Avs beat crisis of confidence and kicked Kraken tail with big assist from injured captain Gabe Landeskog – The Denver Post

Slobbered by a big ugly Kraken kiss, the defending Stanley Cup champs had slime on their cheeks and doubt rattling inside their heads.

Hard as it was to believe, the Avs were teetering on the brink of collapse, players pressing every shift with confidence running on empty, in danger of being embarrassed in the first round of the playoffs by an expansion team from Seattle named after a silly sea monster.

“It was all mental,” said Avs coach Jared Bednar, as shocked as every one of the 18,141 fans in Ball Arena that his team had lost its championship mojo.

And then captain Gabriel Landeskog walked in the shaken Colorado dressing room at the first intermission of Game 2 in this best-of-seven series to remind the Avs who they were. Yes, the captain is hurt, unable to skate until next…