(WGR Sports Radio 550) – Rasmus Dahlin begins the continuation of his Olympic dream on Wednesday, as Sweden opens the 2026 Winter Olympics against the host nation Italy.

Before Dahlin was drafted first overall in the 2018 NHL Draft by the Buffalo Sabres, he went to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea at age 17, where he played in two games and picked up an assist for Sweden.

Looking back now, Dahlin admits he was too young and probably shouldn’t have gone to his first Olympics.

“I didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have,” said Dahlin prior to Buffalo’s final game before the Olympic break. “Now I know what the Olympics actually mean, and I’m going to enjoy it way more and take advantage of the situation.”

To European players, the Olympics are the ultimate tournament to them and their countries. Dahlin says it’s the same in Sweden.

“Growing up, I didn’t watch the NHL very much. I watched more SHL, and then the Olympics was the big thing,” he said. “Coming from Sweden, it’s probably the biggest thing you can win.”

Dahlin has plenty of memories watching the Olympics as a kid.

“You heard about ’94 when Peter Forsberg did that move, and then in ’06, obviously [Sweden won Gold]. And then you have ’14, I think, when they came in second. It’s a lot of great memories from the Olympics,” Dahlin said.

As far as Dahlin’s idols from those teams, he had a few he loved watching.

“It was Peter Forsberg, and my favorite number was 21. Then once I got older, I started to look at d-men like [Erik] Karlsson, [Victor] Hedman and [Oliver] Ekman-Larsson. It’s awesome to play with those guys now,” Dahlin said.

Dahlin has already gotten the chance to play with both Hedman and Karlsson with the Swedish National Team. He says he’s always learning from the veteran defensemen.

“It’s very unique, just sitting in the locker room – practice days, game routines – I’m picking up everything and learning so much from everybody. And then you have conversations with guys, for me, it’s just a time to grow,” Dahlin noted.

Arguably the best defenseman in NHL history is Nicklas Lidstrom. He won four Stanley Cups and seven Norris Trophies with the Detroit Red Wings in a career that spanned 1,564 games, which is 14th overall in NHL history. He was also a four-time Olympian, where he ended up winning gold in 2006.

While Lidstrom is 55-years-old, Dahlin has had an opportunity to take the ice with him and learn.

“When I was 19, I tried texting him and I asked if he was up to answering some questions. So I drove up to him and just had a list of 100 questions, and we sat down for a couple of hours,” Dahlin recalled. “Then when we were done, I had booked some ice, so we hopped on the ice and he taught me how to defend a 2-on-1 and a lot of things. And I still use his tips.”

Meanwhile, Tage Thompson will be making his Olympic debut starting Thursday when the United States faces off against Latvia.

Thompson won a gold medal for the United States at the most recent World Championship, when he scored the Golden Goal in overtime against Switzerland.

Even before the break started, Thompson said the honor of playing in the Olympics for Team USA had started to set in.

“It’s coming up quick, so there’s no time to prepare. You just jump into it, which is good,” said Thompson before the break.

It was great for Thompson to win gold at the World Championship, but the Olympic games are a whole different ball game.

“It’s the biggest stage. It’s against all the best players in the world. Everything is a bit elevated, and that just makes it more exciting,” Thompson said.

Thompson wasn’t alive in 1980 when Herb Brooks coached his U.S. team of college players to a gold medal. Thompson says he knows all about it.

“Watching ‘Miracle’, that’s a classic if you’re an American watching that growing up,” he said. “And when I was younger, watching T.J. Oshie in the Olympics in the shootout [against Russia], it was something that stuck out to me.”

Thompson has had a couple of practices with Team USA, playing on the right wing with Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin at center. He says he will do whatever is asked of him in Milan.

“I think it’s just being accepting of whatever is given to you, and doing it to the best of your ability to help your team,” Thompson said.

This is the first time since 2014 that NHL players are in the Olympics, and Thompson is so happy that they are allowed back to play.

“Being an NHL player, I’m pretty excited that we’re back. It means I get to have an opportunity to play, and for sure a lot of other guys feel the same way,” he said. “It’s the best in the world going up against each other, and the intensity is going to be as high as you can imagine.”

Don’t forget, it’s not all the best players in the world with Russia banned from the Olympics due to their ongoing war with Ukraine.

That means you will not see Alex Ovechkin, Nikita Kucherov, Kirill Kaprizov, Artemi Panarin, Evgeni Malkin, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Ilya Sorokin or Sergei Bobrovsky. Igor Shesterkin would’ve been out of action anyway due to injury.