Rasmus Dahlin doubtful as Sabres' injury list grows

The worst part is that Dahlin was having a great night against Florida on Monday until he got hurt. Late in the 1st period he went end to end and set the power play up himself.

That one-timer made it 2-1. Then, 3:29 into the 2nd period, the Sabres captain took a slap shot from the edge of the right faceoff circle. According to ESPN, he blocked it off a faceoff while he was running the power play, went down to a knee right away and skated to the bench clearly hurting. He never came back, and the team called it an upper-body injury.

Buffalo still won the game, 5-3. Sam Reinhart scored twice to keep tying it up for Florida. Noah Ostlund's power-play goal in the 3rd put the Sabres ahead for good and Tage Thompson added the insurance. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen came on for Colten Ellis after Ellis gave up 2 goals on 9 shots, and Luukkonen made 13 saves. The win was badly needed: it got Buffalo back to 3-3-0. Afterwards Ruff gave the first real update on Dahlin.

Ruff said the reason was simple. Dahlin could get better treatment at home, and he didn't need to get on a plane. That kept him out of Tuesday's game in Montreal. The next day the Sabres also gave up on getting a defenseman back soon from their other injury.

Losing Grzelcyk and Dahlin at once is a lot of blue line to replace. Things got worse Wednesday morning when Ruff came on the radio with a longer injury list than anyone wanted to hear.

So that's 3 more problems. Dahlin probably misses Toronto too. Lyon is off the ice for a couple of days, which leaves the Sabres thin in goal right when Luukkonen is just starting to look settled. Kozak's upper-body issue costs them a forward. Ruff keeps saying day-to-day, and so far nobody has said anything worse. That's the good news. The bad news is that Buffalo's whole season runs through Dahlin, and the Sabres can't afford to spend October patching holes. Watch Wednesday's skate in Buffalo: if Dahlin is skating there, a return later on this trip is possible. If not, the Sabres will have to get through the Leafs without their best player.