Much like the relationship he has with the city of Buffalo.
And the one its people have with him.
It didn’t always seem like the perfect fit. Dahlin, the No. 1 overall pick by the Sabres in the 2018 NHL Draft, was a blond-haired defenseman from Sweden whose finesse game was based on flash and dash, not the grit and grind appreciated by this blue-collar community.
Generally unfamiliar to life in North America, he came as a naive 18-year-old to a city and team that hadn’t been to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in seven years. He immediately was cast in the role of a franchise savior, an unfair expectation that he wasn’t ready for and should never have been forced to deal with.
At the same time, that, rightly or wrongly, was the reality of the situation. Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine it would take the first eight years of his career for the Sabres to reach the playoffs, ending an NHL-record 14-season postseason drought.
In that time, he’s gone from a shy, introverted rookie to the in-your-face captain of the Sabres, the guy who, at any moment, might skate through an opponent instead of around him and is the first player in a scrum-type setting to come to the aid of a teammate. In the process, he’s watched other players ask out of Buffalo, all the while determined to stay and help the franchise get to the postseason once again.
And now, come Sunday, the wait will be over. After so much hardship, so much adversity, he’ll get his first taste of NHL playoff hockey when the Sabres host the Bruins in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference First Round (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, NESN, MSG-B, SN1, SN360, TVAS).
“It’s amazing,” he said. “You feel it around the city. Just driving to the rink every day, usually all you see is Buffalo Bills stuff in the backyard. But now it’s changed to Sabres stuff. And the whole vibe, I mean, you see it in everything, restaurants, grocery stores. You can really feel it.
“Yes, there’s been I think a lot of adversity, but through that eventually success has to come. You work so hard for eight years, the success has to come sometime. And I’ve always believed in that.
“It’s been a grind, but when it changes, that feeling is indescribable. It’s just … it’s unbelievable.”
For Dahlin and his teammates. For the franchise. And for the long-suffering fans in this community who have fallen in love with the Sabres captain, just like he has with them.
* * * *
It’s hard to fathom just how far Dahlin has come from the teenager who came to Washington on June 5, 2018, with six other top draft prospects, a group that also included Brady Tkachuk and Quinn Hughes, to be introduced to the media and attend Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Washington Capitals and Vegas Golden Knights.
I spent that day with him documenting his experiences, and one conclusion stood out.
He was like a kid in awe.
From meeting fellow Swede Nicklas Backstrom and Capitals teammate Alex Ovechkin at the morning skate, to being onstage with the Stanley Cup in front of 5,000 people during a late-afternoon outdoor concert by Fall Out Boy, young Rasmus was having the experience of a lifetime.
“I’m starting to realize how big this all is,” he told NHL.com at the time, adding that “this is all starting to sink in.”
That evening, he attended his first NHL game, a 6-2 Capitals victory against the Golden Knights. Less than three weeks later, he was the top pick in the draft. Come October, he was making his NHL debut for the Sabres.
It was a whirlwind, to be sure. A lot to take in such a short time.
It wouldn’t get any easier.
He endured an assembly line of coaches, from Phil Housley to Ralph Krueger to Don Granato to current bench boss Lindy Ruff. The list of general managers has consisted of Jason Botterill, Kevyn Adams and Jarmo Kekalainen, who has the job now.
In that time, he saw skilled veterans like Ryan O’Reilly, Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart seek a change of scenery. So many changes, both on and off the ice. The only thing that didn’t change was the losing.
It would have been easy for Dahlin and forward Tage Thompson — the two longest-serving Sabres, who both came to the team the same year — to seek greener pastures as well. Instead, they were more intent on bringing an end to the franchise’s postseason dry spell. And for anyone who didn’t want to be a Sabre and wasn’t up for the same goals, well, they didn’t want those types of players around.
“It (stunk), watching guys want out,” Dahlin said. “You wondered: ‘So you don’t want to be part of this with us?’”
Thompson certainly did.
“We talked about how, no matter how many dark days there were, what it would be like when the success we’d worked so hard for finally came, both for the team and the city,” the forward said.
Teammates credit Dahlin’s efforts for helping make the Sabres a tight-knit unit, both on and off the ice. Asked last month how the team has become such a unified brotherhood, he replied “Drink beers,” which spawned a flurry of T-shirts and hats sporting that phrase to become available for purchase on the internet.
“Sometimes coming together as a team, for dinners or for drinks, on the road or at home, it makes you closer,” Dahlin said.
Veteran defenseman Luke Schenn, who was acquired from the Winnipeg Jets prior to the NHL Trade Deadline last month, agrees.
“This team is close. It cares about one another,” he said. “It’s not about cliques, like I’ve seen with other teams. It’s about big get-togethers, about players caring about players, their families looking out for each other.
“As for drinking beers, Patty Maroon brought us together for a few drinks down in Tampa when I was there (with the Tampa Bay Lightning). Just another way of team bonding. And we ended up winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021.”
Dahlin and his teammates are hoping to follow the same recipe for success, whether it be going out for top-end steaks or an informal gathering for some frosty suds.
* * * *
Of all the adversity Dahlin has faced this past year — heck, in his entire life — the roller coaster he’s experienced with Carolina has been like no other.
Now that she is relatively healthy again, he thanks both his teammates and the community for the type of backing that buoyed him through those troubling times.
“I’ve said it before: My brothers in this dressing room have been here for me every day,” he said. “I’m not sure I could have gotten through this without them.”
Rasmus and Carolina, who was pregnant at the time, were on vacation in France last summer when Matovac became sick. She subsequently was put on life support for weeks before undergoing a heart transplant.
The reason the couple had first gone to the hospital there was because of concerns for the unborn child. It was there that she had her first heart failure, leading to a lengthy spell of serious treatment. The unborn child did not survive.
In an Instagram post on Jan. 26, Matovac revealed that the child would have been born on that very day.
“Today was meant to be the day we finally met you,” Matovac wrote. “You will always hold a special place in our hearts as our first baby, even though we never had the chance to meet. Our love for you is endless.
“Though you didn’t get to experience this world, you played a vital role in ensuring that I could continue to be a part of it.
“This is just one of the many reasons I am alive today, able to embrace a normal life once again. You are our hero, and I hope you are being well cared for in heaven. We love you, baby Matovac Dahlin.”
The following evening, as if he was paying tribute to the child he’d never know, Rasmus scored his first career hat trick, part of a five-point night in Buffalo’s 7-4 victory at the Toronto Maple Leafs.
