Pick me (again): Flames defenceman Rasmus Andersson angling for invite to 2026 Olympics
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Calgary Flames workhorse Rasmus Andersson had been waiting more than a decade for another opportunity to represent Sweden on international ice.
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The rugged rearguard wound up waiting a few days longer because he was scratched for a pair of games at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
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But after what he described as an “awesome” experience, certainly one that was worth the wait, Andersson is hoping his next call to suit up for his country will come soon — like in February 2026, when the best of the best gather again for the Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy.
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“First and foremost, I want to make the playoffs here, and we’re going to have a hell of a push here these last 27 games,” Andersson declared Friday as he rejoined the Flames. “So that’s the ultimate goal.
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“But in the back of your head somewhere, it’s that Olympics. You know, it’s kind of in a place where I grew up a little bit, too. We lived in Lugano (Switzerland) for four years growing up, and that’s 45 minutes from Milano. So that would be even more special for me and my family to go back there.”
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For Andersson, this past week and change offered a sneak preview of just how special it would be.
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The 28-year-old defenceman described the 4 Nations Face-Off as “a home run for the league and for the sport” and referred to Thursday’s overtime showdown between Canada and the U.S. as “the gravy on top of it.”
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The Swedes officially finished third with a 1-0-2 record.
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Andersson was in the lineup for that lone victory — a 2-1 triumph over the Americans in Monday’s round-robin capper in Boston. While the Swedes had already been eliminated from championship contention, he showed with a game-high five blocked shots that he is willing to do the dirty work. That comes as no surprise to those who watch him average 24 minutes per night of oftentimes thankless shutdown work with the Flames.
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“You’re obviously disappointed when you’re not playing, but at the same time, you can’t be too disappointed, right?” said Andersson, who was the spare on Sweden’s stacked blue-line for overtime losses to both Canada and Finland. “You have to find a way to bring energy other ways and the first name that kind of popped into my head was to be a little bit of a (Ryan) Lomberg out there, bring energy in a different way. So that’s what I tried to do the first two games and then finally got in the last game and I thought I played pretty well. I had a long talk with the coach after and he seemed to really enjoy the way I played. So you leave on a good note, even though as a team, we didn’t reach the ultimate goal.
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“Even though we were out of it in the last game, we still wanted to end off on a good note because you want to impress the coaches and the management … So the next time they sit there and try to pick a team, they’re like, ‘Well, this guy actually played really hard against the U.S.’ ”
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