This is not a slight of Gabe Landeskog.

Repeat: THIS IS NOT A SLIGHT OF GABE LANDESKOG.

But Matt Duchene should be the Avalanche’s captain.

There is no more popular player on the Avalanche. There is no more popular player in the NHL among former Colorado Rockies (the hockey team) coaches who now wear Elvis-in-Vegas-style suits on a national stage.

Don Cherry on Saturday night called Duchene the best player in the league right now. Don Cherry — who has worshiped at the altar of Sidney Crosby since he came into the league, and rightly so — thinks Duchene is a better player than him right now.

Duchene is the conscience of the Avalanche, its confessor. When the Avs don’t perform, he tells it like it is. Heck, when he played in Sweden during the most recent NHL lockout, Duchene stood up and chastised his teammates for not showing up for a game.

“This is your job,” Duchene said in disgust toward his temporary teammates after a Frolunda loss.

Duchene has become the true leader of the Avalanche. Fans relate to him, because he shows he really cares. He bled burgundy and blue as a kid. He took short money to re-sign with the Avs after a bad season, while Ryan O’Reilly held up the Brinks truck and held out on his team and his teammates for more money last fall after one decent season for a terrible team.

Then, Duchene went out and crushed it with a great performance after the lockout, while guys like O’Reilly and Landeskog did mostly a whole lot of nothing. This is not to slight them. It’s just a fact.

Duchene deserves to wear the “C” because he has more tenure than Landeskog, he cares more about the fabric of this team and is, in fact, doing more in the leadership category than anyone in his age group.

When Nathan MacKinnon needs a good piece of advice what it’s really like to be in his shoes, he gets it from Duchene.

Duchene has a good chance to be on the Canadian Olympic team, by far the toughest team to make in international hockey competition.

The Avs gave the captaincy to Landeskog before last season, when O’Reilly just started his holdout and Duchene was still under the control of former coach Joe Sacco — who just never saw eye to eye with him. But times have changed.

He’s the leader of the Avalanche. He should be recognized as such with a “C” on his sweater.

Adrian Dater: adater@denverpost.com or twitter.com/adater



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