The Sabres are learning how to handle hockey’s various rigors and their No. 1 defenseman is showing them the way.
BUFFALO – The theme of learning and growing for the Buffalo Sabres has been ever-present throughout the season, following suit as if it was a class syllabus.
They’ve been figuring out what they can and can’t do and how to handle the various situations that occur during an NHL game and a full year. The amount of raw talent on the roster has, until Don Granato’s arrival, gotten by on their ability and elite skill, like innate street smarts. The book smarts were introduced this season with a course called “How to Become Perennial Playoff Contenders” and it’s a 500-level course.
On Saturday afternoon, the Sabres, with their playoff hopes hanging on by a thread and the possibility that they could end completely with a loss hanging in the air, showed they haven’t skipped any classes and the grueling work is paying off.
The Sabres won 4-3 in a game that was loaded with importance for both them and the Carolina Hurricanes. Buffalo wants to stay alive in the playoff race and they have. The Hurricanes are fending off a late challenge from the New Jersey Devils for the lead in the Metropolitan Division. Their loss opens the door for the Devils to hop them in the standings with a win Saturday night.
These are the important games in April everyone’s wanted in Buffalo for the past 12 years. Three months ago, the outcome might’ve been much different for the Sabres, but they’ve matured and learned how to lock down a game that had all the ups and downs many others have had this season and it was Rasmus Dahlin leading the way.
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Dahlin scored a power play goal, set up two others, and made a goal-saving play in the third period that led to Tage Thompson’s go-ahead game-winner moments later. It was the type of performance that reminded everyone not just how good he is but also how he can drive this team to accomplish big things in big situations.
“I’ve said multiple times to you guys I think he’s the best D in the league,” Mattias Samuelsson said. “When you see like a leader and the best D in the league laying out twice in two seconds to block two shots like that in a meaningful game, it means a lot on the bench and to everyone else.”
Dahlin has been outstanding this season and commanded the attention of those around the league and fans everywhere with his play. Among others on the team, he emerged from the shadow of the previous regime playing free and fun hockey that leaned into their abilities and talent. After a less-than phenomenal past couple weeks after returning from an injury, Dahlin showed that, yes, he is that good and doing it against an elite team magnifies his excellence.
“The season can’t go uphill all the time, it’s got to go down,” Dahlin said. “Today I had a great game, and you know, I feel like I’ve been having some chances lately too, but I haven’t been able to score. Sometimes the puck goes in, sometimes it doesn’t. All you can do is do your best.”
The Sabres are well acquainted with what it’s like to ascend and descend those hills. They’ve had extended winning and losing streaks this season. They’ve gone through swings where everything they did seemed to portend a Cinderella season was on its way…or another one of bitter disappointment and a trip to the draft lottery. This season may still wind up with curiousness about ping pong ball luck, but the main takeaway is about everything this team has done to let the league know they’re on the rise and they’re going to be a problem.
“I think we’re a resilient crew,” Casey Mittelstadt said. “Things like that come with being a tight group and knowing that we’re going to stick together in tough times. We’ve had our ups and down this year, but we’re still here. We’re still fighting and we’re going to fight all the way to the end.”
No one on the Sabres exemplifies resilience like Mittelstadt. He’s gone through it all in his NHL career so far. He’s had the continual stress of being a top-10 pick, he’s dealt with the struggle of going from college to the NHL in the middle of some real awkward times for the Sabres organization, and more recently he’s had to deal with injuries that happened when he was poised to shake off all the struggles that plagued him to start his career.
That’s all changed this year and even his superb season had its fair share of struggles. But he’s an incredibly hard worker and Don Granato said it’s his competitive nature that’s driving him to never be satisfied with where he’s at and look to improve daily. He’s up to a career-high 53 points. His previous best season was his rookie campaign in 2018-2019 when he had 25 points. The two goals he had against Carolina on Saturday has him up to 12 this season, tying his career high. He’d gone without a goal in 17 games before he cashed in twice.
Maximum effort with a tireless work ethic and desire to improve every day should make him less of a target for constant criticism and more of an example of what it means to never be satisfied and to always want to be better in all ways.
“It’s unreal,” Dahlin, Mittelstadt’s former housemate, said. “I’ve known him now for five years. He’s a 180 compared to what he was before. He’s been working his butt off every single day for the last four years now and it’s finally paying off. He’s one of the hardest workers I know, so I’m very happy for him.”
How Dahlin talks about Mittelstadt could be applied to Dahlin as well with the improvements he’s made through his past two seasons. He’s such an intense competitor and you see it so much more now that he’s brimming with confidence to the point of cockiness. Think back to the start of training camp when he said he stopped taking shit from people. Whether that’s us in the media being critical or someone on the ice trying to goad him into doing something stupid. That it was Dahlin setting Mittelstadt up for the highlight goal of the game with signature dangles makes it poetic in its way.
“Sometimes when he starts taking guys one-on-one, he’s just so smooth it looks effortless,” Samuelsson said. “And when he starts skating the puck up through the middle of the ice and just weaving in and out of guys, carving through their forecheck, you can tell he’s feeling it a little bit. I saw him do it a couple times, especially in the second. So, yeah, I wasn’t surprised when he made that move.”
It’ll be difficult for any defenseman not named Erik Karlsson to win the Norris Trophy this season, after all points seem to do most of the talking and Karlsson is having a brilliant season on a brutal team. But Dahlin is up to 72 points and now has the third-highest scoring season by a defenseman in Sabres history. His former coach Phil Housley has the two ahead of him.
He’s got a chance to catch the second-place season when Housley had 77 points 83-84, although his 81-point 89-90 season is probably not doable. That it’s a defenseman in the modern era doing things a defenseman in the firewagon era is doing says a lot about how good a season Dahlin is having.
Dahlin growing up and becoming the superstar he was always meant to be is reason enough to believe the Sabres will not go down without a fight. Same goes for Mittelstadt, really. Should they miss the playoffs this year, the NHL better be ready for them. This group being another year older and many years wiser about the nuances of the NHL means the various pitfalls they encountered this season and tripped them are less likely to do so as the years roll on.