Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – It’s only been one game, but Rasmus Dahlin played pretty well on Monday night while paired with Mark Pysyk in a loss to the Washington Capitals. The two rarely got into trouble in their first game playing together, and it really looked like Pysyk had a calming presence on Dahlin.
It took 11 games for the pair to come to be. Granato said Pysyk was chosen because of his approach to the game and life, “He’s a real stabilizing personality. He’s been in the league a long time and has a calm to his game and that was at a premium for us at that moment.
“Certainly the defensive group was under fire and it wasn’t just in the media, that was the talk of those guys.” Granato also said having a right handed shot with a lefty helped too.
Granato felt both Dahlin and Dylan Cozens rose to the challenge of playing against a tough Capitals team in Washington.
There have been certain times this season where Granato has said that Dahlin will complicate what should be a simple play. Granato said, “Players that have a mind like Dahls has, you have a confidence where you say 'I know there’s a great play to be made' and when you’re looking for a great play all of the time, you force plays a lot of the time because your stubbornness is because you’re confident. You say to yourself, ‘I can make this play’ and it closes up and you didn’t survey for the simple play.”
The fact that Dahlin flipped pucks out of the zone and out of danger can also be the influence of Pysyk. Granato agreed, “I think it is, it helps. To have Mark there right by his side, and he talks to him in between shifts and even in practice today, there was lots of talk.”
After two years of playing a lot of forward and being a healthy scratch, Pysyk signed in Buffalo because he knew he was going to be used as a defenseman again. With that, Granato put expectations on him, “He wants more in his career and he’s really focused with ‘How can I become better?’ I’ve challenged him that way from Day 1 and before I even met him face-to-face, I told him, ‘This is what I expect of you and there are areas where you’ve got to make these improvements. You’ve got to push to make these improvements to become a better player' and he has become a better player than what I watched from last season and I liked him last season.”
It was a message Pysyk embraced. He said, “That was his message right from training camp to me was, ‘I think there’s a little bit more to your game playing with the puck, getting it to the forwards in a better spot, but he just wants everyone to be playing with confidence.”
Pysyk is a very humble man and will never take credit for anything. As far as playing with Dahlin and what his role is he said, “He plays with the puck very well, he’s confident, he’s unbelievably smooth out there and I just went into it like any other game, just try to be solid, responsible and just do my thing and let him do his.”
The injury news wasn’t good for anybody to return this week. Don Granato said they can’t rush Victor Olofsson back, “He could return to practice I guess, but I don’t expect him for Friday.”
Things became clearer on Olofsson once they got back from Seattle. Granato said, “The imaging that we did get when we came back still kept it day-to-day, it’s not a three week deal, it’s basically an area that’s inflamed and we’re waiting for it to resolve because it impedes what he can do.”
Craig Anderson didn’t practice and Wednesday Granato said he’s still day-to-day. Casey Mittelstadt and Henri Jokiharju also aren’t practicing yet.
It doesn’t sound like Anderson will be able to play this weekend. Granato said Dustin Tokarski will start Friday against the Edmonton Oilers and they would evaluate after the game, but he said the simple thought is they’d play both Tokarski and Aaron Dell back-to-back.
