Even just a few weeks ago, the odds that he might play at some point in this postseason were still long. Now, the entire situation has flipped and the progress is happening at warp speed.

Landeskog returned to the Colorado Avalanche for practice Tuesday, ending a successful conditioning assignment with the Colorado Eagles where he played back-to-back games and collected two points as well. Now, the countdown to the captain playing for the Avalanche again could be days — not weeks or months.

“Suddenly, over the last month, the progression has been quick,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said. “It’s been awesome. The locker room has sensed it. It has happened really quickly recently, but then you think about the whole journey and it’s really been a long time coming.

“It’s definitely been a wild journey. We’ve played a lot of games without him. A lot of guys have come and gone that never got to play with him. As bad as it is to say, you almost got used to him being out at some point and stopped asking questions about how he was feeling or what things were looking like because you didn’t want to harass him about it.”

Landeskog went 1,020 days without playing because of issues with his right knee. He had several procedures, the most recent major one being knee cartilage replacement surgery in May 2023.

No player has returned to NHL action after having this procedure. Lonzo Ball had it done in March 2023 and returned this season for the Chicago Bulls in the NBA.

Landeskog participated in the club’s optional practice Tuesday. The Avs have a full practice Wednesday, then are taking Thursday off. Game 1 against the Dallas Stars is likely to be either Saturday or Sunday.

“No. 1, it is exciting that he is back and playing,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I’m really happy for him. I know it’s been a long road. No. 2, it is exciting for us because it may give us another option here when we get to the weekend. We’ll see how it responds this week and see how it goes.”

Avs defenseman Erik Johnson said, “it looks like we are going to have him around for Game 1” when he appeared on a Spittin’ Chiclets podcast episode that published late Monday night. When Devon Toews was asked if Landeskog will play in Game 1 on Altitude radio Tuesday afternoon, he replied, “tune in and find out.”

Toews was among several Avs players who went up to Loveland to see Landeskog play in the first AHL game of his career Friday night. He played nearly 15 minutes the first night, then looked even better on Saturday, collecting a goal and an assist.

“It was awesome. I didn’t know what to expect, but I thought every shift out there he looked better,” Avs center Nathan MacKinnon said. “In game two, he looked better as well. He almost played 20 minutes or something like that. He’s in a good spot. Hopefully he can keep progressing and we’ll have back here this weekend.”

For so long, there were vague timelines for Landeskog on his road to recovery. Then, as the process dragged on there were no timelines at all.

Now? All signs point to him playing this weekend, assuming his knee has no issues through the next few days.

“He’s Gabe Landeskog at the end of the day,” MacKinnon said. “Obviously there’s going to be some rust. Three years is a crazy amount of time off, and he hasn’t been practicing that much either. … I think he looks great. In game situations, you can still see those instincts are there. He’s still got it for sure.”

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Landeskog, who has not played for the Avs since Game 6 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final, joined the Colorado Eagles on a conditioning assignment last week. The Avalanche captain practiced Wednesday with the Eagles, then played for them on Friday and Saturday nights.

He scored a goal and had an assist in the Saturday game. The Eagles have three more games this week to conclude their regular season, but Landeskog’s assignment was for a maximum of six days. The Avs could have petitioned the NHL for an extension, but he is rejoining the big club instead.

Colorado’s regular season ended Sunday night with a comeback win in Anaheim. The Avalanche will play Game 1 of an opening-round series against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center, likely on Saturday or Sunday.

Landeskog did not play in a hockey game for 1,020 days because of issues with his right knee stemming from an accidental skate cut just above the knee in Edmonton during the completion of the 2019-20 season.

He played through significant pain during the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs and has had several procedures to fix the knee, the most recent being knee cartilage replacement surgery in May 2023. No player has had that procedure and returned to play in the NHL, but Lonzo Ball had it done in March 2023 and returned for the Chicago Bulls this season.

