Fabbri making instant impact for Red Wings following 3rd ACL surgery

DETROIT --Robby Fabbri had every reason to get off to a slow start. He was coming back from not his first, not his second, but his third ACL surgery, and he was doing it midseason with a new coaching staff.

But the 26-year-old forward has scored three goals in four games since his return, giving the Detroit Red Wings a much-needed offensive boost.
The Red Wings have defeated top-10 teams in each of the past two games -- 7-5 against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday, 4-1 against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday -- entering their game against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; BSDET, BSOH, ESPN+, SN NOW).
"I'm just focusing on] getting back to my game, getting my legs going and all that, and goals are coming, so I'm not going to complain about that," Fabbri said. "But getting them in wins definitely feels a lot better."
Fabbri has overcome a lot.
He was 21 years old, 51 games into his second NHL season, when he tore the ACL in his left knee playing for the St. Louis Blues against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Feb. 4, 2017. He had surgery and missed the rest of the season. Then he reinjured the knee entering 2017-18, had surgery again and missed the entire season.
He didn't come back for the Blues until Nov. 1, 2018, and he scored three goals in 42 games the rest of 2018-19 -- two in 32 games in the regular season, one in 10 games in the Blues' championship run in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
After scoring one goal in nine games to start 2019-20, he was traded to Detroit for forward
[Jacob de la Rose
on Nov. 6, 2019.
Soon, he started to score again -- 14 goals in 52 games for the Red Wings in 2019-20, 10 goals in 30 games in 2020-21 and 17 goals in 56 games in 2021-22. He had three goals in three games entering a game against the Minnesota Wild on March 10, 2022. It looked like he would eclipse the NHL career high of 18 he set as a rookie in 2015-16.
But he tore the ACL in his right knee and had surgery yet again.
Fabbri released a video on social media to tell the story of his comeback -- lying in a hospital bed, using a walker and hitting the gym, pushing, pushing, pushing.
"I've always had that in me that whatever I'm doing, I want to be the best at it," Fabbri said in the video. "That fire has only grown through these injuries. There's no doubt in my mind I am going to be what I was before and more. I've been an outlier once, and I'm going to be an outlier again."

Fabbri had no points and was minus-2 in his season debut, a 5-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Jan. 4. But not only did he not shy away from contact, he initiated it. In his postgame comments, captain Dylan Larkin made sure to acknowledge what he called "a pretty incredible thing."
"All the guys were really happy for him," Larkin said.
The next day, Fabbri said unfortunately he had experience coming back from ACL surgery and he had learned how to train to be as ready as possible. He said after his first couple of shifts, the adrenaline and nerves subsided and his legs felt good.
"Any rehab process gets slow," Fabbri said then. "Groundhog Day. Same day every day. But as you get closer, your days start to change, and you start to get ready for a game. That's kind of when mentally you dial in and you get excited, and everything's driving to that day of return."
Fabbri scored on a wrist shot from the right circle in a 3-2 loss to the Florida Panthers on Jan. 6, then sat out the next night when Detroit lost 4-1 at Toronto. He scored what turned out to be the winner Tuesday by going to the net and deflecting a shot, and he scored what turned out to be the winner again Thursday by one-timing a pass in the slot on the power play.

Detroit ranks 20th in the NHL in goals per game (3.10). The Red Wings (18-15-7), trying to make the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons, are fourth in the Atlantic Division and five points behind the Penguins for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.
"He was kind of the forgotten injured guy, because it was projected he would be back in the new year," coach Derek Lalonde said. "But that was one as a coaching staff we were anxiously awaiting back, and he's brought energy. He's brought compete. It just helps our depth throughout our lines, and obviously, he's pitched in. He's got three goals already in his return on a team that struggles to finish."
Lalonde, a former Tampa Bay Lightning assistant the Red Wings hired July 1, said general manager Steve Yzerman had told him he would like Fabbri.
"He's been as advertised," Lalonde said. "Hopefully he can sustain it and stay consistent with it."