{"id":461562,"date":"2026-02-18T03:13:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T03:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/461562\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T03:13:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T03:13:24","slug":"gabriel-landeskog-wants-to-repay-swedens-belief-with-olympic-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/461562\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabriel Landeskog wants to repay Sweden’s belief with Olympic gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN \u2013 Participating in his second Olympic Games, Gabe Landeskog prefers to remain in the here and now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, there are moments when the veteran of over 700 NHL games zones out and considers what it took over the last four years of his life to get here. Four separate knee surgeries. Three full NHL regular seasons missed. Genuine doubt he\u2019d ever play the sport he loves again.<\/p>\n

Then, just as he was hitting his stride with points in seven of his last 10 full NHL games, Landeskog suffered a rib injury that sidelined him for the Avalanche\u2019s final 14 contests before the Olympic break.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"GabrielGabriel Landeskog #92 of Team Sweden skates against Latvia. Getty Images<\/p>\n

But here he is, captaining Sweden into a quarterfinal clash with the Americans at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

His second goal of the tournament in a 5-1 win over Latvia gave his country a 2-0 lead just over halfway through the first period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a silver medal at home and that\u2019s, I guess, something that sits there,\u201d Landeskog said to a small contingent of U.S. reporters Tuesday before Sweden earned a shot at the Americans on Wednesday night, referencing his nation\u2019s second-place finish to Canada at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Sweden'sSweden\u2019s Gabriel Landeskog, right, shoots the puck against Finland. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t mean as much as if it would\u2019ve been a gold medal. I think if it\u2019s a gold medal, I think it\u2019s very different. We all want to win. That\u2019s what we\u2019re bred to do, and we all want to compete against the best in the world. Now, to get an opportunity to do it, I\u2019m sure when career is said and done and I\u2019m off doing something else, I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll sit back and really take in what the journey has been like and those sort of things.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut right now, I\u2019m just trying to soak in the moment and play my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Landeskog has represented Sweden at the international level since the 2011 World Junior Championships, where he was limited to just one game due to a high ankle sprain. Leadership has been a part of his international legacy as much as his on-ice play, considering he was first named alternate captain of that 2011 team at the age of 18.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2026 WINTER OLYMPICS<\/p>\n

With only gold medals at the World Championship 2013 and 2017, Landeskog is looking to add an Olympic gold to his collection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Team Sweden, inspired by his comeback, decided to stitch the \u2018C\u2019 into his Tre Kronor jersey for the Olympics for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Head coach Sam Hallam said Landeskog\u2019s journey into the tournament commanded respect from his teammates. While defenseman Victor Hedman, who served as captain at 4 Nations, was also an option, Hallam noted that he \u201cknows what Hedman feels about Gabe.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, it\u2019s such an inspiration for us,\u201d said Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad, who assisted on Landeskog\u2019s first-period score before giving Sweden a 4-1 lead in the third. \u201cYou could really tell the difference of him, with his presence being here this year compared to 4 Nations. How he is as a guy, how he is as a teammate \u2013 on the ice, off the ice. Really enjoy being able to play alongside of him. I think this is the first time, really. Obviously, known him somehow for a lot of time, but never got to play with him. His impact has been huge so far.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2013 Participating in his second Olympic Games, Gabe Landeskog prefers to remain in the here and now.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[144,7,5,4,2602,43,1718,2787,31286],"class_list":{"0":"post-461562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-colorado-avalanche","9":"tag-gabriel-landeskog","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-olympics","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-sweden","15":"tag-winter-olympics","16":"tag-winter-olympics-2026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116089455799710744","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}