Photo credit: Bob Frid – Imagn Images.
A bizarre situation occurred the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy on Wednesday afternoon involving a former member of the Vancouver Canucks on Team Sweden.
After 12 years, National Hockey League players finally returned to the Winter Games, with Wednesday’s action seeing the defending gold medalists Team Finland take on Team Slovakia, while Elias Pettersson and Team Sweden take on the hosts, Team Italy.
For the first 21 minutes, the game was back-and-forth, with Italy taking a 1-0 lead early in the first, before tying the game up at 2-2 37 seconds into the middle frame, but it was the Swedes who would go on to pick up the victory, but some of coaching staff’s decision making has been under scrutiny over the last 24+ hours.
Bizarre situation occurs at 2026 Winter Olympics involving former Vancouver Canucks defenseman
To preface, Olympic rosters are slightly bigger than National Hockey League rosters, with nations allowed to dress two extra players, typically a 13th forward and seventh defenseman.
During Wednesday’s game for Sweden, former Vancouver Canucks defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who is one of only a few players that were on their roster in 2014, was in the lineup against Italy, however the blueliner never saw any game action.
When the buzzer sounded at the end of the third period, the box score showed that Oliver Ekman-Larsson finished with an ice time of 0:00, which was a bit puzzling to many, including former NHLer Colby Cohen.
“[Oliver Ekman-Larsson] sat there for 60 minutes and didn’t get a shift. That’s weird to me.” Cohen said.
Another questionable decision made by Swedish head coach Sam Hallam was to not only make Nashville Predators star Filip Forsberg their 13th forward, but only gave him one shift, finishing the game with a time on ice of 1:07.
“Time on ice in Sweden’s 5-2 win over Italy:
D Oliver Ekman-Larsson – 0:00 (zero shifts)
F Filip Forsberg – 1:07 (one shift)” NHL insider Frank Seravalli shared.
Team Sweden will be back in action early on Friday against their long-time Nordic rivals, Team Finland, so we’ll have to wait and see if Sam Hallam decides to utilize Oliver Ekman-Larsson or make him a healthy scratch for such a big tilt.
Previously on Vancouver Hockey Daily
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Bizarre situation occurs at 2026 Winter Olympics involving former Vancouver Canucks defenseman
Do you think Oliver Ekman-Larsson will actually get to play on Friday against Finland?