The Dallas Stars better prepare for Gabe Landeskog’s return to the lineup

The 101st installment of the Mile High Hockey Lab is available NOW!

The 101st installment of the Mile High Hockey Lab is available on your preferred Podcast platform! Don’t forget to download our new episode and give us a follow! I hosted this episode, featuring Adrian Hernandez and guests Jackie Kay, Ezra Parter, Evan Liu, and Brennan Vogt. We debated on which game we’d like to see the Avalanche welcome the return of Gabe Landeskog, previewed each position group, highlighted wildcard and x-factor players, and finished with a series and #BoldPredictions!

The Landy Card

We started things off with what is the question of the week, and that is, when should the Avalanche get captain Gabe Landeskog back into the lineup? This episode aired live last week, and we hadn’t seen game one just yet. Jackie thinks that if Gabe is good to go, there’s no reason to wait. That’s probably especially true ahead of game two in Dallas with Ross Colton’s status up in the air. I started having this feeling on Sunday, and my gut was telling me Landy was coming back tonight. We shall see! He has been activated, though!

Forwards, Defenders & Netminders: Who has the edge?

Most of our panel agreed that Dallas and Colorado match up pretty evenly in the forward group. Still, I justified giving the Avalanche the edge due to the existence of one Nathan MacKinnon. Nate Dawg was good in game one, so let’s hope he builds on that in game two tonight.

As for the defensive group, Ezra sees a glaring advantage for the Avalanche, as the Stars are so banged up on the backend that they are being forced to play players in positions that require way more than their best and typical roles. We saw some of that on Saturday, but perhaps the Stars will parry a bit better as the series wears on.

Lastly, we looked at the keepers, and Brennan was quick to point out that MacKenzie Blackwood had never beaten the Dallas Stars in his career. You know what else he hadn’t ever done before Saturday night? Play in the playoffs. He didn’t just play on Saturday; he excelled and was there for his team time after time with save after save. So far, Avalanche have the advantage, and they look to steal both road games and take a 2-0 series lead back home to Denver.

Wildcards & X-Factors

We touched on last week’s roundtable, where we were asked to select our wildcard and X-factor players. I felt like Nichushkin was the easy answer for X-Factor, but I went a bit off the beaten path and chose Charlie Coyle. Evan agreed with me, and we also had the same wildcard in Gabe Landeskog. Colorado’s Viking captain is the only one who truly knows how good he is at the moment. We will all find out once he does grace the ice. Until then, we won’t know. A true wildcard.

We finished the show with bold predictions, and as I predicted, Artturi Lehkonen would have four points in the first two games of this series, calling on his playoff magic. Well, he’s off to a good start! Let us know what your bold predictions are ahead of tonight’s game in the comments!

Please don’t forget to like, subscribe, download, and share this excellent Avs content with your fellow fans!