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Sean Keeler: Never seen a dead cat bounce quite that high before. Maybe the Nuggets had stopped listening to Michael Malone, but they heard Josh Kroenke loud and clear, didn’t they?  My head says it’s the Nuggets, but my head also told me that Malone would win the “Cold War” with Calvin Booth and the front office. So going with the heart on this one. And that heart’s wearing a burgundy-and-blue sweater right now. It could be the Gabe feels. It could be the sunshine. But I’m leaning Avs.

Renck: It is a juxtaposition with the way they finished their season, getting their coach and general manager fired. But the Nuggets boast a better chance of advancing. The Clippers have won eight straight, and Kawhi Leonard is averaging 25.7 points over his last 19 games. So, it comes down to this: Can Aaron Gordon cool Leonard, keeping him around 20 points? Nikola Jokic has given Ivica Zubac fits in the past, though Zubac is positioned to push Christian Braun for the league’s Most Improved Player award this season. There are many X factors. But it comes down to Gordon taming Leonard.

Keeler: Every NBA fan base deserves an Aaron Gordon in their lives — an unselfish superstar with mad skills and a moderate ego, a plugger who’ll do whatever a team needs at that moment. Take 25 shots? Can do. Be a defensive stopper? He’s your man. The only worry I’ve got isn’t AG’s heart — it’s his wonky right calf. The spirit is always willing. But what if No. 32’s body won’t cooperate? The only way the Clip Show sails on is if Kawhi goes crazy, and it’s not fair to expect Peyton Watson and Christian Braun to slow Leonard alone.

Renck: The Avs finished on cruise control, using the final few weeks to get healthy and work on line combinations. They will be juiced to face former teammate Mikko Rantanen and the endless agitator Jamie Benn. Can the Avs avenge last season’s playoff loss to the Stars? Of course. But it comes with the uneasy questions: Will untested goalie Mackenzie Blackwood meet the moment? And can Gabe Landeskog be a factor? Neither the Nuggets nor the Avs has margin for error (which is why Russell Westbrook playing hero ball is so dangerous). Based on the home court and the remaining bump from interim coach Rick Adelman, the Nuggets have a better chance of moving on.

Keeler: I didn’t believe in miracles until I saw Landy skate with the Eagles on Friday and Saturday. I didn’t believe in the Avs, either. Peter DeBoer and Jamie Benn have some kind of hex on the Mile High City right now that defies logic, let alone explanation. But this time? This time could be different. For one, the Avalanche will have almost a week of rest before Game 1 in Dallas, marking the first time Colorado’s had more days off heading into their first-round Stanley Cup matchup since all the way back in 2006. Fun fact: That opponent 19 years ago? Dallas. In a series, get this, that also started in Texas. A series the Avs went on to win, 4-1. Sometimes, history rhymes.

When the Avs hit the ice Sunday night at Honda Center to face the Anaheim Ducks, they already knew what lay ahead — a first-round blockbuster Stanley Cup Playoffs series with the Dallas Stars, which will likely begin next Saturday or Sunday deep in the heart of Texas.

Their coach just wanted them to play hard. Bednar hasn’t loved his team’s emotional engagement at times recently, but has also been sympathetic most nights, given the circumstances.

Mission accomplished.

Not only the did Avs play hard, they roared back for a 4-2 comeback victory despite having as many as 10 players in the lineup who might not be for Game 1.

“They had their legs and that’s a good young team, but we said we are here, so we’re going to try and win,” Avs defenseman Erik Johnson said. “I know we didn’t have a bunch of guys, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to give our best effort.”

Colorado scored four times in the third period, including Johnson’s first goal since returning to the franchise before the trade deadline. The highlight though was Wyatt Aamodt, a 27-year-old defenseman who made his NHL debut Saturday night, scoring his first NHL goal.

It kickstarted the rally after Anaheim led 2-0, and he had a lot of family members in the stand to see it.

“It’s been very emotional for myself and my family,” Aamodt said. “When you’re 27 years old, you start wondering if it’s going to happen. … These last two games weren’t just for me. It’s for my family as well.”

