It’s back! And the secret to the Avalanche regaining its championship mojo can be found in Special Sauce No. 92.

Want to know why the Avs tower like Pikes Peak over everyone in the NHL’s power rankings? Start with the we’re-in-it-to-win-it vibe established by captain Gabe Landeskog.

“I don’t want to say I told you so,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said Saturday. “But I told you so.”

There wasn’t a dry eye in Denver’s old hockey barn last spring, when Landeskog returned to the ice, proudly wearing that “C” on his No. 92 sweater, after battling for 1,032 days to beat an injury that threatened to end his career.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment of pure hockey joy.

But the gratitude goes on forever.

“This is what I missed,” said Landeskog, as he unlaced his skates at the team’s practice facility, soaking in the locker-room banter and laughter that reminded him of the emptiness he felt without a sport he loves in his day-to-day life.

“What you miss the most is going through the grind of a hockey season with your friends. For three years, I had to do the grind alone. Now, to have everybody around me to share the experience of every hard-fought win or hard-fought loss, you grow that much closer. It’s the camaraderie, right?”.

Colorado’s 12-1-5 record has put the league on notice. These Avs are on a mission. And they ain’t messing around.

After looking like a dynasty in the making while rolling to a championship in 2022, the Avalanche lost its mojo, let slip its focus, and failed to live up to the loftiest of team ambitions for more than two frustrating seasons.

What was missing?

While critics pointed to the off-ice tribulations of Val Nichushkin, the far bigger loss was Landeskog.

“We missed him for a significant amount of time. It’s a big loss,” Bednar said, recalling the fits, false starts and setbacks during Landeskog’s rehabilitation from a freak leg injury. “We certainly knew it was a big loss. I’m not sure you guys all believed it was as big a loss as what it was.”

Well, the late, great Pierre Lacroix loved to chide me whenever I criticized his beloved Avs: “You know nothing about hockey!”

But I have long known Landeskog is the calm heart, the wise soul, and the fiery fists of this Avalanche team.

Not only is he willing to do the dirty work in front of the net, as was evidenced last week when Landy was rewarded with his first regular-season goal in three years, but this is the one guy in a Colorado sweater who can tell ornery Nathan MacKinnon to calm down and also jack the jaw of an opponent taking liberties with his teammates.

“I didn’t know Landy was as tough as he is,” Avs goalie Mackenzie Blackwood told me. “I knew he was a good player. But I didn’t realize he was so crooked, strong and tough. When I saw that element to him, I was like, ‘Jeez, don’t mess with this guy.’” 

Blackwood came to Colorado last December in a trade, so prior to this season, he only got a playoff glimpse of what Landeskog means to the Avs both at the rink and on the team bus.

“He has this aura about him. It’s hard for me to explain, but he has a presence. He’s not trying to be a leader. Landy just is,” Blackwood said.

“You know how some people try to be leaders, and it feels weird, because it’s forced? He just shows up and you follow his lead. He doesn’t talk a ton. But when Landy does, you shut up and listen. I don’t know how you get to be that way. I think you’re born with it.”  

The serious grind of a long, mentally and physically taxing NHL regular season doesn’t begin in earnest until the clocks fall back and the sun goes down before dinner.

Keeping his teammates engaged through hot streaks and slumps alike, focused on the process when it would be easy to get bogged down in the every-hotel-room-looks-the-same drudgery, is what makes Landeskog the captain of a coach’s dreams.

“We’re in the grind of the season. But I enjoy coming to work every day. You can take this game for granted, because there’s a part of everybody’s job that isn’t your favorite,” Landeskog said. ”But I think I’m able to snap out of that quicker than most because I realize what I missed about hockey for so long.”

There’s not a better team in the league right now than the Avalanche.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have all-world defenseman Cale Makar on your side. Colorado has not one, but two, goaltenders it can trust to win a big playoff game. And as Bednar noted, the vibe in the room is these boys are using festering disappointment as motivation, in much the same way a shocking playoff ouster in 2021 made gulping champagne from the Cup all the sweeter a year later.

Mind you, I’ve only wandered the streets of our dusty old cowtown, hanging out in football stadiums and hockey barns alike, for 42 years.

So take this for what it’s worth:

Landeskog is everything a team captain should aspire to be, not to mention the most worthy “C” I’ve ever seen.

Captain Gabe is the Avalanche’s secret sauce.

While his career stats don’t shout Hall of Fame, a leader like Landy comes along once in a generation.