Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - Many Buffalo Sabres players packed up their gear Friday, met with head coach Lindy Ruff and general manager Kevyn Adams, and are back on their way to their offseason homes.
Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin was one of those players, and feels there were too many games that were right there for them to win that they didn’t, which brought us to Year 14 of Buffalo's playoff drought.
"Overall, disappointed," Dahlin said on Friday during his end-of-season press conference. "The last 20 games we got better, but it hasn’t been good enough. I’m sitting here this year again with no playoffs, it’s not good enough. We’ve had a lot of games that have been winnable and we haven’t won those games."
Dahlin has played seven seasons in the NHL, covering 509 games. Still, he’s never had a sniff of the Stanley Cup Playoffs while in Buffalo. Dahlin is human, but of course this wears on him.
"I still believe in us, but we haven’t proved anything yet. We’ve got work to do," Dahlin said.
One thing most of the team says is Dahlin grew into the captain’s role as the season went on.
"I took some steps and also the leadership group. We played the right way, but everything was so new in the beginning of the season, I learned a lot throughout the season, and I just realized be myself is the best way for being a captain," Dahlin said. "It’s a new role, and it took some time to get comfortable with it."
Accountability is a big buzz word in sports, and the Sabres use it a lot.
"We had accountability. You can talk about accountability, but for me, accountability is looking yourself in the mirror, and I think we got better with that throughout the year," the Sabres captain said.
I’ve always thought Tage Thompson is a pretty straight shooter when it comes to accountability.
"It’s being open with each other. I think it’s an environment where if you’re not willing to take criticism or get called out by a guy, then you’re in the wrong business," said Thompson on Friday in his end-of-season press conference.
“Being able to be brutally honest with a guy if you don’t think he’s giving his best to help the group, you should hear it. And if you’re not receptive of that, then you’re not helping the team. But I don’t think we had any of that.
“I’ll be brutally honest, I think me and ‘Dahls’ give it to each other more than anybody, and I respect that because I know he wants to win, and I know that’s his way of saying he needs more from me. So I appreciate when he does that."
Dahlin says he doesn’t know yet if he’s going to play for Sweden at the IIHF World Championship.
Meanwhile, Sabres winger Alex Tuch says he’d love to join Thompson with Team USA, but he and his wife are having another child very soon, so he needs to stay here.
The Rochester Americans got a boost as they open their best-of-five playoff series against the Syracuse Crunch on Friday. Buffalo has sent forwards Jiri Kulich, Isak Rosen, Noah Ostlund and Tyson Kozak to the Amerks.
The first two games will be in Rochester on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.
More players will be speaking on Saturday, while Ruff and Adams will also wrap up the season.