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All three Philadelphia Flyers players at the 2026 Winter Olympics have dressed in at least one game entering Sunday’s final preliminary round matches. Here’s a quick update as of Sunday morning prior to Team Canada’s game against France.
- Travis Sanheim (defenseman, Canada): Sanheim was a healthy scratch in the opening game against Czechia. An injury to Winnipeg Jets’ blueliner Josh Morrissey opened an opportunity for Sanheim to get into the Canada lineup. At last year’s Four Nations Face-Off, Sanheim was scratched in the opener and then played well in each of the next three games. This year at the Olympics, Sanheim was plus-two and skated 19 shifts (10:17 time on ice) in Canada’s 5-1 victory over Switzerland. He is also set to dressed in the round robin finale against France on Sunday. Game is 10:40 a.m. EST. The game will be broadcast on Peacock.
- Rasmus Ristolainen (defenseman, Finland): “Risto” leads all players in the tournament with a +8 rating through the first three games. The Big Finn also notched two assists on Saturday in an 11-0 rout of overmatched Team Italy. Blocked shots and hits are not officially recorded as statistics by the International Ice Hockey Federation. However, Ristolainen has had several of each during his three games to date. He has performed well in every match, including Finland’s 4-1 loss to Slovakia in the tournament opener. Ristolainen has averaged 19:23 of ice time over the first three games. Ristolainen has recorded seven shots on goal.
- Dan Vladar (goaltender, Czechia): “Vladdy” dressed in all three round-robin games but started only the Czechs’ 6-3 win over France on Friday. Vladar (nine saves on 12 shots) saw almost no scoring chances in the first period. In the second period, the Czechs stumbled early, and the French struck for three goals in the first five minutes. Thereafter, the Czechs reasserted control. Vladar was tested a couple of times over the remainder of the game and kept his team in front. Overall, the Czech team underachieved in group play. After losing to Switzerland in overtime on Sunday, 4-3, Czechia finished the preliminary round with a 1-1-1 record. They finished in third place in Group A, ahead of France but behind Canada and Switzerland.
Phantoms Fall to Cleveland
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms were unable to sustain a strong start and dropped a 5-2 home decision to the Cleveland Monsters on Saturday. In the process, John Snowden’s team fell to “hockey .500” for the season at 21-21-4.
Oscar Eklind (2nd) and Tucker Robertson (9th) scored first period goals in a losing cause. Alex Bump returned to the lineup after a 13-game injury absence. Meanwhile, rookie goaltender Carson Bjarnason stopped 23 of 27 shots. Bjarnason misplayed the game’s first goal letting a harmless-looking dump-in get past him into the net. The game’s final tally was an empty net goal.
The Flyers AHL farm team return to action Sunday afternoon at 3:05 p.m. against the Syracuse Crunch.
