Buffalo Sabres: Rasmus Dahlin endures a nightmare debut

Rasmus Dahlin might be a generational talent, but even he couldn’t save the Buffalo Sabres from the indignity of a horrific home opener on Thursday night, against the Boston Bruins.

There will be better night’s for Rasmus Dahlin. There has to be, for both his and the Buffalo Sabres‘ sake.

However, this doesn’t change the fact that Thursday’s season opener was a complete disaster for the player and his new team. Anything that could go wrong did, and by the end of the night they had been dominated 4-0 by the Boston Bruins.

Of course, it’s all very well for an objective outsider to look at the talent on the roster and predict the Sabres will improve. However, when you’ve been put through as much misery as the fans have, it is entirely understandable if the collective thought process on Thursday night was “here we go again”.

And in fairness to the Sabres faithful, it doesn’t help when a generational talent delivers a subpar performance. Dahlin may well turn out to live up to the proclamation of being a franchise blue-liner, but it didn’t matter against the Bruins.

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The 18-year-old at times had trouble controlling the puck and maintaining discipline. He also failed to display his talent on the offensive end, not even registering a single shot.

Dahlin officially had just the one turnover. His worst moment came when a pass went between his legs in front of goal, and David Pastrnak slotted home to make it 3-0 to the Bruins during the second period.

However, there were other factors outside Dahlin’s control, with the team enduring a nightmare performance in general. He also had to contend with a change in pairings during the game; overall, there was a lot to contend with for a young player making his NHL regular season debut.

In fairness to the 2018 first overall draft pick, he did offer some glimpses of his undoubted potential, including two hits and one block. He played the second-most minutes on the team and his plus/minus rating of -1 wasn’t that bad, all things considered.

Dahlin was asked about his performance afterwards, with him offering a measured response. As reported by Jason Wolf of The Buffalo News, he said:

"“It was my first game, so I didn’t really expect as much. It went okay. Of course, we lost, so I can’t say I made a good game. It was what it was.”"

Dahlin’s teammates and coaches remain fully confident in him, and with good reason. The talent is undeniable and any mistakes and nerves can be put down to Thursday being his first competitive game in hockey’s premier league.

Regardless, everyone — including the player himself — will be expecting better things from the Sweden native, as this season progresses. And in all likelihood, this is exactly what will happen.

What is less so certain, is how the rest of the Sabres roster will perform. We will get our next clue on Saturday night, when the team hosts the New York Rangers.

It’s just one game, so we won’t look too far down the road at this point. For now, we’ll just ask you to predict what kind of production you expect from Dahlin and the Buffalo Sabres during the remainder of October? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.