Rasmus Dahlin’s big game lifts Sabres to critical win, wild-card spot: 3 thoughts
The Sabres moved into the first wild-card spot with their 14th win in their past 16 games.
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Rasmus Dahlin and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had some big plays to help the Sabres defeat the Flyers on Wednesday night.
Timothy T. Ludwig / Imagn Images
Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin said he had a good feeling coming into Wednesday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers. He’s had a difficult season off the ice as his fiancee continues to recover from a heart transplant in their home country of Sweden. But Wednesday, Dahlin said he felt mentally good and happy.
“Stuff off the ice,” Dahlin said. “It’s been a crazy year, but good day.”
That showed up on the ice. Dahlin scored two goals, both on the power play, as the Sabres ran away with a 5-2 win against another team battling for position in the Eastern Conference playoff race. The Sabres had only 14 shots on goal but still managed five goals and never trailed.
Dahlin’s performance was notable given he’s said on a few occasions that he knows he can perform at a higher level. “I’m in it right now, so I’m grinding every day,” Dahlin said. “I’ve got a few more levels, for sure.”
The Sabres saw glimpses of that against the Flyers. Dahlin was decisive with his shot, which helped a slumping power play get on the board twice. But he was also partially responsible for one of the Sabres’ goals against when his pass through the neutral zone got intercepted, leading to Owen Tippett’s goal.
“I can just say that the young man’s been through a lot,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “There’s a guy that cares. He’s not happy with his game. What some would assess would be a good game, he says that’s not his standard. I think that’s a great place to be. I think he knows. I thought tonight he really skated well. You can look at the goals as an end result. The way he skated up ice, handled the puck, I think there’s more. That’s always the challenge with where you’re at as a team. Like, do you have more? I think he understands that part.”
Dahlin still has six goals and 26 assists in 41 games played this season. The Sabres are controlling 52 percent of goals during his five-on-five minutes. Dahlin has set the bar higher than his current play, but he’s still a critical presence in the lineup and dressing room.
And what matters most to Dahlin is that he’s contributing to wins. The Sabres have now won 14 of their past 16 games and are sitting in a wild-card position with a .600 points percentage. And they get another big game in the standings when they host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.
“I love it,” Dahlin said. “We know how important this game was coming in, and we have to play them like playoff games. And we’ve been doing that really good. That’s one of the things we’ve really improved on, that we know how important these games are.”
Here’s what else we saw in the Sabres’ win.
1. Josh Norris left in the second period after taking a cross-check to the ribs from Nick Seeler. Ruff said he’ll be evaluated again in the morning, and the hope is it’s not a serious injury. Norris has been a big piece of Buffalo’s lineup with 17 points in the 19 games in which he has played, so it can’t afford to have him miss much time.
Josh Dunne, one of the depth options at center, is also going to miss four to six weeks, Ruff announced Wednesday.
2. Josh Doan had another huge game. On the Sabres’ second goal, Doan again had a takeaway that led to the offensive rush. He backchecked hard through the neutral zone and stole the puck to help start a play that ended in a Mattias Samuelsson goal. Doan finished with two assists and now has 32 points on the season.
“I think we’ve seen that a couple times the last couple games, where you get everyone going one way and you can capitalize on that chance,” Doan said. “It’s something you’ve got to take pride in is getting back and supporting your D, because we have such a good D-corps, and they move so well, and you can kind of get teams in that lost area on the ice where you can strip them and go up the ice quick.”
3. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s final stat line wasn’t flashy, with 20 saves on 22 shots, but he made a critical save that helped turn the game. Six minutes into the contest, when the Sabres still hadn’t recorded a shot, Jason Zucker turned a puck over in the defensive zone. It led to a cross-ice one-timer from point-blank range. Luukkonen slid over and made a sprawling glove save to rob Nikita Grebenkin of a goal.
“Talk about a save that gets everybody off the bench,” Ruff said. “It got the crowd into it and got our guys going a little bit. We could have been behind the eight ball right away, and they would have had some momentum. He came up with a big one for us.”
Luukkonen has now won six of his last seven starts, and the timely saves are helping to make the difference.
