Dahlin still gets excited for a new season

Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR) - Believe it or not, Thursday will be the ninth opening night for Rasmus Dahlin in his NHL career, as with the Buffalo Sabres.

Dahlin lives to play hockey, and still gets excited for the first game of the regular season.

"It's no different than the first year, so we're super excited," said Dahlin following Wednesday's practice. "We worked hard this training camp, so it's time to go."

If you want to talk about an on-ice leader, nobody works harder in practice than Dahlin, and he accepts nothing less from his teammates. The Sabres captain has liked the work ethic he's seen since training camp opened a couple weeks back.

"We've worked really hard on our structure on defense, we've tried to get our condition up. It's been hard, but everyone's been committed and focused," Dahlin said.

Of course Dahlin would still want Alex Tuch and Bo Byram to be in Buffalo, but they have since moved on from the organization. Now it's time to see some younger players like Noah Östlund, Konsta Helenius and Jiri Kulich get their chance with the Sabres.

"It's going to be fun to watch," Dahlin said of the three youngsters. "They worked really hard, especially this summer. They're bigger and older, they're more experienced, they've been through a playoff. I'm excited to see what they can bring."

When I asked Dahlin specifically about Östlund, he admits, "I didn't know he was this good."

Sabres assistant coach Seth Appert spoke recently about the deep dive the staff and analytics department did on the power play. All that information got passed on to the players too, and Dahlin has enjoyed going through it all and seeing it in practice.

"We've had a lot of conversations, and we tried to learn and adjust a little bit," he said. "We've got all the information now, so it's up to us to do something."

Dahlin was surprised with some of the information that came their way, but knows special teams continue to change.

"I would say four or five years ago, the PK's looked way different than they do right now. It's a new type of power play that you're now playing, so you've got to adjust, you have to learn, you have to be smarter than the PK," Dahlin noted. "It was cool to hear all about these advanced stats."

The Sabres have had the same two power play units since camp opened:

• PP1: Thompson - Doan - Benson - Quinn -Dahlin
• PP2: Norris - McLeod - Östlund - Helenius - Power

Owen Power has been on the power play for most of his career, and he only has 20 points with the extra man. Last year was the first time he was taken off the power play, and it may be time to look for somebody different to quarterback the second unit.

Mattias Samuelsson returned to practice on the Sabres' blue line Wednesday. He says his recovery from a lower-body injury went well, and it's a pain tolerance thing for him going forward. Does he feel he'll be ready to play in Thursday's opener against the Columbus Blue Jackets?

"I'm going to see how it feels flying, and then just see how it responds after a real skate. So looking good, but we'll see in the morning," Samuelsson acknowledged after practice.

As for defenseman Olen Zellweger, Ruff says he won't play on Thursday, but could play in Saturday's home opener against the Chicago Blackhawks. He says Zellweger hasn't had a setback, but he needs to pass his baseline testing.

Zellweger is expected to be re-tested on Thursday.

Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had a very good preseason, and he will get the call in goal on Thursday.

"He came in in tremendous shape, I've liked the work he's put in, and the practices have been good," Ruff said of the veteran.

Ruff admits it was fun watching regular season hockey on Tuesday, and he's ready to get the season started.