After bulldozing its way through the schedule for a month after the 4 Nations break, Colorado has cooled off with little left to play for and a mounting injury list. The Avalanche now sit at 102 points and are locked into a third-place finish in the Central Division. Because of a scheduling quirk, there will be more regular-season games around the league through Thursday night.

The Avs began Sunday in seventh place in the overall NHL standings. Defeating the Ducks gives them a better chance of staying ahead of a few teams behind them, but Colorado could still drop behind four teams — Carolina, Tampa Bay, Florida and Edmonton — as well.

In the short term, that is meaningless. But, as Bednar put it recently, if this team goes where it wants to — on a deep playoff run — finishing ahead of any of those teams could be the difference between having home-ice advantage in the Western Conference Final or Stanley Cup Final or not. The Avs will definitely begin the first round in Dallas and would likely begin the second round in Winnipeg, unless the conference-winning Jets get upset by either St. Louis or Minnesota.

While the Avs will have a long wait, it could be beneficial. Nathan MacKinnon skipped the final three games of the regular season because of a minor injury and should be fine for next weekend, but the status of Colorado’s other injured players — forwards Jonathan Drouin and Ross Colton, defensemen Josh Manson and Ryan Lindgren — is unclear.

“I hope so,” Bednar said when asked if expects them all back for Game 1. “I don’t know for certain though.”

A break could also be beneficial for goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, who made his final start of the regular season Saturday night and will make his first career Stanley Cup Playoffs start in Dallas. Blackwood has often been brilliant for the Avalanche after an early December trade.

But his past four outings, all during this stretch where the team has little to play for, have not been at the same level. He went 1-3 in those starts with an .866 save percentage.

“I think he hasn’t played as good as he did when he first got here,” Bednar said Saturday night. “So he’s got to hone in on his game here quickly. I still have a lot of confidence in him. I don’t know that you can blame him for some of the goals we gave up (Saturday night).”

Potentially the biggest development for the Avalanche during the final weekend of the regular season did not come in Southern California, but about 1,100 miles away in Loveland. Captain Gabe Landeskog played not just his first game in nearly three years, suiting up for the Colorado Eagles in his first career AHL game, but he played in back-to-back games and collected a goal and an assist Saturday night.

If his repaired right knee reacts favorably to the stress he put it through this past weekend, it is fair to expect he’ll be at Avalanche practice on Tuesday. The team will likely have an update on his status Monday.

“It’s been good. Honestly, it’s been really good,” Landeskog told reporters Saturday night in Loveland. “Obviously, I’ve been skating for a long time now, and I’ve been working on all nuances of skating. Like it’s one thing to be on the ice and skate and do certain drills, but it’s another one to do it in a game, (at) game speed and game intensity.

“I know I put the work in. I know I’ve put my time in and now this weekend, I’ve gotten a chance to just not put it to the test but take the next step and just trust my training, trust where my knee’s at, and it’s been feeling really good.”

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A lot has changed since then, but parsing out how much concern to have about the recent middling performances is not easy.

A team that did not look very much like the one that defeated the Kings by four goals March 27 at Ball Arena lost to Los Angeles, 5-4, on Saturday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena. It was Colorado’s second loss in a row and its fifth in eight games.

“Regardless of who was in the lineup, I like the way we competed,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We played with good detail. We certainly made a handful of mistakes we didn’t like. I think big picture, looking at the whole game — competitive, detailed. We were involved physically. I liked our skating. I thought we did a lot of good things.”

The Avalanche did not have stars Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Devon Toews, who are resting this weekend and did not travel with the team. Colorado was also without Jonathan Drouin, Ross Colton, Josh Manson and Ryan Lindgren because of injuries. Miles Wood did not play Saturday because of an illness.

That is $44.6 million against the club’s salary cap that was not available, and that doesn’t include captain Gabe Landeskog ($7 million). The Avs will likely have a similar lineup Sunday evening for the final game of the regular season against the Anaheim Ducks.

