BUFFALO – Mattias Samuelsson plays alongside Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin on the ice and sits next to him in the dressing room. The 26-year-old defensemen, who have been teammates for six seasons, know each other well.
Since the Sabres began their resurgence this season, Samuelsson has noticed a positive change in his close friend.
“I think you can tell it’s definitely helped his mood,” Samuelsson told the Times Herald.
Right now, Dahlin is having a blast. In his first taste of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Sabres disposed of the Boston Bruins in six games and moved on to face the Montreal Canadiens, now Canada’s only remaining entry in the postseason.
On Wednesday, the Sabres won Game 1 of second-round series 4-2 in KeyBank Center.
The past five months – the Sabres morphed into the Sabres on Dec. 9, beginning their 10-game win streak and climb up the standings – have no doubt been the happiest and most rewarding of Dahlin’s eight-year career.
Not only did the Sabres end their NHL-record 14-year playoff drought, they did it in grand fashion, registering 50 victories, earning 109 points and winning the ultra-competitive Atlantic Division.
Dahlin’s own game, meanwhile, took off in mid-November when he returned from a leave of absence to visit his fiancée, Carolina Matovac, in Sweden. Matovac suffered heart failure during the summer and spent several weeks on life support before undergoing a heart transplant.
From Nov. 15, his first game back, until the end of the regular season, he registered 18 goals, 65 points and a plus-29 rating in 63 outings.
“It’s been a crazy year, but when my fiancée got better, that’s when I was able to relax a little bit more mentally,” Dahlin said last month. “When she’s strong, that’s when I’m strong. We’re in it together.”
Today, Dahlin could be announced as a Norris Trophy finalist for the first time.
Update: Dahlin has been named a finalist.
“He’s in that top echelon of probably five defensemen in the league that every time they touch the puck, they are so dangerous with what they can do with it,” Sabres winger Beck Malenstyn said.
These days, Dahlin, who often wore all the losing he experienced on his face, is having the time of his life.
“First of all, to see the city, what it can be like or what it’s like now, it’s just unbelievable,” Dahlin said Monday. “That’s the big thing. And then the hockey is kind of what I expected. It’s fast, it’s hard, and it’s fun. You really understand now … this is what you want to do every year. I’m having a ton of fun.”
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said he often sees a smile on Dahlin’s face.
“I’ve had conversations with him, I even hear him say, ‘These fans are crazy,’” he said.
Samuelsson understands what finally making the postseason means to Dahlin.
“He wears a lot of hats, he has a lot of weight on his shoulders. So I think for him, it’s got to be pretty gratifying and rewarding,” he said. “He’s drafted first overall, franchise player right away, a lot of pressure, obviously, on him. …
“He’s not fulfilled because there’s a lot of work left, but to be the leader of this team and get us in the dance and get our team in a good spot, he’s got to be pretty happy.”
Dahlin helped the Sabres roar into the postseason by dragging his teammates into the fight with him. His supreme work ethic sets a standard others follow.
“Dahls plays with a ton of passion,” Malenstyn said. “To be as skilled as he is, he’s in every battle, everything like that, he’s physical for us, he’ll block shots. I mean, he does it all. He’s an incredible player.
“And I think you sit on the bench and (watching) some of your top players doing those things makes it easy for everyone else along the lineup to follow suit.”
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Sabres center Sam Carrick, who practiced on Tuesday for the first time since suffering a left arm injury on March 31, missed the game.
“We really haven’t put a date on it,” Ruff said prior to the game of Carrick’s return. “Tonight could be a possibility.”
Tyson Kozak centered the Sabres’ fourth line for the fifth straight game.
Winger Tanner Pearson skated in the pregame warm-up but was scratched.
Defenseman Logan Stanley, who missed Friday’s series-clinching win over the Boston Bruins because he was sick, played in Game 1.
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While the Sabres knocked off the Bruins in six games, they went just 1-2 at KeyBank Center.
“Being ready to play at home, every individual has his way of preparing,” Ruff said. “I think you stay with your program. You don’t try to do too much. You don’t add to much much to your schedule. Whatever works for you, you make that work.”
Ruff believes the time off between their series will benefit the Sabres. They took Saturday off and stayed off the ice Monday.
“I think it allowed us to take a breath and reset, get away from the game for a day, practice and, again, get some rest,” he said. “We took another day we didn’t go on ice. It’s just a reset for a day. It gave them a little bit more time to enjoy what they just went through. What more could you want?”