The captain of the Colorado Avalanche, Gabriel Landeskog, has done the remarkable. He has come back from a surgery that no one else in the NHL has ever come back from. It took him three years, but he remains unsatisfied. The consensus was that Landeskog might never play a hockey game again. That he may never walk the same again either. But here we are. The Avalanche are 14 games into the season, and he has played every one of them.

The most frustrating part about Landeskog’s return is that he has yet to score any goals. In 2021–22, the last full season that Landeskog was active, he tallied 51 goals. On October 21st, during the game against the Utah Mammoth, he had a goal reversed because of offsides. Per Moneypuck, Landeskog has two expected goals.

“I feel like I got lots of work to do, but I will say this, I’m really enjoying it,” Landeskog told TNT on Tuesday. “I’m loving every minute of it. I don’t necessarily feel like my game is where I want it to be, but I think that’s maybe to be expected. You’re into the grind of things now, and last year in the playoffs there was a lot of emotions and adrenaline, and the team and the systems are everything’s clicking, and you just kind of plugged in. So now it’s more about kind of discovering your game again on a nightly basis with travel and all the things that come with the grind of a season. So, but having said that, I want to play my best game when it comes to April, May and June. So we got time to get there, and teammates have been great supporting me. I haven’t found the back of the net yet, but, they’re doing a great job of keeping me upbeat.”

Landeskog does not just add points to the Avalanche. On Tuesday, he had his first regular season fight since March 3, 2022. Landeskog took on Charle-Edouard D’Astous in the first period and pumped the Avs up. It would change the direction of the game and help lead the Avalanche to a 3–2 victory. The captain is also third on the team with 11 penalty minutes drawn. Helping put the Avalanche on the power play rather than the penalty kill.

The Swede’s five takeaways place him fifth on the team. He solidifies his place as a two-way forward with a threat on both ends of the ice, not just one end. Colorado has always struggled with faceoffs, and the three years that he was gone were especially bad. So far this season, Landeskog has won 14 of 21 faceoffs that he has taken, averaging a 66.7 win percentage at the dot.

He may not feel like he is back, but fans love that the captain is back in so many ways. His influence goes way beyond pucks in the back of the net. His voice in the locker room, on the bench and on the ice has helped the Avalanche win games already so far this season. He has given fans something to cheer for other than the team itself, and he is solidifying himself in Avalanche history.