Quinton Byfield had three points, and Kevin Fiala scored twice for the Kings, who built a 2-0 lead with goals on their first two shots of the game.

“You’re not going to wear that one that one too hard, but you definitely want to keep yourself accountable in areas that maybe weren’t your sharpest,” said Avs goalie Mackenzie Blackwood, who made 27 saves.

While this was a relatively meaningless game for the Avalanche in the big picture, the club was still collectively buzzing about Landeskog’s return to the ice Friday night in Loveland with the Eagles. Blackwood said he watched the game on his phone while he was at dinner.

Bednar said the coaching staff got together to watch it as well.

“I was excited for (Landeskog),” Bednar said. “It looked like an amazing night. Talking to everyone who was there, it was great energy in the building. Everyone was excited for him. I think he handled it with class. Good for him to get in that game and to get almost 15 minutes.”

There were a few bright spots Saturday for the Avalanche. Brock Nelson scored his 300th career goal to get Colorado on the board and added No. 301 late in the third period.

Nelson now has five goals and 12 points in 18 games since arriving from the Islanders in a trade just before the NHL deadline. He scored on a cross-crease pass from fellow trade addition Charlie Coyle with the Avs on the power play at 10:39 of the first period.

Coyle has been the hottest Colorado player in April. He had just two points in his first 13 games with the Avs after the trade with the Bruins, but he now has eight in the past five contests.

Valeri Nichushkin has been the club’s most consistent goal scorer when available this season, and he evened the score early in the second. Artturi Lehkonen found Nichushkin with a great pass as he cut toward the left post for his 21st goal in 43 games, just 2:13 in.

Alex Laferriere and Anze Kopitar restored the Kings’ two-goal advantage before the end of the middle period.

Sam Malinski scored his fifth goal of the season midway through the third period. It was a wicked wrist shot from the right circle after a pass from Nichushkin to get Colorado back within a goal.

Among the reinforcements recalled from the Colorado Eagles, defenseman Wyatt Aamodt made his NHL debut for the Avs. Aamodt, 27, was an undrafted free agent out of Minnesota State-Mankato. Has played 181 regular-season games and 18 playoff games for the Eagles since joining them in 2021-22.

His defense partner, Jack Ahcan, made his Avalanche debut. Ahcan, also 27, has spent the past two seasons with the Eagles. He played nine games for the Bruins across two seasons. Jere Innala, who played 15 games for the Avalanche earlier this season, also returned for his first NHL contest since Jan. 22.

“I think (Aamodt) and Jack did a great job back there,” Bednar said. “They were involved in the game physically, moved the puck well. Wyatt had a couple of big blocked shots in dangerous areas. Jack was up in the play. They did a nice job for coming up against a big, strong team.”

The Avs have now used 49 players this season, which ties for most in the NHL in the past 10 seasons and the franchise record, set by the Quebec Nordiques in 1989-90 and 1990-91.

Aamodt also became the ninth player to make his NHL debut for the Avalanche this season, the most in the NHL this season and second-most in franchise history (there were 11 in 2008-09).

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Even if Gabe Landeskog never skates a shift at the American Airlines Center, Lone Star faithful oughta be quaking in their chaps.

The Stars got Mikko.

The Avs got Miracles.

I mean, sure, our old pal Mikko Rantanen got $96 million out of Dallas.

Can’t put a price on mojo.

Just hand Landeskog the ESPY now. No NHL player has ever skated again after the kind of cartilage repair the Captain had done. No NHL player had even seen a second act.

Until now.

And wouldn’t you know it? In Landeskog’s conditioning debut with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles on Friday, the man wasted no time getting in everybody’s hair.

Eleven minutes into his first competitive game in 1,020 days, Landy got sent to the box for hooking. Blue Arena was tickled pink, of course. So he waved. Twice.

He put a kid in a headlock. He popped another dude into the boards. He camped out in front of the crease, just like old times. He fired from the slot. Fifteen shifts. 14:49 of ice time. Two penalty minutes. $200 tickets.

