It was a fun night at Ball Arena on Jan. 6, 2022.
The trio of Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen combined to obliterate the Winnipeg Jets in a 7-1 win for the Colorado Avalanche. Landeskog had a hat trick and an assist, cleaning up around the net as the Avs moved to 20-8-2, including a 9-1-1 tear that put Colorado first in the Western Conference by points percentage.
It was a fun night at United Center on Jan. 7, 2022.
Lonzo Ball and the Chicago Bulls breezed past the Washington Wizards for a ninth-straight win to move to 26-10, a breakout season in progress highlighted by an electric crowd at the house Michael Jordan built. Ball was a perfect connector for the team’s stars. He finished with 18 points, six assists and five rebounds, displaying his broad spectrum of skills. He hounded Bradley Beal on defense. He hit open shots. He made multiple highlight-reel passes.
At that moment, the Avalanche and Bulls were among the hottest teams in their leagues. There was nothing that connected Landeskog and Ball, other than both being No. 2 overall picks and critical figures for emerging title contenders.
That was also one of the last times both Landeskog and Ball were simultaneously at the peak of their powers.
Five days later, Ball felt his knee jam on multiple occasions. He finished the game, but it would be his last for 1,009 days.
Five months later, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly handed Landeskog the Stanley Cup, the crowning achievement of his illustrious career. His knee problems, though, had already begun. That was the last time he played a game for the Avalanche, an absence that reached 32 months this week.
Ball and Landeskog are now inextricably linked. Both have had knee cartilage replacement surgery — a rare procedure that surgeon Dr. Brian J. Cole called a “Hail Mary” to save Ball’s career in an interview with ESPN in December.
“It wasn’t a guaranteed thing. Like, nobody knew how it was going to result post-surgery,” Ball told The Denver Post. “The doctor was very confident daily life would get better. So for me, just walking around stairs and walking my dog and being with my daughter was a lot — just an easy enough choice for me, if I couldn’t play no more.
“But it’s hard, trying to tell somebody about a path that’s not really known.”
Monthly check-ups, comparing notes
Ball and Landeskog are bonded together by scars, not only on their knees but from a grueling recovery. Cole performed the surgery on Ball in March 2023, after other avenues to fix his balky had been exhausted.
Two months later, Cole did the same for Landeskog. The surgery, on May 10, 2023, was the fourth procedure on the knee for the Avs captain.
Both players were ruled out for the 2023-24 season long before it started. They worked to rehab their knees but were in uncharted territory.
Ball is believed to be the first NBA player to attempt a return to play after the procedure. Landeskog is trying to be the first NHL player to come back from it. When Landeskog’s surgery was announced, two former NHL players — Marc Methot and Eric Tangradi — said they had it done but were not able to return to the ice.
Arturas Karnisovas, the Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations, came to Chicago from Denver. He had been the Nuggets general manager for nearly three years.
Karnisovas brought Ball and Landeskog together.
“I got his number through ‘AK’ and then we just kept pretty much constant communication,” Ball said. “He was just supporting me, asking how the process was going. Mostly the recovery process and what that was looking like. Because there’s not a lot of people who you can really go get knowledge from.”
The pair began to connect on a monthly basis, checking in to see how each other’s recovery was going. They offered observations, advice and emotional support.
Ball had been away from his team for longer, but he had a two-month head start on the process with this specific procedure.
“I was kind of going through my thing in real time, giving live updates of how I was feeling,” Ball said. “He was sharing his thoughts with me, things he was going through.
“It definitely wasn’t an easy process at all. I told him there’s a lot of ups and downs through it. There’s going to be moments where you feel like it’s not really getting much better. You’ve just gotta take it slow. It’s just been a lot of just positive feedback between both of us.”
Landeskog ramped up his recovery near the end of the 2023-24 regular season. He made more frequent appearances on the ice with the Avs, to the point where he became a regular at morning skates during the playoffs.
