Dad’s dream-come-true inspires Rasmus Andersson in his own Olympic quest

Peter Andersson was living out a lifelong dream.

To hear him describe it, it simply sounds like a bonus that he was also representing his country at the greatest sporting spectacle in the world.

His son, a workhorse on the blue-line for the Calgary Flames and now questing for his own opportunity to skate for Sweden at the Winter Olympics, has heard Peter’s tales from Albertville 1992.

“He played with Borje Salming, that was his defence partner,” Rasmus Andersson relayed with a wide smile. “He played one Olympics and he says it’s the coolest thing he’s experienced.”

Reached by phone in Sweden, where his duties as head coach of Vasteras IK prevented him from attending the Flames’ recent Dads Trip, Peter was delighted to reminisce about his stint as a sidekick to the late and legendary Salming, who was the first European to achieve star status in the NHL and still holds the Toronto Maple Leafs’ all-time assists record.

En route to induction in the Hockey Hall of Fame, Salming capped his career at home in the Swedish Elite League. His trip to the Olympics was icing on the cake, even though it ended without a medal.

Peter played two-plus decades of professional puck, including parts of two seasons in the NHL, but pinpoints this among the biggest highlights.

“When the coach called me and said, ‘Hey, you’re going to play with Borje Salming,’ I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ ” said Peter, who was 26 when he scored a spot on Sweden’s roster for the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France. “That was my childhood idol, so that was great. At that time, he was over 40 years old, but he could still play really, really well and he was a really good guy.

“A lot of players on that team had him as an idol. At that time, the NHL was so far away. The media and the TV and stuff, it was not even close to where it is today, where you can watch all the games. Back then, you could hardly see any games. And the way he kind of opened the doors for all the Swedish guys that are there now, it’s amazing what he did for the future of Swedish players. I think most of the Canadian and Americans players, they like Swedish players to have on their team, because they’re pretty loyal and obviously very good players.

“Borje Salming was the guy who started that pretty much.”

Like father, like son?

For the first time in a dozen years, the NHL will be sending its stars to the 2026 Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy.

Rasmus Andersson, who leads the Flames this season in both minutes and rumour-mill mentions, has made a convincing case that he should be competing in that best-on-best tournament.

Thursday’s three-point pile-up against the Seattle Kraken was another prime example of why.

With the Olympic roster deadline looming in early January, the 29-year-old rearguard has been told he will receive word a couple of weeks before the public reveal.

That would be any day now. Perhaps he already knows.

“If I go internally, just to myself, I think I’ve done everything that I possibly could to take a spot,” Andersson told Postmedia in a recent interview. “If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. And if it’s not, I’ll obviously be disappointed and sad, but you have to look at yourself and be like, ‘Alright, you played well enough.’ There are so many good defencemen, right? But I really feel like I’ve been playing well enough to at least do everything I possibly could.

“I try not to think about it too much,” he continued. “But, at the same time, I think about it all the time. It’s tricky. You’re kind of antsy about it. Either way, you just want a decision, right? Especially with it coming so close now. Obviously, on an off-day, you think about it. And even on game days, you want to put yourself in the best position to make the team, and I really feel like I have been doing that. You just never know. You’re not in on those meetings. You don’t know what’s going on in there. I hope I’ll be there, but I guess we’ll just wait and see.”

Peter Andersson blends the bias of a proud father with the analytical eye of a longtime coach.

He’s not just playing favourites when he says that he believes his son has “a big chance” of landing a spot on Team Sweden, and it’s worth noting that everyone else seems to agree.

You have to do a lot of Googling to find a projected roster, at least a recent one, that doesn’t include Andersson as part of a stacked blue-line that will also feature Rasmus Dahlin, Gustav Forsling, Victor Hedman and Erik Karlsson.

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‘Probably our best player all season’

Remember, when the Flames reported for training camp this fall, there was some external concern that No. 4 might be a distraction because of his uncertain future.

Instead, he’s been their top defenceman. By far.

In fact, after his buddy notched three primary assists in Thursday’s comeback win at the Saddledome, Mikael Backlund told reporters: “He’s been probably our best player all season.”

Andersson’s stat-line through 35 games shows seven goals and 25 points. He ranks in the Top-15 among all NHL rearguards — and Top-3 among those from his home country — in both categories. If this pending unrestricted free agent is bothered by the constant speculation about when and where he’ll be traded, he certainly hasn’t shown it.

As a potential rental, Andersson will be coveted by contenders because of his ability to log heavy minutes and handle tough matchups, because of his willingness to block blasts on the penalty kill, because he has a knack for sneaking shots through traffic in the offensive zone and because he plays with some swagger and snarl.

All those same traits will appeal to Team Sweden. And don’t overlook that this same coach selected Andersson to serve as captain at the world championship tournament this past spring.

“It’s a really tough competition. There’s a lot of good Swedish defencemen playing big roles on a lot of teams in the NHL,” Peter said. “But I believe that he has a big chance. He’s a right-handed guy, and they don’t have too many of those, and he can play a little bit of everything too. However they want to use him, he’s going to accept it.

“It’s up to the coaches, but I know he would really like to be on that team. It’s tough, but I hope that he is going to make it.”

If he does, he would be following in his father’s skate strides.

Peter will always have his stories about lining up beside Borje.

A trip to the Olympics would surely create lifelong memories for Rasmus, too, no matter who he might be paired with.

“Now it’s a little different, because now all the best players in the world are going to be there,” Peter said. “When we played, the NHL guys wasn’t there. So I think that’s way different, to be honest. I would never be on that team if there would be a lot of NHL players.

“But today, you know how it is. It hasn’t happened in a lot of years either, for all the best players to be in the Olympics. That’s the biggest stage in the world, I would call it, if you like hockey.”

wgilbertson@postmedia.com