This is a new feature we’re going to be trying out here on Die By The Blade, so please be patient with us as we work things out. The article needed to be up earlier on Sunday, but I needed a full 24 hours and then some to get over what transpired in Colorado last night, IYKYK.
Honorable Mentions
This is going to be a two-fer this week, and first up is the somewhat-maligned Rasmus Dahlin. The Sabres captain is going through a difficult time right now and still trying to play right through it. His fiancée Carolina is back in Gothenburg, Sweden where she is recovering from an emergency heart transplant and Ras has taken some time off to go be with her, but has also tried to manfully keep playing for the Sabres. He’s struggled defensively taking on opposing teams’ top lines while playing big minutes (25:55 last week), and hasn’t been clicking offensively either, but scored two power play goals and picked up three assists in the four games last week.
Another honorable mention goes to the fan-favorite, jet-skated Ryan McLeod. His two goals and three assists came as three even strength points, one on the power play and crucially one shorthanded goal too, all while winning 54.4% of his faceoffs. McLeod also went a team-leading +5 in a difficult week for the Sabres where they gave up fourteen goals. Gotta love his goofy toothless grin too!
Player of the Week
The Buffalo Sabres’ Player of the Week for last week and the inaugural one for this series is forward Tage Thompson who has been scoring seemingly for fun recently.
In the four games the Sabres played last week, all at home, TNT had three goals and six assists as Buffalo plundered seventeen goals at the KeyBank Center. All three goals came in the critical division win over the Montreal Canadiens, and the pick of those for me was his hattie empty-netter that brought down a rain of hats, all for a good cause.
Critically, five of those points came on the man advantage which has been up and down recently. Tage logged 21:23 in those four games, which are big minutes for a forward, shooting 16 times at a 18.8% clip, well above the league average.
Drop a comment below on what you think of this feature, the picks this week and anything else you’d like to see here.