Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) – Before the Buffalo Sabres broke their 14-year playoff drought in April, many of the players had never been in the playoffs. Rasmus Dahlin and Tage Thompson both just finished their eighth season with the Sabres and neither had played a Stanley Cup Playoff game until April. For Dahlin, that covered 586 games and for Thompson it was 529 games.
Mattias Samuelsson and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen both have played six professional seasons in the Sabres organization with Samulesson playing 290 games and Luukkonen 190 before entering the playoffs.
Thompson played 13 playoff games and finished with five goals and 10 assists for 15 points. He was second in NHL playoff scoring when the Sabres were eliminated, he's still fourth.
In 13 games Dahlin had four goals and 10 assists for 14 points and is just one point off the lead for defensemen. Quinn Hughes of the Minnesota Wild and Lane Hutson of the Montreal Canadiens both lead the NHL playoffs with 15 points.
Both Dahlin and Thompson signed long-term contracts with Buffalo because both wanted to stick it out and be part of the solution. Thompson said,
“It's been an emotional year, especially for me and 'Ras', Ras for sure with things that he's been dealing with, but it's something we've talked about for a long time being here as long as we have, guys have come and gone and weren't able to do it and one thing we talked a lot about is taking a lot of pride in being two big pieces, ending the drought and bring winning hockey back to Buffalo.
“It's a weird feeling, because it's a rewarding feeling, but at the same time, the way the season ended it still stings and hurts, so it's a mixed bag of emotions, but I think when you take a step back, and look at the progress we've made this year and the step we've taken, and a lot of the goals that we set out in the beginning of the season, we've surpassed them, so now that standard gets changed and the bar gets set higher and it gets me excited.”
When asked during the playoffs if he was playing with an injury he was quite clear that it was none of our business. When speaking on locker clean out day he said,
“Everyone is playing through something in playoffs, so I probably shouldn't have answered the question like that, but it was just a little heated, but I had some low back stuff going on for most of the playoffs, nothing ridiculous, but just stuff from a long season and not a lot of time to recover.”
When the team started winning on Dec. 9, they were in last place in the Eastern Conference. It took a 10-game winning streak to get them out of it on their way to second in the East and the Atlantic Division Championship. Thompson has a long memory,
"I remember after the third game we had lost three in a row and I think all you guys were all over us and I just remember thinking about that and it's so true, it's such a long season and it really doesn't matter what's happened the previous years, and I think we all just truly dug into that and leaned on each other and said we can turn this thing around, we can't start thinking about the previous years and what's happened and the way this season started, and we just have to keep looking to the next game and keep that real short mindset, one day at a time and it was a rewarding season in that aspect coming from where we did to now.”
Thompson knows just because they played two rounds of playoffs this season, doesn't mean they're going to make it next year. Teams are no longer thinking coming to Buffalo is an easy game and an easy win,
“It's going to get harder, there's teams in the league that came into Buffalo taking us for granted and I think we've earned the league's respect and I don't think it was a fluke by any means so I think every team is ready for us and when that happens, it's just going to get harder and you've got to be willing to embrace that.”
In one calendar year starting in May of 2025, Thompson scored the Golden Goal to help Team USA win the World Championship, he helped the Sabres to their first playoff appearance in 15 years and played in 13 games and he also helped Team USA win Olympic Gold in February. He literally went from the White House to Newark and got on the ice in time to help the Sabres beat the New Jersey Devils. I had wondered if at any point if he hit a wall and he said of course he did,
“It was a crazy, long year starting back in Worlds as soon as Worlds ended, Brian Galivan (Sabres new Director of Performance and also worked with Team USA) was over there with us, our strength coach and he was like, 'You're getting back in the gym Day 1,' so I've been going since right when Worlds ended.
“I need rest now, but I think it was good for me, just keep pushing and try to test your limits. I think not only physically, but mentally when things get tough physically, it's a big test on your mental aspect as well and I'd be lying if I didn't say that were times throughout this year where I hit a wall big time, but that's when you lean on each other in the room.
“I'm not going to have my best every game and guys in the room aren't going to have their best and it's all about picking each other up and that's what makes the group so tight is how we knew when guys were truly going through things and when guys needed to be picked up, and that's how I got through it, just leaning on guys.”
Instead of going back to Arizona for most of the off-season, Thompson and his family have a house in Clarence right across the street from Alex Tuch and they now spend much of the off season here. That gives Thompson a chance to work closely with Galivan down at the arena. I thought he was noticeably stronger this season and he and Tuch have become true power forwards to go with Josh Doan, Beck Malenstyn, Jordan Greenway and Josh Dunne.
Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin wanted to stick it out as Sabres and be part of the solution
Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin wanted to stick it out as Sabres and be part of the solution
