Any athlete will tell you that they want to play as much as they possibly can. If they're healthy and able, they want to do whatever they can for their team. Even when they're not, they want to be in. It's true across all sports.
As a goaltender, Dan Vladar would almost certainly tell you as much. He wants to be in the net every single night. And getting the chance to represent his country at the Olympics was one of the biggest and best places to play. He, along with Lukas Dostal and Karel Vejmelka, were the three goaltenders Czechia brought with them to Milan.
Vladar entered the tournament with the best stats amongst the three in his first season as the primary goaltender. He recently hit the 33-game mark, his most in the NHL. And he has a career-best 2.47 GAA and a .905 SV% as well. The first is sixth amongst all goaltenders who have appeared in at least 30 games, and the latter is ninth.
However, Dostal entered the Olympics as the favorite. It's not as if he has put up bad NHL numbers this season. He's not far off what Vladar has done. Dostal is a few years younger and has been the Ducks' starter for a few years, capping out at a career-high 54 games last season. Right now, his 2.92 GAA is a career-best. His .897 SV% is the lowest of his career thus far, but even that isn't that bad these days.
Dostal started the first game of the tournament, a 5-0 loss to Canada. Vladar was given a chance in the second game against France. While he had a second period to forget, he came away with the Czechs' only win during preliminary play. But Dostal re-entered the net and didn't relinquish it the rest of the way.
Both Dostal and Vladar have represented Czechia on the world stage before. And both have put up very impressive numbers. So either one getting the net could've been a fair argument. But with Vladar only playing one game at the Olympics and backing up the rest, there is a small blessing in disguise if you're the Flyers.
Vladar's lack of Olympic playing time can only help the Flyers
Having already played in more games this season than in any other year, Vladar is in uncharted territory. He hasn't known what it's like to be an NHL starter and be relied upon as much as the Flyers have. And with their current position, they are going to rely on him even more. The Flyers are eight points back of both a division spot and a chance at the wild card. And they have a lot of teams ahead of them.
Danny Briere already likely knows what he's going to do by the Mar. 6 trade deadline. The Flyers will only have five games before then. It's not out of the realm of possibility that they go on a heater coming out of the break. And if they do that, Vladar will almost certainly be at the center of it. Unless Sam Ersson can provide adequate backup goaltending, Vladar will have to carry the load.
26 games are remaining in the Flyers' schedule. Unless the team is completely out of it by April, one could argue that Vladar could play close to 20 of those games. There are four sets of back-to-backs, so assume Ersson plays one of each. Looking at the rest, most games only have one day off in between. The Flyers cannot afford to burn Vladar out, but they may not have a chance.
So while he was able to represent Czechia at the Olympics, appearing in one game allowed him to rest almost as much as those who didn't go. He was still practicing and was in game mode even as the backup. But he wasn't worn down during the time that he was there. And with a few days before the NHL returns, he will get some more practice time with the Flyers in the meantime.
He won't return completely rested, but as much as he can be for someone who went to Milan. And the Flyers need a fresh Vladar as they fight to break their five-year playoff drought.