A pre-season tune-up.
With Olympic implications.
Flames forward Martin Pospisil has been named to the Slovakia side attempting to land a berth in the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan.
Pospisil and his Slovak teammates will host a three-game round-robin tourney Aug. 29 - Sept. 1 in Bratislava against Austria, Hungary and Kazakhstan.
The final qualification winner will earn a berth in the Olympics, along with the winners of two additional four-nation groups competing at the same time in Latvia and Denmark.
For Pospisil, the tournament marks his second opportunity to pull on a Slovak sweater in 2024, after he took part in the 2024 IIHF World Championship this past spring.
The 24-year-old collected seven points (3G, 4A) in seven games at the Worlds after an eight-goal, 24-point rookie campaign with the Flames; he took the tournament by storm before his participation was cut short due to injury.
Nevertheless, that World Championship experience was still special for Pospisil.
"I still kind of can't believe it, you know?" he said in May when asked about representing his home nation at the event after overcoming career-derailing injuries.
"I was kind of emotional before the game, because last year at this time, I was thinking about what to do with my hockey career. Last year at this time, I'm thinking I might have to quit my hockey career.
"And then I had a full season in the NHL and now I represent my country. It means a lot."
An Olympic berth, carved out on home soil, might well be even sweeter.
