4 Nations ‘a dream come true’ for Rasmus Dahlin

BOSTON – Rasmus Dahlin is no stranger to international competition. From the World Junior Championship to the World Championship to the 2018 Winter Olympics, the Buffalo Sabres’ captain has proudly worn Sweden’s Three Crowns in his amateur and professional career.

But the 4 Nations Face-Off was extra special for the Lidkoping native, who enjoyed his first opportunity to skate alongside Swedish legends in international, best-on-best competition.

Erik Karlsson and Victor Hedman – Swedish defensemen, 16-year NHL veterans and Dahlin’s childhood heroes – became his teammates for three games over the last week.

“You learn new things every day, just being around them,” Dahlin said. “It’s pretty cool, because they’ve been my idols since growing up. So, just to be able to be in the same room, it’s cool.”

Dahlin and Sweden saw their 4 Nations run end Monday at Boston’s TD Garden; they beat the United States 2-1 for their only win of the tournament, but Canada had already secured its championship game rematch against the Americans with an afternoon victory over Finland.

Forty-six games into his NHL regular season, Dahlin temporarily said goodbye to his familiar pairing with Bowen Byram and joined a Swedish back end that, in addition to Karlsson and Hedman, featured Jonas Brodin, Mattias Ekholm, Gustav Forsling and Rasmus Andersson.

Each team practiced just twice before the tournament – not much time to prepare for high-intensity, high-stakes hockey, which began with Sweden’s 4-3 overtime loss to Canada last Wednesday. Still, Dahlin feels the wealth of talent in the room, fortified by the camaraderie of fellow countrymen, made for a smooth transition.

“It’s been fun to learn a couple new things from each of those guys, get some new chemistry and be able to play with those guys,” said the Sabres defenseman, who played the bulk of his minutes alongside Forsling. “They’re top-class players in this league.

“It’s just fun to be around, joke around and be yourself around Swedish guys. It’s different.”

The 24-year-old Dahlin, though the youngest of the group by more than three years, solidified his status among Sweden’s elite blueliners.

He averaged 17:46 of ice time – fourth among Swedish defensemen – while totaling two hits, eight shot blocks and one goal. And he worked his way into power-play opportunities as the tournament progressed, skating 3:26 with the man advantage Monday night.

Sweden owned a 52-percent share of shot attempts during Dahlin’s 5-on-5 ice time, which came against some of hockey’s best; in Wednesday’s opener versus Canada, Dahlin helped win a defensive-zone board battle by outmuscling Sam Reinhart and throwing Connor McDavid to the ice.

“He’s a top defenseman in this league,” Ekholm said. “He’s always a dangerous player when you play against him, and I think that he showed it here as well. He can skate like anybody and break the puck out, and obviously he’s dangerous offensively.

“I thought he was really good for us, and with his age, it’s exciting to see where he can go.”

Sweden’s depth of offensively gifted defensemen and defensively responsible forwards promoted the fluid, 200-foot game that Dahlin plays so effectively. His goal, which tied Saturday’s game versus Finland in the second period, came from the top of the crease; Joel Eriksson Ek collected a rebound and poked a one-handed pass across the blue paint to an unaccounted-for Dahlin.

“We’ve got really skilled, smart forwards too,” Dahlin said. “One of our forwards (Lucas Raymond) was up on the blue line, so I decided to jump down. I trust those guys a lot.”

That play figures to have been Dahlin’s most memorable from the tournament. But the one that left the biggest mark, at least for now, might be his blocking a shot from Sabres teammate Henri Jokiharju.

“He said I shouldn’t have been blocking, because it was going in,” Dahlin said of the Finnish defenseman, who scored a 4 Nations goal of his own Thursday versus the U.S. "I’ll get him back when we get back (to Buffalo).”

• Read: Jokiharju soaks in 4 Nations experience

While the 4 Nations Face-Off featured superior players, Dahlin likened it to his past international experiences, especially the World Juniors. Totaling one goal and seven assists in 14 World Juniors games between 2016-17 and 2017-18, he reflects on those tournaments as “unreal.”

Donning the yellow and blue for a locked-in audience back home is unlikely to ever get old for Dahlin. It hasn't yet, anyways.

“It’s a dream come true, for sure,” Dahlin said Monday morning. “It’s always an honor to represent Sweden. All the fans are back home and watching, and it’s a crazy thing going on right now.”

If 4 Nations has its intended effect, that enthusiasm will only grow for next February’s Winter Olympics in Italy. Then, NHL players will take the Olympic stage for the first time since 2014. While rosters are far from set, Dahlin feels he deserves to make the cut. And nothing in this most recent tournament, or in his 42-point performance with the Sabres thus far in 2024-25, has suggested otherwise.

“Olympics is something you always want to do,” he said. “I’ve been to one already, and it’s the coolest thing ever. So I would love to do that.”