The Buffalo Sabres are starting a four-game road trip in Carolina on Saturday, but they will be without team captain Rasmus Dahlin, who is taking time away from the team, according to head coach Lindy Ruff.
"Rasmus will be taking a temporary leave of absence to deal with a personal matter back in Sweden. I will say that he said everything is okay. Through this, he's got full support from our team." Ruff said.
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Dahlin revealed in September via social media that his fiancee, Carolina Matovac had a terrible health scare over the summer, she was on life support for weeks that led to weeks in a French hospital before undergoing a heart transplant. This season, the 25-year-old has understandably appeared distracted, and has struggled on the ice, with nine points (1 goal, 8 assists) in 14 games, and a team-leading -11, but his teammates and the organization are understanding of the ordeal is going through.
"It's been incredibly hard. I fully understand what this young man is going through, I don't think you can describe it. I don't think you can feel what he's feeling. I'm pretty passionate about the fact that no one would want to walk in his shoes and having dealt with what he dealt with." Ruff said. “"This is larger than hockey.....Family and person come before hockey. Hockey is our job, Hockey is our lifeline, but family and personal (things) trump anything that comes before."
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