FOR THE LOVE OF SPOTTED COW! Let me tell you a story about this one guy Gabriel Landeskog, captain of the Colorado Avalanche, and his lower-body injury. You know what’s funny? The things we do for our job. I mean, have you ever taken a puck to the groin in an NHL shootout? No? Just me?
I remember when Michael-Vincent used to tell me that if I got hit too many times down there, it’d turn into one big ol’ bruise and he could use it as a trampoline for his jump shot. (chuckles) Oh man… those were the days.
So Landeskog takes this puck to the groin during their shootout win against Dallas on Friday, has an assist in that game – nice work if you can get it! Now we’re hearing about him being week-to-week with a lower-body injury. Lower body? You know what’s not so great when your doctor says “lower body”? That means they don’t want to tell you exactly where it is, like the good old days of my umpiring career.
This isn’t Landeskog’s first rodeo with this kind of thing either. He was out for over a month earlier in the season and then managed to make an Olympic comeback! 47 games into this year he already has nine goals and twenty assists – that’s like me having all the Culver’s ButterBurgers I could ever want (laughs). The Avalanche, by the way, are sitting pretty at 43-10-9. For those counting along with me back home in Mukwonago, Wisconsin: yeah it’s a tough schedule.
Here’s what their coach Jared Bednar had to say about this one – “Well, it’s a lower-body injury and not a comfortable one.” You know when your doctor gives you that look? The kind where they’re just trying not to tell you the worst but you can still see right through them like Blake with his ketchup on Polish sausage (chuckles)? Yeah… that’s what Bednar is doing there.
I’m going off track here. So Landeskog had a big ol’ puck in the groin and he might be out for a while, which means Colorado will have to get some other guys up to speed quickly if they want to stay on top of their division – though it seems like those Wild are also pretty good at this point (43-19). Guess we’ll just wait and see how long Landeskog is gone but in the meantime I’m going to go grab another frozen pork cutlet from Kwik Trip.
One-Ry Out.