Oliver Ekman-Larsson is an established, respected defenseman in the NHL, currently playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

This month, though, he’s in Milan with Team Sweden to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Sweden got its competition underway on Wednesday with a win over Italy, as expected.

One thing went wildly different than expectation, though: Ekman-Larsson’s role.

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The 34-year old defenseman didn’t play a single second. Not one shift. Not one hop over the boards to take the ice.

He was the only skater who dressed for Sweden and didn’t play.

It’s important to note that Olympic teams can dress two more players than an NHL squad, so Sweden had 13 forwards and seven defenseman active.

Filip Forsberg was surprisingly the 13th forward, and he played just 1 minute and 6 seconds.

Ekman-Larsson surely would’ve taken that minute of action over what he got.

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Sweden had three defensive pairings it trusted and decided not to mess around with finding space for Ekman-Larsson within that.

There’s a chance the rotation changes in Sweden’s next game, and it could be good to get Ekman-Larsson some ice time just to keep him fresh.

But for now, there’s no way this is how he expected to begin his Olympics.

On talented teams, good players have to miss out to at least some extent. On Wednesday, Ekman-Larsson missed out to the fullest extent.

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