Gabriel Landeskog and his surgically repaired knee — the one that's caused him to miss nearly three years — take another big step forward by playing in a second straight game for the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League on Saturday night.
The longtime Colorado Avalanche captain Landeskog is on loan to the Eagles as part of a conditioning assignment. He's trying to get up to speed in his bid to possibly join the Avalanche for a playoff run.
The organization announced Landeskog would be in the lineup once again Saturday when the Eagles play the Henderson Silver Knights at Blue Arena in Loveland, Colorado. Landeskog logged nearly 15 minutes, took two shots and spent time in the penalty box during the Eagles' 2-0 win Friday in front of a crowd cheering for No. 92.
Before Friday, Landeskog hadn't played in a professional game since he helped the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup in 2022 because of a knee injury and subsequent surgeries.
"Physically, I feel great,” Landeskog said Friday of his return. “It’s the first game in a long time so I've got plenty of things to work on and get better at but, yeah, it was a lot of fun.”
Landeskog’s injury stems from the 2020 “bubble” season when he was sliced above the knee by the skate of Cale Makar in a playoff game against Dallas. Landeskog eventually underwent a cartilage transplant procedure on May 10, 2023, and has been on long-term injured reserve.
The procedure was similar to the one performed on Chicago Bulls point guard Lonzo Ball in March 2023. Ball returned to the court for a preseason game in October, which hinted at a possible timeline for Landeskog’s return.
Landeskog’s comeback has been the subject of a documentary series called “A Clean Sheet: Gabe Landeskog” that’s airing on TNT and TruTV.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and envisioning this, and envisioning being in a competitive hockey game again,” Landeskog said. “Obviously, there were times where I didn’t know if that was ever going to happen. So it felt great being in the battle again — on the bench, in the room, on the ice, all the nuances of a hockey game. Really fun being back.”
Should all go smooth with his conditioning assignment, the 32-year-old forward from Sweden might very well be activated for Colorado’s first-round playoff series. The Avalanche enter the postseason as the Central Division’s No. 3 seed and will open on the road.
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FILE - Colorado Avalanche left wing Gabriel Landeskog (92) lifts the Stanley Cup after the team defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals on Sunday, June 26, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, file)
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana lawmakers passed a new map of congressional districts Friday designed to help Republicans pick up a seat while eliminating one of the state's two majority-Black House districts, both of which are represented by Democrats.
Approval came after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana's current map as an illegal racial gerrymander because it was drawn to include two majority-Black districts, weakening the landmark 1965 federal Voting Rights Act meant to prevent discrimination against minorities at the ballot box.
That decision intensified a national redistricting battle fueled by President Donald Trump’s efforts to protect the Republicans’ slim House majority in the midterm elections. Louisiana is one of several Southern states now redrawing their maps to help Republicans.
Louisiana Republicans had considered drawing a map giving the party a shot at winning all six of the state’s U.S. House seats. But that would have required adding more registered Democrats to Republican-held districts, potentially backfiring with GOP losses.
The map approved Friday in a 28-10 state Senate vote reflected Republican arguments that a 5-1 map is safer for the GOP. Republicans currently hold four of Louisiana's six congressional seats.
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry is expected to sign the new map into law, even as threats of more litigation emerged Friday.
A half-hour Senate floor debate revolved around Democrats contending that the proposed map is racially gerrymandered to squeeze more Black voters — who tend to be registered Democrats — into a single district.
Democratic state Sen. Royce Duplessis pointed out that some fellow Southern states, such as South Carolina, had refused to redraw their maps in the middle of an election year, and said Louisiana is participating in a “vicious, vicious race to the bottom.”
The bill's sponsor, Republican state Sen. Jay Morris, repeatedly insisted that party affiliation, not race, drove district boundaries.
“I purposely put more Democrats into District 2 to make the remaining districts better performing for Republicans,” Morris said at one point.
Morris said he told the map demographers to avoid including any data on race or including those statistics in information shared with lawmakers before the vote.
Democratic state Sen. Sam Jenkins told Morris, “I think it’s a racially gerrymandered district that's going to get us into a lot of trouble here."
“Agree to disagree,” Morris told Jenkins.
Louisiana is currently using a map ordered by a lower court in 2024 to comply with the Voting Rights Act by including a second district with a majority-Black population.
That map, however, was challenged in court, and the Supreme Court responded on April 30 by striking it down as an illegal racial gerrymander.
Landry postponed the state’s closed U.S. House primary slated for May 16. He later signed a law making the U.S. primary open and shifted the date to Nov. 3 to allow time for Republican lawmakers to draw and pass a new map. All candidates, regardless of party affiliation, will be on the ballot for voters in their district.
The proposed map redraws Democratic U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields' district, clustering it around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana. It also adds part of Baton Rouge to a heavily Democratic, majority-Black district based in New Orleans currently represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Troy Carter.
More lawsuits were expected over the new map.
Democrats say the proposed map could draw a legal challenge over racial gerrymandering, and the ACLU of Louisiana suggested Friday that it could sue, calling the map a “racial gerrymander hiding behind the thin veneer of partisanship” and warning that "this fight is just beginning.”
Meanwhile, the victorious plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court's decision criticized the Legislature's map earlier this week for leaving a majority-Black district in place.
In the weeks following the Supreme Court’s decision, several other Republican-controlled Southern states have seized upon a weakened federal Voting Rights Act to try to redraw their own congressional districts.
So far, Republicans are winning the redistricting contest. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they will win a narrowly divided U.S. House in November. Republicans think they could gain as many as 15 seats from their redistricting efforts so far, while Democrats think they could gain six seats from new districts in California and Utah.
Meanwhile, a court decision in Wisconsin on Friday could give Democrats a new avenue to pick up seats in 2028.
The liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court said it would hear an appeal of a case filed by a bipartisan coalition of business executives that seeks to redraw the state’s Republican-friendly congressional districts. Republicans hold six of the state’s eight House seats, but only two are considered competitive.
A three-judge panel dismissed the case in April. Those who filed the lawsuit weren't seeking a ruling in time for the 2026 election. Instead, they are asking the state Supreme Court to send the case back to the lower court for a trial on their claims, which would likely not take place until 2027.
Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writer Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.
This story has been corrected to show that Landry ultimately postponed Louisiana's closed U.S. House primary elections to Nov. 3, not “later this summer” after signing a law making the primary election open.
Louisiana state Sen. Jay Morris, R-Monroe, speaks with reporters in the statehouse Friday, May 29, 2026, in Baton Rouge, La. (AP Photo/Jack Brook)
Mary Anne Mushatt, of the League of Women Voters and the Orleans Parish Democratic Committee, right, hugs Rep. Tammy T. Phelps, D-District 3, after a redistricting plan to eliminate a majority-Black congressional district, in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, was passed by the House in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A person opposed to the redistricting plan reacts as she leaves the Louisiana House chambers after the plan to eliminate a majority-Black congressional district, in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, was passed in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Louisiana Rep. Gerald Beaullieu, IV, R-Dist 48, speaks prior to a Louisiana House vote on a redistricting plan to eliminate a majority-Black congressional district in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Louisiana Rep. Kyle M. Green, Jr., D-Dist 83, speaks prior to a Louisiana House vote on a redistricting plan to eliminate a majority-Black congressional district in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Louisiana Reps. Adrian Fisher, D-Dist 16, left, Chad Michael Boyer, R-Dist 46, and C. Travis Johnson, D-Dist 21, right, recite the pledge of allegiance prior to a house vote on a redistricting plan to eliminate a majority-Black congressional district in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