Can’t put a price on good vibes.

If O Captain’s knocking, the Avs are rocking. Gabe’s the cherry on top of this crazy sundae Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland has been building for months.

In January, MacFarland wanted to shake up his roster. In Nuggetsland, that means sitting on your hands and fighting with your coach. Not Mac.

First, he shocked us all by shipping Rantanen to Carolina. In isolation, it felt like insanity. In hindsight, it was the beginning of a genius makeover. The Avs at Christmas offered two lines of stars and two of scrubs — the perfect formula for getting bounced early from the postseason.

MacFarland didn’t just solve the franchise’s eternal 2C problem. He went out and grabbed a 3C for fun. He forged five lines of depth. Then, for good measure, he went for the feels by bringing defenseman Erik Johnson, a fan favorite, back home.

Now imagine a locker room with EJ holding court in one corner and Gabe doing the same at the other.

To paraphrase Yogi Berra, 70% of winning a Stanley Cup is half mental. It’s the ultimate spring grind. A nine-week battle of wills.

For two straight Aprils — since Landy’s been out of action, really — the Avs have looked soft in crunch time. Soft in the head. Soft in the spine. Soft when it counts.

You think anybody on that club’s going to want to dog a shift and then have to look Landeskog in the eye? Or disappoint Johnson, who just turned 37?

Colorado will go this postseason as Valeri Nichushkin goes, same as it ever was. Better believe No. 92 and No. 6 know how important No. 13 is to this franchise’s quest to lift Cup No. 4. You think Val wants to let Gabe down now?

“You keep putting the work in, and day-by-day you keep doing it and keep believing,” Landeskog told reporters late Friday night after his AHL return.

“The days become weeks, and the weeks become months, and finally, years have gone by and now you’re playing again. I never thought this was ever going to get to this point and get this big and get this much attention, and that was never my intention. I’m just trying to fight my way back, and here we are. So yeah, it was a fun night.”

Darn straight. Looked good, didn’t he? At least from what you could make out via your laptop or smartphone.

Even if it’s on a third or a fourth line, seeing Landeskog in burgundy and blue gives you 2022 goose bumps all over again. MacFarland’s getting the band back together, kids.

“I’ve always tried to kind of stay present, live in the moment,” Landeskog reflected. “(I’m) still going to do that. I don’t want to look too far ahead, but I do know that I feel good (Friday) …  Hopefully I feel good (Saturday), and we can keep working and I can keep practicing. And we’ll see where it takes us.”

It’s 49 miles to Loveland, we’ve got a full tank of gas, and Gabe is throwing guys around.

Hit it.

“It was fun,” Landeskog said. “The headlock wasn’t necessarily planned (Friday) morning. But it’s part of the game.”

The Eagles have Landy. This flight’s starting to smell like another round-trip ticket to Lord Stanley. In fact, you might even say it’s in the Stars.

Landeskog will suit up again Saturday night for the Colorado Eagles at Blue Area in Loveland against the Henderson Silver Knights. The Colorado Avalanche captain returned Friday night after not playing since Game 6 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final on June 26, 2022.

He missed nearly three years because of issues with his right knee that began when Cale Makar’s skate accidentally cut him above his knee during a 2020 game inside the NHL’s “COVID bubble” in Edmonton. He’s had several procedures done, the most recent being knee cartilage replacement surgery in May 2023.

No player has returned from the procedure to NHL action, but Lonzo Ball had it done in March 2023 and has returned for the Chicago Bulls this season.

FloHockey will stream the game on its website with a subscription, but not for free, and on its social media platforms, similar to Friday night. The game will also air on the radio on 950 AM.

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Makar is the first NHL defenseman in 16 seasons to score 30 goals, and only the ninth player at his position to ever reach that milestone.

“What year did Mike Green do it? And Cale is a ‘98 (birthday)?” Middleton said. “So he was about 10 years old the last time it happened. We were all children back then.

“It’s honestly an honor to just be part of it. To watch it happen, it’s super cool.”