Had the Avalanche defeated the Dallas Stars and advanced to the second half of the tournament, the Avs captain may have eventually tried to play — similar to when Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos returned from an injury for the 2021 Stanley Cup Final.
Even if Landeskog had tried to play, it likely would have been in a very limited capacity.
“If you tell a guy after he’s rehabbed an injury to skate down to the far blue line and turn, he can do that as fast as he’s ever done it,” ESPN analyst Ray Ferraro said. “Even after surgery and repair, he can turn as fast as he ever did because he knows where that is. You never get to that in a game. It’s … you’re skating and then turn. Then another turn. Then adjust and pivot.
“When you come back, you’re healthy, you pass all the physicals and then you’re going north and the puck is going south. Then you turn around and it is going back the other way. The unpredictability of the game takes a lot of time to catch up to.”
It didn’t happen last spring. Landeskog spoke to media members after the series with the Stars. He spoke again before this season at the BMW Championship, a PGA Tour event in August. A request to speak with Landeskog about his relationship with Ball for this story was declined.
Landeskog played in the pro-am. He spoke with dozens of fans as he walked the 18 holes at Castle Pines, and then with the assembled media. Just as in May, the message was the same.
When he returns, not if.
“You’ll see me again this year,” he said to one fan in the gallery. “I don’t know if it will be Game 1 or 10 or 20.”
Ball has returned for the Bulls. Landeskog is still fighting to get back.
The Avs played Game 60 on Wednesday night, and Landeskog’s return is not imminent. There was a report that he couldn’t skate on back-to-back days because of swelling in his knee.
Avs coach Jared Bednar disputed that report. But Landeskog’s appearances on the ice with teammates have been few and far between.
“I would say the swelling is probably the biggest thing to control, especially after that surgery,” Ball said. “So I know he was having some problems with that. I struggled with that early on as well, so I was just telling him just some things I did to try to control that.”
A feel-good return, and hope remains
Ball’s return came on Oct. 16, during a Bulls preseason game.
Once a divisive figure in the NBA because of his father’s boastful public persona, Ball was met with a standing ovation. His return has been a feel-good story, and the perseverance to get back to playing has thawed icy feelings from opposing fans.
He still monitors the swelling in his knee, but, beyond a wrist injury, has had little trouble since he got back to playing. His minutes have even increased. He was at 17.6 per game in his first 13 regular-season contests, but it’s up to 24.4 in the past 21.
“(Landeskog) showed me some of his MRIs, where he was getting the flare-ups, stuff like that,” Ball said. “It’s two different sports. So it’s a little different, and I don’t know how his knee would feel after he’s done skating around compared to me after I’m running around.
“It’s much, much better now. I have a good grasp on it. But early on it’s hard because whenever you try to, say you have to lift to try to get strength, after the lift it’s gonna get swollen. So it’s just finding that balance of where to put in enough work but also not to over-stress it to where it’s not really having a chance to recover.”
Ball said he and Landeskog haven’t communicated since he returned to action for the Bulls. His long, grueling rehabilitation process is complete. Landeskog is still battling, against a wonky knee and against time.
To people outside the organization, “when, not if” has flipped. It’s “if, not when.” His teammates, both with the Avalanche and the Swedish national team, are his biggest cheerleaders. Avs defenseman Devon Toews believes it is still when, not if, he will be reunited with his captain on the ice.
If it happens, or when it happens, the ovation at Ball Arena will be loud enough to shake the Front Range from Longs Peak to Mount Blue Sky.
Maybe then Ball and Landeskog will connect again. The latter will likely have new questions about how to navigate this process after the grind of practices and games begins anew.
“It’s like some days … it’s just like, ‘Bro, I don’t feel like I can do it’,” Ball said. “And after that, sometimes you have to rest.
“He hit a couple hurdles I know for sure that he was like, ‘I don’t know.’ And I told him I hit the same ones. You’ve just gotta keep pushing through.”
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