Rasmus Dahlin hasn’t seen the Buffalo Sabres’ season go the way anyone expected, but he’s not sounding the alarm.
After Saturday night’s overtime loss to the Washington Capitals, the Sabres captain kept his message simple as Buffalo headed out for a West Coast trip.
"We got one point today, and now we're going to Cali," Dahlin told reporters after Saturday night's overtime loss to the Washington Capitals ahead of a West Coast trip. "It's going to be fun. We've just got to keep working and I'm sure it will get better here."
That optimism comes with Buffalo sitting on just 11 points through 11 games, a 4-4-3 start that doesn’t resemble the team that surged through the NHL last season. The Sabres’ offense hasn’t been nearly as sharp, and their goaltending, which ranked among the league’s best in 2025-26, has been a problem early.
Even so, there are numbers that hint at something better underneath the slow start. Buffalo ranks 14th in 5-on-5 expected goal share at 52.7 percent, according to HockeyStats.com. But the rest of the picture has dragged the team down: shaky goaltending, not enough secondary scoring and special teams that haven’t given the club much help.
The warning signs have shown up in a familiar pattern. The Sabres keep spotting opponents early leads, and even when they do get out in front - as they did by going up 2-0 on Washington - they haven’t consistently closed the door.
That’s a far cry from what Buffalo looked like during last season’s long heater. The Sabres were 11-14-4 through 29 games before ripping off one of the best runs in NHL history and finishing with 109 points, the fourth-best total in the league. This version has looked like it’s fighting the game instead of controlling it.
Dahlin thinks the answer is still in front of them.
"I feel like we start strong and then we kind of feel good about the first period," Dahlin said. "We've got to remember it's 60 minutes and we have to push every single shift and it's not going to be easy."
The pressure is only going to keep rising in a deep Eastern Conference, especially with the talent already on the roster and the challenge of replacing Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram after their offseason departures. Buffalo’s young players are being asked to take on bigger roles, and the margin for error is thin.
Saturday’s game produced a mixed bag of individual showings, with Dahlin earning Buffalo’s player of the game honors after a stronger outing than his first game back from an upper-body injury. He had missed three games, returned against the Philadelphia Flyers, and looked below full strength there. Against Washington, he was more active with the puck, his skating looked freer, and he picked up an assist on Noah Ostlund’s game-tying goal in the third period.
The night still wasn’t clean. Dahlin had five giveaways, and he’ll need to tighten that up. But after looking off rhythm in his first game back, Saturday at least pointed in the right direction.
The grades from the loss reflected the uneven night around him. Jack Quinn (7), Josh Doan and Noah Ostlund (6.5 each), Zach Benson and Owen Power (6 each) all landed on the positive side, while Mattias Samuelsson and Beck Malenstyn earned 5.5s. Konsta Helenius and Ryan McLeod were at 5, Olen Zellweger at 5, Peyton Krebs and Tage Thompson at 4.5, Tyson Kozak at 4, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen at 3.5, Josh Norris at 3, Jason Zucker and Louis Crevier at 2, and Dennis Gilbert at 1.5.
There were also a few clear notes that stood out beyond the grades. Ostlund, Quinn and Benson have been Buffalo’s best line so far, though Lindy Ruff may need to break them up if he wants to spread offense through the lineup. Josh Doan has also started to move in the right direction after a quiet beginning to the year.
Tage Thompson didn’t record a shot on goal, ending a stretch of 16 games without that happening since Game 1 against the Montreal Canadiens in the playoffs. And Josh Norris is still searching for a way to make a real offensive dent, leaving the Sabres without an easy answer on what comes next.
In Other News...
Sabres Just Broke Up Their Best Line And Ruff Is Betting Big
The Sabres came into practice with a familiar scoring trio no longer together, as Lindy Ruff reshuffled his forward lines and separated Zach Benson, Jack Quinn and Noah Ostlund. It was a notable move because that group had quietly become Buffalos most effective combination, giving the coaching staff a look it could trust when the puck was on their sticks and the play was tilted in the right direction.
Ruffs reasoning was less about one line needing a fix than about the larger picture, with the coach looking to distribute offense more evenly across the lineup and get more from the group as a whole. It is a gamble with a line that had been working, but the Sabres are clearly weighing whether a deeper spread of production can make them tougher to defend over time. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres Just Got Pulled Into A Dylan Larkin Situation That Feels Unlikely
Dylan Larkins trade watch has suddenly dragged Buffalo into the conversation, even though the Sabres are not among the teams on his current preferred list. The Detroit captain, who holds a full no-trade clause, has asked for a move and broadened his approved destinations to 10 clubs, a reminder of how carefully these situations have to be handled when a player of his stature is involved.
What makes this especially interesting for the Sabres is that Detroit is still believed to be waiting on a significant return, and Larkin remains in the lineup while the situation plays out. Buffalos interest gives the story another layer, since the Sabres would have to navigate around a player who has not given them the green light, turning what looked like a remote rumor into something worth monitoring closely. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres Trade Still Carries Weight As Ex-Defenseman Opens Up
Michael Kesselrings one-year run in Buffalo ended the way so many quick NHL stops do, with a trade that was less about the player in front of the team than the bigger picture around him. Dealt to San Jose ahead of the 2026 NHL Draft, the defenseman looked back on a Sabres stint defined in part by injuries, and he made it clear he still appreciated the chance he got in Buffalo before the move sent him west.
For the Sabres, the deal was part of a broader attempt to reshape the roster and add another asset for the future, even if it meant moving on from a player who never really got a full runway. Kesselrings comments underline the human side of a transaction that matters in the standings and in the draft room, and it also serves as a reminder that some of Buffalos offseason calculations are already tied to players the organization has yet to see suit up in blue and gold. [Read more 🡒]