Green was the last NHL defenseman to do it, scoring 31 times for the Washington Capitals in 2008-09. And yes, Makar was 10 years old the day he did it.

Sam Malinski had another pretty good idea when asked the same question.

“I think it just means we are witnessing greatness,” he said. “That’s an unbelievable accomplishment, and it’s something we are all blessed to witness here.”

Makar played in the Avs’ first 80 games this season, but is expected to get the final weekend off. The Avs finish out the regular season Sunday in Anaheim, with a first-round playoff heavyweight fight looming against the Dallas Stars.

He still set a new franchise record for points by a defenseman with 92, giving him the top three spots on that list — all in the past four seasons.

“It’s awesome. I’m so happy for Cale,” Erik Johnson said. “I know he doesn’t care about it, but it’s pretty cool from our standpoint to have him do that and then probably have another Norris (Trophy) all locked up. It’s really exciting.”

“I think the game has changed since a defenseman last scored 30. I think there’s more scoring now than there was then, but I also just think the way the defensive position has changed, I think you’ll see it from Cale again, maybe a couple other guys I think have the talent to get there. But it is pretty remarkable.”

Before this season, The Denver Post wrote about what a peak season from Makar might look like — if he has “one of those years” like Nathan MacKinnon had in 2023-24. ESPN analyst Ray Ferraro suggested 30 goals and 100 points. Makar’s teammate, Josh Manson, also pointed to triple digits in points.

The scary thing is that this probably wasn’t the peak for Makar.

“Yeah, 30 goals by a defenseman is insane,” said Ryan Lindgren, who joined the team last month. “For me, you know how good of a player he is, but I used to only see him twice a year. You see the highlights and stuff, but then coming here and actually playing with him and seeing what he does on a nightly basis — I don’t want to say it’s not surprising that’s he able to do that, but I guess it kind of is. He just creates so much every night. It’s pretty cool to see.”

Makar’s list of traits that make him a world-class player is as long as the list of accomplishments that has him barreling toward a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He’s the complete package — skating, skill, smarts, selflessness and self-imposed expectations that can’t be satiated.

It’s always interesting to hear what some of the best hockey players in the world think about a guy who reaches heights that few can ever realistically dream of.

“Well, there’s a lot of things that he can do that not everyone can do,” Middleton said. “Obviously his skill set and skating is elite. But I think how he processes the game so fast — he can read through plays, he can pick off passes.

“Honestly, I think of it like the all-star QBs in the NFL, and how they process the game so quickly and efficiently. That’s what I see in Cale. It’s incredible, man. It really is impressive.”

Lindgren spent several years skating next to Adam Fox when he was with the New York Rangers. Fox has a Norris Trophy on his resume and is one of the top five defensemen in the league annually. Even in this woebegone Rangers campaign, Fox has been one of the best defensemen in the league.

He’s not Makar, though. And that might be another way to find proper perspective with what the kid from Calgary just accomplished and what might be yet to come.

“Just the way he skates, the way he’s able to get out of any situation. He’s got it all,” Lindgren said. “His hands can actually keep up with his skating. The way he thinks the game — also his shot, too. I didn’t realize how much of a bomb he has. His wrist shot is — he fires that thing.

“Yeah, he’s got it all. That’s why he’s the best defenseman in the world.”

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They held six Colorado Eagles season tickets at Blue Arena — sick seats, as Kevin put it. And suddenly, those seats they’d renewed for 14 years had become the most coveted cushions in town. Ticket resale prices for a simple AHL game between the Eagles and Henderson Silver Knights broke the stratosphere.

Selling them, though, never once crossed their mind. For this was the return of the Captain.

“You can’t put money,” Kevin said, simply, “on top of seeing Landeskog.”

Not just seeing Gabriel Landeskog. Seeing history. Seeing a man who’d waited exactly 1,020 days since he climbed the mountaintop to a Stanley Cup with the Avalanche in 2022 and then free-fell into a nightmare of knee injuries return to the game he loved. And they packed a tiny arena in Loveland on Friday night as Avalanche teammates Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar and more watched from box seats, unified with a group of Avalanche faithful all hanging onto every twist of Landeskog’s skate.

