Captain Gabriel Landeskog, goaltender Philipp Grubauer and top offseason acquisition Brandon Saad joined the Colorado Avalanche on Friday after missing three days of training camp as the team turned its focus to special teams.

“Honestly I thought it was going to feel worse after a few days off the ice, but it felt pretty good,” Landeskog said.

Veteran defenseman Erik Johnson did not participate.

“Erik is still unfit to practice and come to the rink,” coach Jared Bednar said. “Fortunately we were able to get the other guys back in.”

Bednar said defenseman Keaton Middleton has left camp “to get a second opinion” after he didn’t clear his physical.

The top power play unit of Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Nazem Kadri, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar saw the ice, as well as an evolving second group including Valeri Nichushkin, Brandon Saad, Andre Burakovsky, Samuel Girard, Devon Toews, Joonas Donskoi and J.T. Compher.

“You couldn’t notice that they’d missed a little bit of time,” Bednar said of the returners.

NOTE: The Avalanche placed Kyle Burroughs, Sheldon Dries, Jacob MacDonald, Jayson Megna, Dan Renouf, Miikka Salomaki, Mike Vecchione and T.J. Tynan on waivers Friday.

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