It’s been a challenging week for the Buffalo Sabres. They have continued to maintain their high level of play, set some records playing at a historically elite level in the League (fifth-best record all time for a 24-game span), saw Lady Luck sashay their way, did a little dance together, and then she backed elusively out of reach last night.

Honorable Mentions

With a nod to the upcoming Winter Olympics, we’ll have a slightly different format to our honorable mentions today.

Bronze Medals – Mattias Samuelsson, Jack Quinn

Sammy has been playing at an absolutely elite level for the best part of this season on both sides of the ice. Long enough to make us feel that Former General Manager Kevyn Adams (FGMKA henceforth) really sealed a steal with his contract, yet short enough to wonder if last season was the aberration, or this one. That said, the defenseman had a goal and three assists this week, going +3 in that spell too.

Quinner has definitely revved it up a gear or two, and his linemates Jason Zucker and Ryan McLeod are working together well getting some hard minutes and contributing on both sides of the ice. The Sabres second line with its mix of skill, grit and speed saw him get a goal and three assists as well.

Silver Medals – Alex Tuch, Alex Lyon

Tuch has made himself such an invaluable member of the team that even with impending free agency GMJK is not going to want to lose him and risk jeopardizing the team spirit right now. But with so many teams contending, who will be willing to give away enough to make it worth it for the Sabres? He bagged a hattrick against the Kings as Buffalo got to see again what a wagon their team has become.

The Lyon King took the mantle of starting goalie this week after Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was hurt against the Leafs and Colten Ellis saw out the win. He set the franchise record of eleven straight wins for a goalie with The Dominator at the arena against LA and though he saw his team goalied against Montreal last night, he ended the week with a .941 sv% and 2.04 GAA.

Player of the Week

The gold medal for last week goes to Rasmus Dahlin. What a week the Sabres captain has had, and what character he has shown in the face of such adversity.

We learned that his fiancée was expecting the couple’s first child and lost the pregnancy when she had her cardiac emergency, with Monday 26th the due date. The Sabrehood grieved for their Swedish warrior and Carolina Matovac. But Dahlin lead his galvanized forces and Buffalo spanked the Maple Leafs in their own vacuous barn, scoring a hattrick and bagging a five-point night when Toronto was commemorating a record 10-pt night fifty years ago for Darryl Sittler. The 25-year-old is showing that when weight of the world is on his shoulders, he not only steps up he bounds forward with sheer force of will.

The defenseman has had his defensive game questioned at times, but this week was a good one for him as he went +3 (would have been more without the empty netter against the Habs last night) to go with his 3 goals and 4 assists, with six of those points coming at even strength.

Buffalo’s captain even challenged the fanbase, questioning the large number of red jerseys in the stands at the KeyBank Center for the Montreal game. It has taken many of us a long time to start to trust the Sabres again with our hearts, and for many they’re not quite there yet, and justifiably so. However, the players acknowledge this and are playing with a playoff mentality, and the fanbase and team need to feed off each other.