Eurolanche

Landeskog is going home for playing at WC

Gabriel Landeskog had a hard season 2012/13 in the NHL, his first with the „C“ on his chest. In 36 games, he collected 17 points for 9 goals and 8 assists. The concussion he suffered in one of the first games of the season cost him 12 games and had had visible impact on the whole team´s offense.

Landeskog will try to get back hockey joy at the World Championship. The annual prestige hockey tournament will be organized in Finland and in Landeskog´s home country Sweden. It starts next Friday. Landeskog played at the Worlds last year for the first time. He scored one goal and added 4 assists for 5 points. Previously, Landeskog represented Sweden at the World Junior Championship and at under-18 tournament.

Landeskog will not be alone Avalanche player who is going to play in Europe for the next two weeks for his country. Jan Hejda will play for Czech Republic and the large group of his teammates is going to represent Team USA: forwards Paul Stastny, Aaron Palushaj, defensemen Matt Hunwick, Erik Johnson, and coaches Joe Sacco and Tim Army. Matt Duchene and Ryan O´Reilly will play for Canada.

Looking at the current Avalanche roster, there remains one more potential candidate for the participation at the World Championship. The goalie Semyon Varlamov became a gold-medal winner last year with Russia and would like to do it again. However, it does not depend on him, but on the coaches of the national team. Sergei Bobrovsky of Columbus Blue Jackets and Ilya Bryzgalov of Philadelphia Flyers are top candidates for the goalie positions this year along with Varlamov. The Russian roster should be officially announced on Tuesday.