TORONTO – Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin processed the question following his dynamic three-goal, five-point performance in Tuesday’s 7-4 win over the Maple Leafs and searched for the right words.
The defenseman never quite found them.
Over the last seven months, Dahlin has been through, for lack of a better word, hell.
In September, he revealed his fiancée, Carolina Matovac, has been rehabbing after experiencing major heart failure and undergoing a heart transplant in the summer.
Then in an Instagram post Monday, Matovac wrote their baby’s due date would’ve been Jan. 26. Her worries about their unborn child forced her to see a doctor, and her life-threatening condition was discovered.
Dahlin, 25, has left the team twice this season to visit her in Sweden.
“It’s been – I don’t know if I can describe it fully now,” he said after the surging Sabres improved to 19-3-1 in their last 23 games. “I need some time. But it’s been a crazy year, that’s for sure, and I’m just so happy I can be with this team, my brothers. They help me every day. I could not have done this without them, that’s for sure.”
The rink has likely become Dahlin’s sanctuary, his time on the ice a release as he searches for some normalcy.
“I think he understands that every time he’s needed time we’ve said, ‘Family comes first,’” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “I think he really respects that part of it. He knows that hockey is second and family is first, and that’s the way life should be approached.”
Through it all, the ultra-talented Dahlin has given the Sabres some pretty darn good hockey. But as the last few weeks have illustrated, he has much more to offer.
On Tuesday before a crowd of 18,996 fans in Scotiabank Arena, he enjoyed perhaps the most productive outing of his eight-year career, recording his first NHL hat trick and second five-point contest in 26 minutes, 24 seconds of ice time.
“What he’s going through personally I can’t even imagine,” said Sabres center Tage Thompson, who scored one goal, his team-leading 28th, and two points in his 500th NHL game. “The fact that he’s here playing hockey and competing for us means the world to us and … how much he loves the team, how much he wants to win.”
Since joining the Sabres in 2018, Dahlin hasn’t played many games like Tuesday’s. Sure, they made a playoff push late in 2022-23 and have enjoyed some strong stretches.
Still, he has never played contests this meaningful at this juncture of the season. The win moved the Sabres, who hold third place in the Atlantic Division, eight points ahead of the Maple Leafs.
He has waited his entire career for games like Tuesday’s, and he certainly rose to the occasion.
“He said, ‘This is fun.’ He said, ‘I don’t even know how to act because I’ve never done this before,’” Ruff said. “We know there’s a lot of hockey left, but I’m happy for him. … The young man’s gone through a lot, and I’m so happy for him that he’s getting rewarded for all the work and all the adversity that he’s faced.
“This has got to put a big smile on Carolina’s face, too.”
Dahlin, who moved up into the rush all night, scored the Sabres’ first goal when his centering pass deflected off Toronto’s Morgan Rielly and past goalie Joseph Woll.
His nifty goal 18:17 into the second period – he deflected defenseman Mattias Samuelsson’s point shot at the net – put the Sabres up 4-3, a lead they did not relinquish.
“He made a couple great plays,” Ruff said. “I mean, he found the net tipping the puck in front. You don’t often see a D-to-D tip go in, which was a great play. The empty-netter to seal the game.
“I mean, Dahls is finding his game right now. He feels good about his game. I think right now, he’s skating as well as he’s skated the whole year.”
After winger Alex Tuch’s goal, Dahlin completed the first hat trick by Sabres defenseman since Rasmus Ristolainen on Dec. 10, 2015 when he scored a 153-foot empty-net goal.
He also assisted on winger Josh Doan’s early power-play goal and created winger Jack Quinn’s late goal by lofting him a pass through the neutral zone.
“When he’s moving his feet, making plays, getting involved up the ice, he’s a pretty dominant player,” said Samuelsson, who recorded a career-high three assists. “Definitely saw all of it tonight.”
The Sabres lost goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to a lower-body injury after Auston Matthews put the Maple Leafs up 2-1 9:49 into the game.
Ruff did not have an update and said the Finn will be examined by team doctors today.
In his first appearance since Jan. 15, rookie Colten Ellis stopped 16 shots in relief of Luukkonen.
Ruff also said winger Jordan Greenway, who missed his second straight game, “hasn’t quite been responding to what we’ve been trying to do with him.”
Greenway has recently been on a load-management plan after undergoing hernia surgery last year.
“We may have to get him to see medical again,” he said.
