It hasn’t been a good day for some teams in the NHL as news broke about three key players for their respective teams being out long-term. The Colorado Avalanche released captain Gabriel Landeskog will be out for roughly 12 weeks after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. The Toronto Maple Leafs will be without defenceman Jake Muzzin due to a neck injury. While the Washington Capitals lose Connor Brown long-term after he suffered a lower-body injury.
Avalanche Have Been Managing Without Landeskog
The Avalanche are off to a 2-1-0 start and have scored 14 goals in those three games. Landeskog is a big part of the team’s offence, but wingers Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen are doing just fine picking up the slack with six goals and 10 points between them.
Landeskog is regularly hanging around at about a point-per-game while bringing the physicality to every game. He is a key power-play producer, even-strength producer, and leader on and off the ice for the team. The Avalanche will miss him in the lineup and rely on middle-six players to continue to play well. This also creates opportunity for some players that were cut from training camp to come in and prove they belong in the NHL.
Maple Leafs Suffer Defensive Loss at Interesting Time
The Maple Leafs have already been dealing with a number of injuries on defence including Timothy Liljegren, Jordie Benn, Carl Dahlstrom, and Axel Rindell, so what’s one more name to the group. It’s undetermined how long Muzzin will be sidelined, but it opens up the opportunity for Victor Mete to be recalled and enter the lineup.
Mitch Marner spoke about Muzzin saying, “Obviously for him it’s just making sure that, if he does come back and play this year, or whatever happens, just make sure that he’s going to be able to do whatever he wants to do the rest of his life and enjoy the time with his family, his kids.” Marner isn’t the team doctor, but from a perspective of a teammate, that isn’t very reassuring Muzzin’s injury isn’t serious.
The Muzzin and Justin Holl pairing wasn’t working, so this injury may be the change the defence needs to see a different look. Holl gets much of the slack, but Muzzin is being paid the big money and should be more effective. The Maple Leafs have a potent offence that should be able to overcome the slack defensively this season while injuries are present.
Capitals Have Reinforcements to Overcome Brown Injury
The Capitals made a few key additions to their forward group this offseason in anticipation of Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson injuries. Brown was one of those additions and has been playing on the top line with Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Kuznetsov for the first four games. Despite not recording a point, Brown was playing solid hockey and is a hard-working puck retriever for the line.
It appears Connor Sheary will slide up and fill the hole, and it is a good thing the Capitals are deep at forward this season. The team also has a dark horse sitting in the minors right now in Sonny Milano who they signed late. After scoring 14 goals and 34 points last season with the Anaheim Ducks, Milano can easily step in and help pick up some slack.
Related: Panthers Will Have Tougher Time Replacing Ekblad Than Before
There have already been some significant injuries to key players this season that you never want to see. The NHL is at its best when the best players are all healthy and performing.
