(WGR Sports Radio 550) - Both Olympians representing the Buffalo Sabres got wins on Saturday. First, it was Rasmus Dahlin and Team Sweden beating Slovakia, 5-3, followed by Tage Thompson and the United States taking care of Denmark, 6-3.
Sweden and Slovakia traded first-period goals, and Dahlin set up winger Adrian Kempe (Los Angeles Kings) in the second to give Sweden a 2-1 lead.
A pair of goals by center Elias Pettersson (Vancouver Canucks) helped Sweden stretch its lead to 5-2 before Slovakia closed out the scoring.
In three games with Sweden, Dahlin has a goal and three assists for four points. That’s fourth overall in Olympic scoring.
The Sabres captain lost one of his assists against Italy in the tournament opener. After a shot from Jesper Bratt (New Jersey Devils) was stopped, it was ruled that before the rebound got to Gus Forsling (Florida Panthers) for the goal, the puck hit Lucas Raymond (Detroit Red Wings).
Dahlin ended that game with two assists.
The 25-year-old played 24:27 in this game, which led all Swedish skaters. He’s being used a lot more than he was during the 4 Nations Face-Off last year.
Sweden finished Group B play tied with Finland and Slovakia with a 2-0-0-1 record. However, they finished third in the group because of goal differential in head-to-head between the three teams.
As for Thompson, he had some decent opportunities on the United States' power play against Denmark. He only had one shot on goal, but many of his attempts were just barely blocked or deflected.
What I haven’t liked is for two games now, head coach Mike Sullivan (New York Rangers) has not only had J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck in the lineup - also members of his Rangers squad - when they shouldn’t even be on the team, but he’s breaking his neck to get them playing time.
In their first game against Latvia, Sullivan was substituting Miller in for Thompson quite a bit, and once or twice for Kyle Connor. It was Trocheck’s turn on Saturday to be slotted in, which kept Thompson’s ice-time down to 9:12, which is worst on the team.
The only reason Trocheck and Miller are even on the team is because Chris Drury is the Rangers' general manager, and is Bill Guerin’s (Minnesota Wild) right-hand man as assistant general manager of the U.S. squad.
It really is a joke they’re not only on this team, but are in the lineup when guys like Jason Robertson (Dallas Stars), Cole Caufield (Montreal Canadiens), Alex DeBrincat (Detroit Red Wings) and Alex Tuch (Sabres) are much better players and sitting at home.
It’s also a joke that Clayton Keller (Utah Mammoth) is not even dressing in the games for two players that don’t belong there.
Team USA finishes its Round Robin play on Sunday against Germany.
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