Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim once ‘hated each other.’ Now the inseparable ‘Travii’ have reached the highest level of the sport.

MONTREAL — Sitting at a pod in the bowels of the Bell Centre on media day at the 4 Nations Face-Off, Travis Sanheim let out a chuckle.

“We still try to fit it in a little, but not quite the same,” he said. “We’re not yelling at each other across the room like we might be with the Flyers.”

The “we” are Sanheim and Travis Konecny, affectionately known as “The Travii.” The “yelling” is more like playful banter — most of the time.

“It’s funny. You never know what you’re going to get from them every day,” Flyers forward Owen Tippett said. “They fight and argue like brothers, and you can tell they’re close on and off the ice. I think guys around the room get a good laugh at it too.”

» READ MORE: Team USA enters the 4 Nations Face-Off seeking hockey supremacy. The Americans’ 1996 World Cup team paved the way.

Sanheim, a defenseman, and Konecny, a forward, typically star for the Flyers. But this month they have swapped orange and black for the red and white of Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Some pundits have questioned the Flyers stars’ being named to one of the hardest rosters to make. After all, Canada’s lineup is full of Stanley Cup winners, guys who have won a multitude of individual trophies, and future Hall of Famers. But both have earned their spots. Sanheim, 28, is a puck-mover who can play at all strengths and is one of the top minute munchers in the NHL. Konency, 27, has been in and out of the league’s top 10 for points and has 61 points in 57 games.

Playing together with Canada is a full-circle moment for the pair who, while close now, weren’t always.

Picture it: December 2023 inside the Flyers locker room in Voorhees; Konecny is at his stall and is being asked about his experience playing for Canada at World Juniors in 2016.

“Growing up in Canada, you dream about playing those games, and I actually got to play it with Sanny, so it was pretty cool,” he said, before dropping a bomb: “We weren’t friends at the time, but, looking back, it’s pretty neat.”

In the background, Sanheim, who had just walked in from the team’s morning skate, could be heard yelling: “Yeah, we hated each other.”

“We never hung out, honestly,” Konecny says when asked if that was where the friendship blossomed. Sanheim, whose stall is next to Konency’s, again chimes in: “We hated each other.”

The Travii first crossed paths in 2014 at the U18 world championship. Back then, Sanheim played for Calgary in the Western Hockey League, and Konecny played for Ottawa in the Ontario Hockey League. Former Flyers captain Kevin Dineen was the coach that year. He remembers that the guys on that bronze medal-winning team stuck with familiar faces.

It makes sense. Plus, even as teenagers, they were quite different.

“Travis [Sanheim] is a guy that has that quiet demeanor about him,” Dineen said via phone. “Travis [Konecny] is the complete opposite — you have someone that doesn’t hide too much; he’s out there, as far as personality.”

The Flyers drafted Sanheim a few months later with the 17th pick in 2014, and Konecny the following year at No. 24. They linked up for Hockey Canada again in 2016 at the World Junior Championship. “Oh, yeah, great friends,” Mitch Marner, their teammate then and now with Canada at 4 Nations, said. “Both really competitive guys.”

But it still wasn’t the start of what has turned into a beautiful friendship.

“We knew each other a little bit more at that point,” Sanheim said in December 2023. “We didn’t really get close until we started rooming together, and even after that, didn’t really start to form [a friendship] until probably a couple of years after.”

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The elder statesman by 347 days, Sanheim turned pro first at the tail end of the 2016 season, skating in a handful of games with Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League. He spent the next season in Allentown while Konency jumped straight to the NHL after his final season in the OHL, split between Ottawa and Sarnia.

“[Konecny] would always think he was the big brother and the more mature guy. But I feel since the beginning, we all knew it was Sanny,” said captain Sean Couturier, who sits two stalls down from the pair. “As he kind of got comfortable around here, you could tell he was the more mature of the two.”

The dynamic duo have been a mainstay for the Flyers since 2018-19 and their relationship has grown tighter over the years. Some of their teammates have compared them to the Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly characters in the movie Step Brothers. Two guys who despise each other in the beginning, but after some time ask the age-old question: “Did we just become best friends?”

“It’s a riot,” said defenseman Nick Seeler, who sits next to the pair in the locker room at the Flyers Training Center. “Honestly, they’re nonstop chirping each other or talking.”

Scott Laughton joked that while they are very close, it is “painful at some times.”

“It’s funny,” Couturier said when asked what it’s like watching their friendship. “Ever since they came into the league, it seems like they’re inseparable.”

Sanheim and Konecny’s friendship is not just about witty banter and giving each other a hard time. It’s about leaning on one another and having a support system.

» READ MORE: Shea Theodore’s injury means it’s go time for Travis Sanheim with Canada: ‘Excited for him to play’

In August, Konecny, who is married with two small children, had his home in New Jersey damaged by a fire. The Konecnys were at their offseason home in Calgary, Alberta, at the time of the fire. According to The Athletic, Sanheim and his wife helped them get settled in a rental property.

A hockey season is long and grinding. That support is a necessity for a season that begins in September and can end anywhere from April to June. And they’ve been known to come to each other’s defense, like when Sanheim recently took a bad hit and Konecny took a retaliation penalty. Support in the room also is critical to building a strong culture — plus two guys who always make it interesting.

While the friendship surely will transcend their time with the Flyers, the duo will be in Philly for years to come. They are a big part of the leadership group that is working to reestablish the Flyers as a playoff contender, with Konecny sporting an A since last season and Sanheim the team’s longest-tenured defenseman. Each player has become a star in his own right, with Sanheim signed through 2031 and Konecny’s eight-year deal kicking in next season.

“I think they understand what they say and the impact it has and how they act and the impact it has in our locker room,” forward Garnet Hathaway said. “And, yeah, whether they know it or not, when they begin to bicker at each other, it eases tension for other things.”

But just know, they also can go at it.

In training camp this past September, they exchanged a few punches. Coach John Tortorella said he thought Sanheim gave Konecny a good whack. Sanheim said “That’s just the competitiveness coming out,” after noting, with a laugh, that the friendship was still intact.

And recently, while Sanheim was being interviewed in the locker room, Konecny could be heard dropping expletives in the background, to which Sanheim turned around and asked him “What the [expletive] do you want?”

Yep, that pretty much sums it up.