Dahlin expects to play Wednesday against Flyers

Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR) - After missing Rasmus Dahlin during a three-game divisional road trip that saw Buffalo go 1-0-2 against the Montreal Canadiens (twice) and Toronto Maple Leafs, the Sabres captain was back on the ice Monday for practice.

Dahlin was back skating with his usual defensive counterpart Mattias Samuelsson, while Owen Power was back skating with Olen Zellweger on the back end. The bottom defensive pairing saw Louis Crevier and Dennis Gilbert taking turns skating with Zach Metsa.

The Sabres captain seemed very confident after practice that he will be in a good spot to return to the lineup Wednesday when the Philadelphia Flyers come to town.

"I’m ready. We’ll see here tomorrow, and go from there," said Dahlin following the skate.

While Dahlin did not want to be away from his teammates during the recent divisional road trip, he felt the group played quite well on its way to earning four of a possible six points.

“It was a great road trip," Dahlin said. "Really strong team effort coming back. I think it was most of the games. They were down two and they came back, so it just shows real character. It was good. I’m happy the guys did good and grabbed some points, but it was not fun to be on the couch watching."

Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff still really liked his defensive group's effort on the road trip, even without the captain in the lineup.

“I think if you look at what Zellweger did on the offensive side, Samuelsson scored a big goal, and Gilbert scored a big goal for us, you go to Owen Power’s overtime goal; I thought offensively, the group did a good job,” said Ruff after Monday's session at KeyBank Center.

Ruff acknowledges that in Dahlin's absence, one area the Sabres played well but missed out on his production was the power play.

"They scored in a couple of games and had a couple in one game, and then as soon as Dahlin went out, I don’t know if we’ve scored since he’s been out. I think that’s an area that we’ve missed him on for sure," Ruff said.

The Sabres will return to the ice on Tuesday.