{"id":444017,"date":"2026-02-03T22:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T22:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/444017\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T22:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T22:02:17","slug":"2-canes-both-danes-will-play-for-national-team-in-winter-olympics-wral-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/444017\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Canes, both Danes will play for national team in Winter Olympics :: WRAL.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two members of the Carolina Hurricanes share not only a professional home but a home country. Both are in play this winter when Frederik Andersen and Nikolaj Ehlers trade the Carolina sweater for a place on the roster for Team Denmark at the\u00a02026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n<p>Men\u2019s Olympic hockey competition begins on<br \/>\nFeb. 11, and two Carolina Hurricanes players will take the ice for Denmark.<br \/>\nGoaltender Frederik Andersen and forward Nikolaj Ehlers will trade in their<br \/>\nHurricanes jerseys for a few weeks as they chase national glory on the world\u2019s<br \/>\nbiggest stage.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t&gt;&gt;\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wralsportsfan.com\/how-to-watch-the-u-s-mens-hockey-team-at-the-2026-winter-olympics-tv-and-stream-schedule\/22311480\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">How to watch the U.S. men&#8217;s hockey team at the 2026 Winter Olympics: TV and stream schedule<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Andersen, who has been with the Hurricanes<br \/>\nsince 2021, has a career save percentage of .914 and has 315 career wins. At<br \/>\nthe 2024 Men\u2019s Final Olympic Ice Hockey Qualification, he led Team Denmark with<br \/>\na 3-0-0 record, stopping 60 of 64 shots.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cFor the first time in my career, I get to<br \/>\nplay with a Dane in my everyday team, so that&#8217;s been fun,\u201d Andersen said.<br \/>\n\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to sharing this experience together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Since signing with the Hurricanes in early<br \/>\nJuly 2025, Ehlers<br \/>\nhas recorded 14 goals and 27 assists in his 54 games \u00a0and<br \/>\ntops the all-time NHL list among Danish players in goals, points and assists.<br \/>\nHe brought this same energy to the 2025 World Championships, scoring three<br \/>\ntimes in four games.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The pair is preparing to shift from their<br \/>\nHurricanes mindset to representing their country on the Olympic ice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m trying to think about our season here,<br \/>\nwhich is the most important right now,\u201d Ehlers said. \u201cOnce we\u2019re done here and<br \/>\nready to go over to Milan, it\u2019s going to be all Team Denmark in my head.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Team Denmark will be making its second-ever<br \/>\nOlympic appearance, after finishing seventh at the 2022 Beijing Games. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ehlers said he\u2019s looking forward to watching<br \/>\nother athletes compete and taking in the Olympic village. Most of all, he\u2019s<br \/>\nproud to be representing his country, especially after the World Championships<br \/>\nin May.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe made it to the semi-finals as a small<br \/>\ncountry and beat Canada 2-1 in the quarters,\u201d Ehlers said. \u201cThat experience and<br \/>\nseeing the whole country behind you was something I\u2019d never felt before, and it<br \/>\nwas the most special feeling ever.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/a62b568d-b725-5975-a489-22bb695d9c26.jpeg\"\/>Nikolaj Ehlers, center, and Sebastian Aho, left, teammates in Carolina will represent their home countries in the 2026 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, Ehlers and Andersen won\u2019t be<br \/>\nable to represent Denmark at the opening ceremony, as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wralsportsfan.com\/schedule-and-roster\/18520653\/?team=30000009&amp;tab=schedule\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hurricanes are<br \/>\nscheduled to play<\/a> the night before.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems like it&#8217;s a small thing, but to us<br \/>\nit&#8217;s a big thing because you want to be able to take everything in and<br \/>\nexperience everything,\u201d Ehlers said. <\/p>\n<p>Although they\u2019re disappointed by the tight<br \/>\ntimeline, Andersen said they\u2019ll still try to make the most of every moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The duo will set off to Milan on Feb. 7, spend<br \/>\na few days training with Team Demark, and be ready for their first match on<br \/>\nFeb. 12. With limited time to practice together, Andersen said they held<br \/>\npreliminary meetings over the summer to help prepare. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe good thing about Denmark\u2014a small country\u2014<br \/>\nis a lot of us know each other from playing against each other growing up or<br \/>\nwith each other at different World Championships or qualification for the<br \/>\nOlympics,\u201d Andersen said.<\/p>\n<p>Ehlers added that Team Denmark knows each<br \/>\nother well on and off the ice, so he doesn\u2019t think the quick adjustment will be<br \/>\ntoo difficult. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been able to create something special<br \/>\nwithin that team and that&#8217;s something I\u2019m excited to get back to,\u201d Ehlers said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Team Denmark is scheduled to compete against<br \/>\nGermany, the United States and Latvia at the Games.<\/p>\n<p>Ehlers and Andersen won\u2019t be the only<br \/>\nHurricanes players on Olympic ice. Sebastian Aho will represent Finland, and Denmark plays against Jaccob Slavin and Team USA on Feb. 14.<\/p>\n<p>Ehlers said he\u2019s looking forward to the<br \/>\nchallenge. Andersen said that whoever wins the Denmark\u2013United States game will<br \/>\n\u201cget some bragging rights back at home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once the Olympics conclude on Feb. 22, the duo<br \/>\nwill jump right back into the NHL season, as the Hurricanes are slated to play<br \/>\nagain on Feb. 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two members of the Carolina Hurricanes share not only a professional home but a home country. Both are&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5107],"tags":[194,29,5176,5,195,54071,4,2602],"class_list":{"0":"post-444017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-hurricanes","8":"tag-carolina","9":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","10":"tag-carolinahurricanes","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-hurricanes","13":"tag-nc-olympics","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-olympics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116008961306693295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}