BUFFALO – Captain Rasmus Dahlin is taking a temporary leave of absence from the Sabres to deal with a personal matter in Sweden, coach Lindy Ruff said Friday.
In September, Dahlin revealed his fiancée, Carolina Matovac, was rehabbing in Sweden after experiencing major heart failure and undergoing a heart transplant in the summer.
Matovac, who underwent life-saving CPR and spent weeks on life support before the transplant, is doing well.
“He said everything is OK, and through this he’s got full support by our team,” Ruff said following Friday’s practice in KeyBank Center.
Ruff said there’s no timetable for Dahlin’s return. The Sabres begin a four-game road trip Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Naturally, Ruff said “it’s been incredibly hard” for Dahlin, who practiced Friday, to focus on hockey.
“Not easy,” he said. “I fully understand what this young man is going through. I don’t think you can describe, and I don’t think you can feel what he’s feeling.
“I’m pretty passionate about the fact that no one would want to walk in his shoes and have to deal with what he dealt with. So he has definitely got the support of everybody on this. This is larger than hockey.”
Ruff said it’s important Dahlin, 25, knows the Sabres worry about family first.
“Family and person come before hockey,” he said. “Hockey’s our job, hockey’s our lifeline, but family and personal trump anything that comes before.”
Dahlin has compiled one goal, nine points and a minus-11 rating in 14 games this season.
The Sabres added another defenseman by recalling Zac Jones from the Rochester Americans.
Jones, 25, has registered 13 assists, a gaudy number tied for the AHL lead, in 11 games with the Amerks this season.
The Sabres summoned him once last month but he did not play.
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After scoring three times in the first period of last Saturday’s 4-3 shootout win over the Washington Capitals, the Sabres mustered just one goal in their next two games.
Only rookie center Noah Ostlund, who registered his first NHL goal in Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Utah Mammoth, has scored.
On Thursday, the St. Louis Blues shut out the Sabres 3-0.
That’s one goal in about 167 minutes.
Ruff said the Sabres haven’t created the so-called “dirty goals” around the net. Last season, they ranked among the NHL’s best at scoring there.
“I think we’ve got away (from it),” Ruff said. “Like last night, our shot selection and lack of shot selection, wasn’t good enough in a game that we created four or five opportunities that you should score a couple goals on.”
So after often deferring to the outside against the Blues, the Sabres spent Friday’s short practice focusing on getting bodies around the net and putting pucks there.
“We got to get pucks going there,” Ruff said. “We got to get it when teams are, I’ll say, compressed inside. You’ve got to find ways to get it there and then look for those second opportunities. So we just deferred to a little bit of staying on the perimeter, which hurt us.”
Notable absences have contributed heavily to Sabres’ offensive woes. Right now, they’re missing four forwards – Zach Benson, Jiri Kulich, Josh Norris and Jason Zucker – who normally play on the first or second line.
Ruff said Benson, out the last three games with a lower-body injury, skated Friday morning in a track suit and could play Wednesday in Utah.
Meanwhile, Ruff said Kulich, out the last two games because of fluid in his ears, underwent more testing and won’t play Wednesday.
Norris recently began skating after suffering a lower-body injury opening night. He’s likely at least a few weeks away from returning.
Ruff said winger Jason Zucker, out the last two games battling illness, still isn’t feeling well and likely won’t accompany the Sabres to Utah.
So for at least the next two games or so, the Sabres will keep relying on Ostlund, 21, and rookie winger Isak Rosen, 22, to fill some of the scoring void.
Without the benefit of a practice together, the youngsters played alongside winger Tage Thompson for about two periods Thursday. On Friday, Ruff reunited the trio.
“They’re both good playmakers,” Ruff said of putting the rookies with Thompson, the Sabres’ leading scorer last year. “Ostlund has been a very good defender. They both have good speed.”
Thompson said the Swedes both possess “a ton of skill” and “see the ice really well.”
“A lot of creativity,” he said. “I think for us, obviously, new playing with them, so just going to try to build chemistry. I thought today was a great practice, had a lot of good looks just talking with them, reading off each other and trying to work on stuff where we want each other in the O-zone for puck support.”
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Ruff said defenseman Michael Kesselring had a maintenance day Friday. He expects him to play in Carolina, where the Sabres haven’t won since March 22, 2016.