And the hero’s welcome came, perhaps, in the unlikeliest of places: the penalty box. On his third shift, after chants of LAN-DY had long rained upon the golden-haired forward, Landeskog hooked a Silver Knight and was banished for two minutes.

As he sat, though, the in-arena announcer declared it time for a standing ovation for No. 92. And Landeskog raised a hand, smiling sheepishly, as a roar built in Blue.

“I was talking to the gentleman that was sitting in the penalty box,” Landeskog recalled, postgame, with a grin. “And I mentioned to him that I do, somehow, even though it’s been a long time, I remember this feeling of sitting in the penalty box. And it’s still not a great feeling.”

“But, people made it special tonight.”

Much felt fresh again Friday, on a conditioning assignment to the AHL that represented Landeskog’s first professional action in nearly three years. The bench. The locker room. The ice. Landeskog, as he cracked postgame, forgot his pregame routine. But the knee felt “great,” as he declared to the crowd in a postgame on-ice interview, and flashes of the old Landy permeated Friday.

He was limited to less than 15 minutes of ice time in a period-by-period conversation with Eagles head coach Aaron Schneekloth. He missed a couple of makeable shots on goal and got “a little frustrated” with himself on the bench amid a slight lack of involvement, as Landeskog recounted postgame.

But after several knee procedures, including a cartilage surgery no NHL player has ever returned from, Landeskog’s unbridled aggressiveness was encouraging both to the public and himself. He drove a Henderson player into the glass on his fourth shift. He launched into an all-out dive to poke the puck away shortly after. And he joined a first-period dustup, grabbing Henderson’s Ben Hemmerling and delivering a headlock so nonchalant he looked like an older brother.

“Been thinking about this for a long time, and envisioning this, and envisioning being in a competitive hockey game again,” Landeskog said postgame. “And obviously, there were times when I didn’t know if that was ever going to happen. So it felt great being in the battle again.”

Through those low points, Landeskog waxed postgame, the support he’d felt had been incredible. From his wife. From teammates. From players across the league. And roughly 2,000 miles away, on a vacation in the Cayman Islands, former Pittsburgh Penguins center Eric Tangradi called himself “probably his biggest fan.”

Tangradi, once, had his NHL career virtually ended by the same knee surgery Landeskog had undergone to return to the ice. He knew the exact setbacks Landeskog had faced. He knew “rock bottom,” as Tangradi put it. And he’s followed the Avalanche forward’s journey from the edge of his seat, all the way through Friday’s triumph.

“Just to see him out there is a victory,” Tangradi said of Landeskog. “If he has one shift — and I hope he plays the whole game, but if he has even one shift — like, this is like, massive success story.”

Landeskog had 13 shifts, actually. And the forward didn’t specifically pinpoint a timetable or plan for his return to the Avalanche, as the playoffs loom, but repeatedly emphasized postgame that he felt “good” and that he’d “see what the future looks like.”

Landeskog was later scheduled to play another game for the Eagles on Saturday night.

And as he made his way off the ice Friday night, the chants of LAN-DY lingered long in Blue Arena, serenading a new chapter for the Captain.

“I never thought this was ever going to get to this point and get this big and get this much attention,” Landeskog said. “And that was never my intention. I just — trying to fight my way back.”

“And here we are.”

Tonight’s 7:05 p.m. game against the Henderson Silver Knights at Blue Arena in Loveland is technically a sell-out, but limited standing-room only tickets may still be available at ColoradoEagles.com.

If you can’t be there in person, you can watch for free on FloHockey, the official streaming partner of the AHL:

• FloHockey on YouTube
• FloHockey on Facebook
• FloHockey on X

The game will also be cross-posted to the AHL’s Facebook page.

Altitude Sports Radio will also be airing the game on 950 AM.

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