Great Britain had three players of varying ages, experience and background making their debut Thursday evening against Romania.

Amongst that trio was Travis Ehrhardt who wasn’t too sure this opportunity would ever present itself when I asked him whether he thought he would represent GB during his playing career.

“Coming into this season, I was hoping so, it was one of my goals to be able to play [for Great Britain], here so it was exciting to finally do so.”

Ehrhardt is no stranger to changing scenery having moved regularly for the majority of his career but was he worried about how he would be accepted into the international dressing room?

“I wasn’t sure how that dynamic would be, going from playing against each other every other weekend and coming here and gelling together. But they are all great guys. It’s very welcoming here, so it’s been good.”

One of the compelling storylines of the opening victory for Great Britain was that Travis not only got to play with his brother Dallas but that GB head Coach Pete Russel put the pair together to form a family affair on the blue line.

“That was an extra bonus on getting to play here was getting to play with him, because we were old enough (three years between them) to not cross paths before so I think our parents were pretty happy to see that as well.”

Did the brothers know in advance they would be paired together?

“I just showed up to the rink and he [Pete Russell) had written D. Ehrhardt and T. Ehrhardt on the sheet together so that’s how we found out.” Is that a typical Pete Russell thing to do I inquired? “Absolutely it is! (said with a large smile on his face)”

So how did the brotherly partnership work out in game one?

“Pete [Russell] has his systems that we are trying to install and are trying to follow but the way we work at it is if either of us get open, we are taking that shot so. We are both trying to be offensive and we know that the other guy is going to be back.”

The one overriding memory of Travis’ debut is probably not surprising.

“It was nice to see Dallas score his first-ever international goal for GB so that was probably the highlight of the night.”

Now 30 years years of age, Ehrhardt has seen a few different hockey markets in his career having spent time in China, Switzerland, Norway, Finland and the best part of six seasons in the AHL with teams including Manitoba Moose, Grand Rapids Griffins and St. John’s IceCaps

The defenseman also spent had two campaigns with Vancouver Canucks AHL affiliate, Utica Comets where he had a great time playing in front of what I consider some of the best fans in the league.

“It was amazing like you said. They got some amazing fans, sold that rink out every day. That was probably one of my more special hockey memories. We went to the [2015 Calder Cup] finals, we came up just short [aginast Manchester Monarchs] but yea it was good there.”

Losing the first two games of that final in overtime must have been tough to take?

“Yea once you get that far into the season all you can think about was winning and having it all be worth it [the playoff journey], but we came up just too short in the end.

Was that your best memory during your time in North America?

“Yes, I would have to say so.”

Ehrhardt played alongside goaltender Jacob Markstrom and a very young Jake Virtanen during that 2015 run so I asked him how it feels to see them both having success in the NHL.

“It’s great. It was easy to see even then. I mean Markstrom was an amazing AHL goalie and it was just bound to get to the NHL and Virtanen was just finishing juniors coming up and you could see he was a special player too.”

Now in his second season with Glasgow Clan I asked Travis how he felt he was playing this year (twenty points 5-15-20 in 36 games at the time of writing).

“Not bad. It’s hard to critique yourself individually when the team isn’t doing as well as you want it to. I mean, you always think you could be doing something more to be helping your team to win.”

So is Ehrhardt settled in Glasgow and looking to finish his career in the UK?

“I’m happy right now, haven’t really thought about that next step is or where I would want to go. I’m enjoying my time [in Glasgow] right now.”