NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Rasmus Dahlin doesn’t remember the specific game that changed his perspective. All the Buffalo Sabres defenceman knows is it was somewhere in the middle of last season and that he played poorly (Dahlin used a more colourful word to describe his performance).
As far as Dahlin is concerned, the date of the game isn’t what matters. It’s the breakthrough that came from it.
During his first few NHL seasons, the top pick in the 2018 NHL Draft was too focused on impressing people, which he said kept him from reaching his potential.
“I had a lot of pressure on me, and I put a lot of pressure on myself, too, which turned into negative pressure — coming into the rink and not being relaxed,” Dahlin told Sportsnet earlier this month. “(I) probably made myself a little bit worse than I could be.”
And then it hit him: “I got drafted high because I was just myself.”
“I thought that you had to be a certain way if you have a lot of eyes on you,” Dahlin said. “When I realized you don’t have to, it changed my life.”
Dahlin has been a monster this season. His 53 points in 45 games puts him on pace for 96, which would be by far the most by a Sabres defenceman. Phil Housley — Dahlin’s first NHL coach — holds the franchise’s single-season record at the position with 81 points in 1989-90. Dahlin is also on pace to play more than 2,100 minutes, which would break the team record of 2,099:31 set by defenceman Alexei Zhitnik in 2001-02 (The NHL began tracking time on ice in 1997-98).
It almost seems like Dahlin is trying to one-up himself on each goal and assist, whether he’s toe-dragging defenders out of their skates or launching a stretch pass that lands right on a teammate’s tape. He’s also playing with more of an edge, scrapping in front of the net and throwing bone-crunching open-ice hits.
“It’s been a real progression for him, a continual progression,” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “He was just putting too much pressure on himself. It’s OK to put healthy pressure on yourself. He was excessive. He took things too hard. There’s lots of expectations on any player, especially players drafted No. 1 overall. When you try to live up to that, you can lose yourself a little bit and lose being in the moment. He’s done a great job to just stay in the moment and do what he can do and accept that, ‘Hey, you can’t do everything.’ That’s allowed him to have a lot more control. He was probably giving up too much control trying to be too perfect.”
The expectations that come with being a No. 1 overall pick are immense on their own. They’re amplified when that No. 1 pick plays in a hockey-obsessed market that hasn’t tasted success in more than a decade. The Sabres, who are three points out of a playoff spot, haven’t reached the postseason in 11 years, the longest drought in NHL history.
On top of that, Dahlin, in his fifth year in the league, has already played for three head coaches. There was Housley, who, as a Hall of Fame offensive defenceman, understood what made Dahlin special. Then came Ralph Krueger, who tried to rein in those impulses in an effort to improve Dahlin’s defensive game. Granato has given Dahlin the green light to make plays, leading to a spike in confidence.
That has carried over to Dahlin’s interactions with his teammates.
“More than anything, he’s just way more relaxed at the rink — walking around and having fun and cracking jokes,” said Sabres forward Casey Mittelstadt, who roomed with Dahlin at the start of their careers.
“You see him now and see how well he’s playing. … Obviously the fans get impatient, and rightfully so. We’re not going to sit here and say that they shouldn’t be. It’s been a long stretch for the franchise, and obviously we’re trying to turn it around. In (Dahlin’s) case, there’s a lot of pressure, and a lot of times people forget about the pressure that players put on themselves. He was a No. 1 pick and (there was) a ton of hype around him. Sometimes it just takes a little time, and now we’re seeing the results of that,” Mittelstadt added.
Dahlin will surely end up on plenty of Norris Trophy ballots at season’s end. All it took was staying true to himself.
“It’s way better,” Dahlin said. “Life is just easier. … I’m happy I made a change.”
