According to Statistics Canada, there are exactly 455 people living in the town of Elkhorn, Manitoba, Canada.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s safe to say just about every one of those 910 eyes will be focused on television sets around 10:40 a.m. (Eastern time) Thursday.<\/p>\n
This is because they could be watching their favorite son, Travis Sanheim, competing for Team Canada against Team Czechia in the 2026 Winter Olympics at Milano-Cortina, Italy.<\/p>\n
Sanheim, the longest-tenured defenseman on the Flyers, was listed as an extra on Canada\u2019s eight-man backline roster. But there\u2019s a good chance he will see action along the way in this tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just exciting to be going there and experiencing everything with it,\u201d Sanheim said. \u201cThen just getting focused and ready to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a chance Sanheim could be going against one of his Flyers teammates, goaltender Dan Vladar, one of three netminders on the Czechia roster.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be high-end hockey, competitive, fast-paced,\u201d Sanheim said. \u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s well-documented that Sanheim has been dreaming about the Olympics since he was a kid.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou dream about it but I don\u2019t know if it ever sets in that I would make it,\u201d Sanheim said. \u201cFirst, you\u2019re trying to make the NHL, that\u2019s your goal. Playing against the best of the best (in the Olympics), you never really thought about it too much but now that it\u2019s here and you realize who you\u2019re playing with and against, it\u2019s really going to set in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanheim will be joined on the Canada roster by fellow defensemen Drew Doughty (Los Angeles), Thomas Harley (Dallas), Cale Makar (Colorado), Josh Morrissey (Winnipeg), Colton Parayko (St. Louis), Shea Theordore (Vegas) and Devon Toews (Colorado).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s basically the same D-corps which represented Canada in last year\u2019s 4 Nations tournament. Sanheim played alongside Doughty, Parayko and Toews at various times throughout that competition.<\/p>\n
The Flyer veteran backliner isn\u2019t concerned about playing time. He just wants to be ready when his name is called.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I get there I\u2019ll find out and it will be whatever the team needs,\u201d Sanheim said.<\/p>\n
Hockey action actually gets underway Wednesday. Finland is scheduled to play Slovakia in the morning. The Flyers\u2019 third representative to these games, defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, will be competing for Finland.<\/p>\n
Sanheim plays in all situations with the Flyers. That might change a bit with the Canada assignment but he just wants to contribute when called upon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel comfortable I can step in at any spot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Will there be a watch party back in Elkhorn?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure what\u2019s going on,\u201d Sanheim said with a grin. \u201cI\u2019m trying to keep my focus on what\u2019s ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
At least Sanheim\u2019s family, including wife Alex, will be there in person when he does get into action.<\/p>\n
The excitement level should be high. Canada is favored to win another gold medal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that not a lot of people get to do,\u201d Sanheim said. \u201cIt\u2019s special. It\u2019s like competing in the playoffs for a Stanley Cup. I just want to soak it in and do my best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanheim is a big advocate of neck protection and players of his ilk are pleased to see that neck guards will be mandatory for these Olympics.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s his hope this experience will have a carryover effect for some players.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m interested to see when guys come back (to the NHL), if they continue wearing it or not,\u201d Sanheim said. \u201cMaybe it will come down to comfort level. The tournament is about 10 days. I\u2019m sure the players will feel comfortable with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bringing home a few converts to neck guards would be nice.<\/p>\n
Bringing home a gold medal to Elkhorn would be downright special.<\/p>\n
www.flyingfishhockey.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to Statistics Canada, there are exactly 455 people living in the town of Elkhorn, Manitoba, Canada. It\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,5095],"class_list":{"0":"post-454374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116052351024034062","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454374","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=454374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}