Rasmus Ristolainen was the first Flyer to kick off their Olympic schedule at the 2026 games, skating with Finland against Slovakia, where Finland would eventually fall 4-1.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old defenseman logged 19:49 of ice time\u2014a steady workload\u2014but his influence on the game was muted. He was deployed in familiar situations, leaned on for defensive stability and puck movement, yet the game largely unfolded around him rather than through him.<\/p>\n
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For Ristolainen, whose NHL season has been affected by an upper-body injury, but also incremental improvements in decision speed and defensive detail, the Olympic opener showed the truest version of his club role: present, reliable in shifts, but not a driver of the outcome.<\/p>\n
Flyers at the 2026 Olympics: Upcoming Group-Stage Schedule<\/p>\n
February 12<\/p>\n
Czechia (Dan Vladar) vs. Canada (Travis Sanheim, Rick Tocchet) \u2014 10:40 a.m. EST (USA, CBC)<\/p>\n
Finland vs. Sweden \u2014 6:10 a.m. EST (USA, TSN)<\/p>\n
February 13<\/p>\n
Czechia vs. France \u2014 10:40 a.m. EST (SN, CBC)<\/p>\n
Canada vs. Switzerland \u2014 3:10 p.m. EST (CBC)<\/p>\n
February 14<\/p>\n
Finland vs. Italy \u2014 10:40 a.m. EST (USA, SN, CBC)<\/p>\n
February 15<\/p>\n
Czechia vs. Switzerland \u2014 6:10 a.m. EST (CNBC, SN)<\/p>\n
Canada vs. France \u2014 10:40 a.m. EST (USA, CBC)<\/p>\n
These games will determine positioning before the medal rounds begin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rasmus Ristolainen was the first Flyer to kick off their Olympic schedule at the 2026 games, skating with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[6878,4151,1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,4526,3673],"class_list":{"0":"post-454845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-dan-vladar","9":"tag-finland","10":"tag-flyers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-philadelphia","14":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","15":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","16":"tag-rasmus-ristolainen","17":"tag-travis-sanheim"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454845","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=454845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}