Avalanche lose Gabe Landeskog, Devon Toews to injuries, fall 2-1 to Panthers

Corey Masisak, The Denver Post on Jan 4, 2026

Published in Hockey

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SUNRISE, Fla. — The phrase “upper-body injury” has never been met with a greater collective sigh of relief in Denver, or throughout the hockey world.

Captain Gabe Landeskog left the Colorado Avalanche’s 2-1 loss Sunday night to the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena after a scary fall and crash into the net and end boards. It’s only the third regulation loss of the season for the Avs (31-3-7), and easily the most inconsequential game result of the season.

Given what he has been through, everyone — from teammates and coaches to his adversaries on the other bench and fans on two continents — was relieved to find out it was not a knee injury.

“That’s what everyone was asking. I was wondering that,” Avs Nathan MacKinnon said. “It’s not his knee, which is great, but he was in a whole lot of pain.

“Bones heal. They just heal normally. Tendons, ligaments are kind of scary injuries in sports. I think after the process he had, obviously it looked horrible. … He’s so tough, but the one bright side maybe is that it’s not his knee. I’m hoping he’s going to be OK.”

Landeskog’s left skate appeared to stumble just before he fell into the net. He was helped off the ice by MacKinnon and head athletic trainer Matt Sokolowski. The captain has played in all 41 games this season, but he’s definitely out Tuesday at Tampa Bay.

“He’s going to miss some time,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “He’s still being looked at and diagnosed, but he did not look comfortable.”

The Avs were already without defenseman Devon Toews in this game. He missed his first contest of the season with an upper-body injury.

Toews crashed into the end boards Saturday night in Raleigh early in the third period. He did return for two shifts near the end of a 5-3 comeback win, but Ilya Solovyov replaced him in the lineup Sunday.

“He’s going to miss some time, too,” Bednar said. “I don’t know how much yet. He’ll stay with us on the trip, but he won’t play in Tampa. We’ll get him further evaluated, and we’ll figure out a timeline when we get back to Denver.”

If that wasn’t enough, the first injury scare in this game came when starting goaltender Scott Wedgewood was stunned by a shot to the mask early in the first period. He sat on the ice momentarily after the shot, and a rebound attempt actually hit him in the chest before play was stopped.

Wedgewood remained in the game after a chat with Sokolowski, and finished the contest with 23 saves. The Avs are already missing goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, who did not come on this three-game road trip and is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury.

“Yeah, as square as you can get it,” Wedgewood said. “I’ve got the reinforced double bar too, so for that to get bent, whatever it was, a half inch in, it’s got to be square. I felt fine afterwards. Just the top of your tower tilts you backwards.”

Colorado had 14 players who played in every game this season before this, which leads the NHL. Now, the Avs have had four players — Landeskog, Toews, Blackwood and Joel Kiviranta — all join Logan O’Connor on the injured list in the past five days.

Florida captain Aaron Ekblad gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead late in the second period. His shot from the right point beat Avalanche goaltender Scott Wedgewood with the help of a screen from Sam Reinhart.

Sam Bennett put the Panthers in front at 6:27 of the first period. Avs defenseman Sam Malinski skated the puck towards the corner to the left of Wedgewood, but Bennett took it off through brute force and then went to the net. Bennett was able to fend off Malinski a second time to get the rebound by Wedgewood.

The Panthers looked in total control shortly after that, racking up 10 consecutive shots on goal at one point against the Avs, who played less than 24 hours earlier in an emotional 5-3 comeback win in Raleigh, N.C.. Colorado landed in South Florida at about 3 a.m., and for part of the first period it showed.

Still, the Avs rebounded and got back on even footing, both on the scoreboard and in the run of play. Artturi Lehkonen tipped a Josh Manson point shot past Daniil Tarasov at 11:51 to make it a 1-1 game.

That was the only goal of the night for the highest-scoring team in the league. It’s only the third time this season the Avs have been held to one goal. They won the other two, 1-0.

“Yeah, it was a tough game,” MacKinnon said. “Late night. Tough game last night against Carolina. Two really hard games, and we were right there at the end. We outshot them.

“But it just kind of felt like they were a little better than us all night. Not our best game, just couldn’t get much going.”

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