BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Rasmus Dahlin scrunched his eyebrows, appearing genuinely baffled by the question.
“What’s pest?” the Buffalo Sabres captain asked, repeating the label the defenseman has suddenly attracted following his involvement in two recent on-ice scuffles.
“Yeah, that’s not who I’m trying to be,” Dahlin said upon being informed a pest is someone who enjoys getting under an opponent’s skin. “I compete out there. And some guys don’t like that. But I don’t consider me a pest. Sometimes guys get angry. And I can’t really do anything about that.”
Tell that to Evgeni Malkin. The Pittsburgh Penguins forward is still serving a five-game NHL suspension for a two-handed stick chop that just missed Dahlin’s face in response to being cross-checked in the back in Buffalo’s 5-1 win on March 5.
Or how about Brandon Hagel. The Tampa Bay Lightning forward is $5,000 poorer after being fined by the NHL for attacking Dahlin from behind after the two exchanged shoves during Buffalo’s 8-7 win on Sunday.
“Yeah, I’ve actually seen some stuff online about that. And I think it’s (not true),” Dahlin said of his budding reputation. “I’ve always competed. I think maybe because we’re winning and we have a little more spotlight.”
The Sabres are indeed on a roll, having won 29 of 37 that’s led them to jump from last in the Eastern Conference standings to atop the Atlantic Division entering Friday.
And Dahlin has been in the thick of it all.
He’s leading Buffalo in averaging 24 minutes, 28 seconds of ice time per outing. He’s second on the Sabres with 60 points. And Dahlin’s feistiness is an indication of how determined the eighth-year player is to finally end Buffalo’s NHL-record 14-season playoff drought.
“He’s enjoying this right now. He’s enjoying the winning. He’s enjoying the battle. He’s enjoying the grind of it,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “He’s really relishing this opportunity.”
What’s also not lost on the Sabres is how Dahlin has impacted the team’s trajectory during his most emotionally trying season.
Upon reporting for training camp in September, Dahlin revealed his fiancée, Carolina Matovac, nearly died when her heart failed while the couple vacationed in France. Months later, Matovac revealed in a social media post of being pregnant at the time, and her unborn child playing “a vital role” in leading to the discovery of her heart issue.
Matovac continues recovering from heart transplant surgery in Sweden, while Dahlin has stayed mostly in Buffalo — aside from a few brief trips home.
“To be honest, I can’t even imagine what he’s going through mentally every day,” defenseman Mattias Samuelsson said. “I think it’s the most impressive thing I’ve seen. And then to come in and perform what he does on top of it all, it’s super impressive. It almost like he brings the group into the fight even more.”
Dahlin’s never lacked for skill. The No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft has been pegged as a star since he was a 16-year-old playing in the Swedish Elite League.
And he’s always brought a physical element to his game. It was evident in one of his first practices in Buffalo, when Dahlin leveled fellow rookie Matej Pekar with an open-ice hit. It appeared to be in retaliation for getting high-sticked by Pekar, though Dahlin called it a mere coincidence.
There have been times when Dahlin’s frustrations have boiled over with undisciplined penalties or the times he’s splintered his stick by smashing it on the crossbar following an opponent’s goal.
Much like the Sabres' losing ways, those moments appear to be in the past.
“I think there were times last year he went too far,” Ruff said. “But we haven’t seen that (this year). He’s got his game and the emotional impact he can put on a game in the right place.”
Center Tage Thompson is proud of his teammate, and said this is the most determined the 25-year-old Dahlin has been during his eight seasons in Buffalo.
“He’s our leader in this room,” Thompson said. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence the year that we’re having and him taking an even greater step this season.”
Dahlin dismissed the attention and praise.
“Playing on a good team, as simple as that,” he said of his production.
As for Buffalo finally being in contention, he said: “We have so much talent in this room, it was just a matter of time.”
And yet Dahlin will attest to how much he's enjoying the Sabres’ turnaround amid what lingering personal worries he has back home.
“It means the world,” Dahlin said, his voice echoing through an empty locker room well after a 6-3 win over San Jose on Wednesday. “We’re in the race and we’re playing meaningful games. I can’t be more happy.”
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
