the games truly begin to matter for a franchise that believes it can win the championship for a second time in three years.
The Colorado Avalanche was working on the power play, and Nathan MacKinnon was frustrated. MacKinnon, whose reputation as one of the most intense players in the sport is well-earned, yelled in frustration. It wasn’t clear whether he was yelling at Artturi Lehkonen or just expressing his displeasure in general.
Ryan Johansen, one of several new additions to the club and someone who’s been a veteran leader for years in the NHL, quietly skated over to Lehkonen and gave him a stick tap on the shin pad. A little later, a calmer MacKinnon and Lehkonen had a quick chat, the latter demonstrating an idea with his stick and both players nodding in agreement.
The standard in the Colorado locker room is crystal clear for the 2023-24 season: win the Stanley Cup. This team has the star power, depth and institutional knowledge of how to reach the NHL’s mountaintop.
What this team does not have is its captain — in the locker room, on the plane or on the ice. Gabriel Landeskog is the Avs’ heart-and-soul leader, but he will not play this regular season and may not be available during the playoffs while he recovers from a knee injury that took last year from him as well.
This group of Avalanche players must find leadership, preferably organically, from other sources.
“We’ve been missing him for a year and a half, two years now. It is obviously not ideal, but it has helped a lot of guys in this room grow and find their voice and work toward being a leader and a voice for the team,” Avs defenseman Devon Toews said. “It’s a really open room. It’s like our own little community in here, so nobody’s voice goes unheard. It’s helped some guys come out of their shell.
“… At the same time, you’re missing your true leader, your captain, the guy that pushes everybody forward. It’s hard to pull the room (in one direction) sometimes with a group when you don’t have your one single leader. We’re making it work, but we do miss him.”
In some ways, this team is a fascinating social experiment. Landeskog was the youngest captain in NHL history when the Avs gave him the “C” back in September 2012.
While the organization built a Stanley Cup-winning roster around him, Landeskog was at the forefront of forging a culture that helped MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen develop into superstars and champions. Those three are arguably among the 10 best skaters in the world, and represent the biggest reason why Colorado is a serious threat to win another title.
All three of them, plus several of their teammates, offered the same sentiment about Landeskog: He is irreplaceable.
How does a team with championship aspirations find another way then? It’s certainly a group effort.
“We try to help each other,” Rantanen said. “I think we need other guys to step up who have been here for a few years as well. And you don’t have 1,000 games to lead. I think it’s important that guys feel comfortable. If you have experience, like this guy (Johansen), he is chatty in the room and helping as well. I think we have to do it together because you can’t just replace (Landeskog).”
It starts with Colorado’s big three. MacKinnon, Makar and Rantanen are the club’s three assistant captains. They are the team’s three best players, so teammates are going to look to them regardless of their leadership skills.
They make for an interesting trio. A very surface-level diagnosis is this: MacKinnon is intense, Rantanen easy-going and Makar somewhere in the middle.
That’s not fair to any of them, but particularly MacKinnon and Rantanen. Jack Johnson was quick to note there is a lighter side with MacKinnon, just as no one on the team would question Rantanen’s intensity and will to win when the lights go on.
“The best way to lead is on the ice, whether it is practice or games,” Johansen said. “Those three guys are absolute beasts in every area of this game we play. Those are the guys we look at to lead and that’s what they just naturally do.”
All three of them have said they aren’t the “big speech” guy, which is what most people outside of a hockey locker room think is the most important aspect of being a captain. Makar said he doesn’t speak up often, but hopes his words carry a meaningful weight when he does.
Two of MacKinnon’s teammates described him in the same way. Rantanen said Landeskog is the guy who has been the most outspoken in the past.
This team is experienced enough that it shouldn’t need a saber-rattling lecture very often, but if that time ever arrives someone else would need to handle it.
“I try to be vocal in the room, but not too much,” Rantanen said. “If I have some points that I can point out to maybe the team, that will be good. Then obviously I try to play the right way on the ice. I think that’s the most important thing, to play to our system and work hard every night to lead the way. That’s how I like to do it.
“We know when we’re not playing well. (Coach Jared Bednar) is usually the guy who’s telling us most of that, but we have some accountability in the room too. Nate, myself, (Andrew) Cogliano, other guys can say something when we’re not playing well. It is important that it comes from the room, too, and not just the coaches.”
Fans and media members often put too much onus on the captain of any team, but that’s part of the pressure of wearing the “C.” Anyone from a championship-winning team will be quick to point out that leadership doesn’t just come from the guys who have a letter on their jerseys.
The Avs have three star players in their primes, and they have all earned praise for their work ethic and commitment to playing “the right way” — hallmarks of being a good leader. But the club’s leadership group goes well beyond them.
Cogliano has played more than 1,200 regular-season games, plus 120 more in the playoffs. If there was a wing in the Hockey Hall of Fame for “glue guys,” Cogliano would be a lock.
Johnson has played more than 1,100 regular-season games. He’s played on a team that didn’t have a captain. He’s played on bad teams and great ones. He was a leader and strong playoff performer on a Cup finalist in Nashville. He’s been a seamless addition to the locker room, and his thoughtful gesture ahead of the team’s Moms’ Trip made an immediate impact.
Toews is one of those players whose voice has become more prominent, and he’s another one who does all the right things on and off the ice. Josh Manson was an assistant captain for three seasons in Anaheim.
Ross Colton won the Cup with Tampa Bay, and the energy that players like him, Miles Wood and Logan O’Connor play with can be infectious.
“It’s opportunities and challenges and moments for other guys to step up in Landy’s absence,” Johansen said. “There’s tons of leadership. This is a mature group, an experienced group. I think our room and our vibe and our energy from day to day is awesome.”
One thing that is not going to happen is a player not named Landeskog skating on an NHL rink in an Avalanche sweater with a “C” sewn on. The Avs did not know if their captain would return last season. This year, they know he will not … at least until the playoffs, at the earliest.
“We are still expecting him back, whether it is sooner or later,” Johnson said. “He’ll be back and be in the room. To do that, to kind of shuffle it around, would kind of discredit what it actually is. When teams rotate it around, you don’t want to turn it into employee of the week.”
Bednar was asked about naming a temporary captain before the season began. He quickly shot it down.
A couple of Avs players were asked about the idea recently, and they had the same reaction.
“Somebody has to earn the title of being captain,” Toews said. “It’s a privilege and an honor to do it. I don’t think there’s a single guy in here who would want it with Gabe having it right now. And until he’s done playing and out of the league, he will always be the captain here. I don’t think that would be the right thing to do.
“We run deep, as far as leaders go in this group. We have a lot of guys with experience being leaders in different roles.”
A different team, a younger, less experienced one, might struggle without the guy who has been the emotional fulcrum for as long as Landeskog has been in Colorado. The Avs went through this for the first time last season.
A late-season surge to claim a Central Division title despite injuries to their captain and others became a point of pride and affirmation of the club’s culture. How the season ended, with an upset loss to upstart Seattle after Valeri Nichushkin left the team before Game 3 under murky circumstances, was a reminder of how thin the margins can be at the highest level.
This season has included a few hiccups, but the team’s play since an adverse stretch a month ago is more data to suggest this can be a very successful campaign, even without its captain.
“We have a high standard,” Bednar said. “It’s not always going to come together for you, but I do feel like the messaging from our team and coaching staff has been really consistent. (The players) take a lot of ownership in that. We give them a big voice in there, in meetings and even game-planning if they see things. We’re trying to be a family and we feel like the bigger voice that the players have, the more they will take ownership of it.”
Want more Avalanche news? Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis.
