Gabriel Landeskog is my favorite active hockey player and is the captain of my team,the Colorado Avalanche. He is also incredibly snake bit. After lifting the Stanley Cup for the Avalanche following the 2021/2022 season, Landeskog underwent arthroscopic knee surgery. Setbacks, additional surgery, and rehab knocked him out of three seasons. He returned to the ice for the Avalanche’s playoff run. In June, Sweden named the Avalanche captain as one of the first six players named to their Olympic team. The early part of the season saw Landeskog building back toward his old form. Unfortunately, he suffered an upper body injury against the Florida Panthers that has kept him out of NHL action since early January and threatened his Olympic participation.

After everything he had gone through over the past three plus years, an upper body injury was not going to stop through. Not only was Landeskog able to work his way back in time for the Olympics, he was named Sweden’s captain. On the ice, Landeskog seems to be picking up from where he was when he suffered his injury in early January and scored the first goal of Sweden’s Olympic campaign.

Over the last three years, there was plenty of discussions of whether or not Landeskog would be able to return to NHL action and if he did what kind of player would he be. Returning to the Avalanche and playing well is a tremendous accomplishment. Selection to Sweden’s Olympic team and serving as the captain seems like the capstone on his comeback.

I didn’t realize it at first, but the happiness over Landeskog’s return has eclipsed the actual on ice results for me. While I still have my rooting interests, any disappointment over who wins and loses the tournament will be less than my happiness at seeing Landeskog’s resiliency, hard work, dedication, and heart be rewarded on the world’s largest stage. That is what the Olympics are truly about at their core, isn’t it?