CENTENNIAL, Colo. — The Colorado Avalanche are sitting and waiting. It seems to be a lot of what they are doing right now. They are sitting and waiting for the announcement of when the first round of the playoffs will start and if they will have their captain back on the bench.

First Round

The Avalanche lay in wait and prepare the entire week, waiting for the Dallas Stars. When it will start, that is the question. Our Managing Editor, Evan Liu, wrote about the start times on Wednesday morning. He mentioned that there is a possibility that the series could start on Saturday night.

Landeskog

The other thing that every fan is waiting for is the activation of Gabriel Landeskog. He just came back from his conditioning loan with the Colorado Eagles, where he played two games over the weekend. The Swede admitted he had stuff that he has to work on, but everything feels great.

General Manager Chris MacFarland said on Wednesday that they are taking Landeskog’s process day-to-day. There is a lot of paperwork to activate him, so we wait and see.

Chris MacFarland reiterated the day by day mantra for Gabriel Landeskog and wouldn't commit to whether we could see the captain in the playoffs this year."Hopefully he's going to feel good after practice today, and we'll see where this goes."Said there is paperwork involved in activating him.

— Ryan Boulding (@rboulding.bsky.social) 2025-04-16T19:02:16.443Z

Practice

As for practice on Wednesday, all players were on the ice, including Landeskog. The only player that did not stay on the ice the entire time was Ryan Lindgren. The defenseman left practice after only 15 minutes, so he will be a question as to if he will be in game one.

Lines at Practice

Lehkonen – MacKinnon – Nečas

Drouin – Nelson – Nichushkin

Kiviranta – Coyle – Colton

Kelly – Drury – O’Connor

Landeskog -Wood- Vesey

Middleton, Lindgren, Girard, Malinski, Toews, Johnson, Makar, Manson

Blackwood

Wedgewood

The fifth line included Landeskog and two other players who will probably be scratched from game one. He did not take part in any of the special teams’ work, another sign that he will not play in game one.

That we are even talking about the captain even coming back for this playoff series is exciting for everyone. Fans have waited a long time to see Landeskog return to the ice in an Avalanche sweater and make an impact in the game.