The duality of hockey
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The duality of hockey
Rasmus Dahlin's brilliant highs countered by the loss of Mattias Samuelsson to injury
Rasmus Dahlin is going to force the issue. The issue being how good he is and was always meant to be.
He scored for the fifth straight game raising his record number for most consecutive games with a goal by a defenseman to start the season. (Boy, that’s a mouthful) He dangled old friend Tyler Myers off-kilter en route to setting up Victor Olofsson for his second goal of the game and produce the final score of a 5-1 victory.
There’s symbolism to be had in that Dahlin assist. It happens because he’s boiling over with confidence. He’s cleared to attack like that when he sees the opportunity because those are what his skills are and they’re very, very good. Using them against Myers, the 2010 Calder Trophy winner with the Sabres, was a parallel dimension moment.
Myers took the league by storm during the 2009-10 season with 11 goals and 48 points. Those were wild numbers for a 6-foot-8 19-year-old defenseman to put up in his first NHL season. He pushed the puck up the ice, used his big shot to create chances, and was unlike anything anyone had seen from a player his size.
But Myers’ time was short as an offensive dynamo and, to be fair, his skillset was not nearly as strong as Dahlin’s. But that Myers had the offensively strong game and lost it to never be found again after his first two years in the league is the lesson learned as far as the Sabres go. They had a dynamic weapon and just didn’t do the best job of making sure he stayed that way and improved from there. To think that could’ve been a similar situation for Dahlin is chilling.
Four straight seasons Dahlin was slow to start the season. The visible thinking on the ice, the way he’d take every mistake to heart, how he went from all offense all the time to being forced to hold the blue line…it was damning for the organization that a No. 1 pick would have so much tumult to deal with while he figured out how to be an NHL player.
Things could’ve gone very sideways, but Don Granato put a stop to it. Seeing Dahlin’s skills when he was in Sweden made it rather simple to figure out the right way to make use of him. Get him the puck and let him create. Simple. Having Mattias Samuelsson as the perfect complement as his defense partner made it even easier for Dahlin by paying more mind to the defensive part of the game and let Dahlin create.
It’s why seeing Samuelsson down on the ice in a lot of pain with what appeared to be a right knee injury would turn all those sky-high feelings on its head.
Fortunately, Granato said after the game the news he got was more positive than those images would lead you to believe. If what appeared to be a possible knee ligament blowup turns into a something like a sprain, it’s a huge win in a terrible instance and at a time where defense injuries piled up quickly.
Henri Jokiharju went on IR because of the puck to the head he got inadvertently from Kyle Okposo. Ilya Lyubushkin returned after missing the game against Calgary because of a knock he took against Edmonton. Jokiharju going on IR led to Lawrence Pilut being recalled. The choice to bring him back from Russia seems all the more prescient. The Sabres have had defensive injury calamities happen before (don’t we all know about that), but it’s different because this is now and now is always more important, especially when what happens now can directly affect what looks like a revelation.
This is what hockey does. It explores the range of emotions hope can stir up. The hope that Dahlin as he is now will be this way from now on. The hope that Samuelsson and Jokiharju will miss minimal time out of the lineup. The hope that the Sabres era of playoff darkness is ending soon.