Dahlin loving playoff hockey in Buffalo after long wait

BUFFALO -- The things Rasmus Dahlin has dreamed about since arriving as a fresh-faced, soft-spoken future of the franchise in 2018 are finally happening. 

The Buffalo Sabres defenseman couldn’t be happier. 

For his first seven seasons, Dahlin, the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, has been done with hockey by this time of the year, thinking about an offseason back in his native Sweden. He has watched teammates and friends leave, each tired of the losing, looking for greener pastures and the promise of Stanley Cup Playoff hockey. 

Dahlin persevered. He said he believed. More importantly, he acted like he believed.

Finally, playoff hockey has arrived in this city.

The Sabres are in the Eastern Conference Second Round, having dispatched the Boston Bruins in six games last week. Now, they face the Montreal Canadiens in a best-of-7 series that starts with Game 1 at KeyBank Center on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

Playing meaningful games in May, Dahlin says, is worth all the disappointment, all the pain, each of the 586 regular-season games before qualifying to be part of a 16-team chase for a trophy that has been at the forefront of his life since he was a young boy. 

“Every shift matters (in the playoffs),” Dahlin said Monday, a little more than 12 hours after learning Montreal would be the next opponent. “It's a mix of everything, honestly, but I think to play games that really matters, that's the best part about it.”

It was still new for Dahlin for much of the first-round series, he said. Sure, the hockey was faster, more physical. The crowds were larger, louder. The stakes numbingly huge.

Yet, he was unfazed. He played the same steady game that has defined his tenure here.  He played a team-high 24:11 per game in the first round. He had a goal, three assists, 21 shots on goal and was plus-3.

“He's always pretty calm but he's a competitor, too, so I think with these meaningful games he was obviously cranking it up and playing his best hockey,” Sabres forward Ryan McLeod said. “’Ras’ is just doing his thing and leading our ship.”

Now the Atlantic Division champion Sabres are one of eight teams left in the chase.

The gravity of it all hit Dahlin on his way home after a series-clinching 4-1 win at the Bruins in Game 6. The Sabres arrived home early Saturday and hundreds of fans were waiting at the airport to celebrate with the team.  

“I did not expect it, so that was amazing,” Dahlin said. “Just shows how unbelievable our fans are. It was 1:30 in the night. I don't even know how many people. It was unbelievable. It was awesome to see, and so proud of playing in front of these fans.”

Since arriving here, Dahlin has watched with wonder and awe as the city embraced the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. The tailgates, the breaking tables, the undying love, the unbridled joy and unfathomable grief generated by a sporting franchise that made eight straight trips to the postseason and two trips to the conference championship game opened his eyes.

Most importantly, there was never apathy with the Bills. The Sabres wanted that for themselves.

They have it now. 

Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff understands this city.  

Like Dahlin, he arrived here as a stranger in a strange land, moving from Warburg, Alberta after being taken in the second round in the 1979 NHL Draft.

For 10 seasons, Ruff pledged fealty to the fans of this blue-collar city, showing his loyalty with his fists and feistiness. The no-quarter-given defenseman topped more than 100 penalty minutes six times. He spilled his blood, his sweat, his tears in having the city’s back. 

As a result, it had his. 

He returned as a coach for the 1997-98 season and paced the bench like a clinched fist for 1,165 regular-season games and 101 more playoffs games before leaving in 2013. He led the Sabres to the Cup Final in 1999, losing to the Dallas Stars. He reached the conference final three times. He left Buffalo 17 games into the 2012-13 season, then coaching the Dallas Stars for four seasons (2013-17) and the New Jersey Devils (2020-24) for parts of four seasons. 

Last season, he returned yet again, tasked with getting the Sabres to the playoffs for the first time since 2012. They fell short last season, but he delivered in 2025-26 and has been lionized.

The city demands loyalty and rewards it handsomely. 

Dahlin is living that equation now, Ruff said. 

“For Rasmus to get drafted here, develop here, to want to stay here, to finally get to feel what it’s like to be in the playoffs as a Buffalo Sabre, there’d be no greater wish for me than for him and the other players that have been here and said, ‘OK, we’ll make this work.’” the coach said. “He openly said that I’m a Buffalo Sabre, and I can help make this team be better. And he’s gone out and done it. 

“I think you see the smile on his face, and I’ve had conversations with him, I even hear him say, ‘These fans are crazy.’ But for ‘Dahls’ and the year he’s had, the adversity he’s faced, I am so glad we’re right here, right now.”

Dahlin has overcome so much this season. 

His fiancée, Carolina Matovac, spent several weeks on life support after experiencing heart failure. She received a heart transplant that required months of hospitalization and rehab. Matovac later revealed she had lost the couple’s unborn child. 

Dahlin took a leave of absence for a week in November. He represented Team Sweden in the 2026 Winter Olympics, losing on overtime to Team USA in the quarterfinals. 

Now, all is well in Dahlin’s world. 

His fiancée is healthier, joining him recently in Buffalo. The Sabres have won a playoff series for the first time since 2007. 

Good times are here and Dahlin is ready to keep them rolling.

“I mean, first of all, to see the city, what it can be like or what it's like now, it's just unbelievable,” he said. “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, or I realize back now, that this is what you want to do every year. I'm having a ton of fun.”