The NHL has been an adjustment for Metsa after two-plus seasons in Rochester, with more frequent games, fewer practices, constant travel, etc. As an Amerk, he\u2019s had a consistent pairing with Nikita Novikov; as a Sabre, he\u2019s played with everybody. On Saturday alone, Metsa skated alongside each of Rasmus Dahlin (5:43), Owen Power (3:22), Mattias Samuelsson (2:18) and Bowen Byram (1:58).<\/p>\n
The way those top-four stalwarts drive play in the offensive zone seems to be rubbing off on their rookie teammate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something we talk about as a D corps: we want to be active, we want to create offense and help our forwards,\u201d Metsa said. \u201cSometimes for me, it\u2019s just getting up and pulling a defender, opening space for some of the guys to use with the puck. At least for me, there\u2019s a lot of ways to go about it, but I\u2019m trying to jump up and replicate what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contributing across the board on a playoff-contending team adds to what\u2019s been a whirlwind season for the undrafted Metsa. He was named Rochester\u2019s captain in October, then promoted for a taste of the NHL. Since late December, he\u2019s been a mainstay in the Sabres\u2019 lineup, something he\u2019d hoped for but certainly didn\u2019t expect.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, this is what I wanted to happen, but realistically, I thought I\u2019d spend a lot of time in Rochester,\u201d Metsa said. \u201cI wanted to prove myself again, be the next call-up, try to move up the depth chart.<\/p>\n
\u201cI reflected a lot with my mom on the mom\u2019s trip. Having her along was really cool, because it was an opportunity for me to share this with her. \u2026 I looked at her and was like, \u2018Can you believe this is what happened this year?\u2019 She says she can, but that\u2019s the mom in her.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sabres could add to their blue line ahead of Friday\u2019s trade deadline, but with Metsa\u2019s recent performance, any new face figures to be a complement, not a replacement for what\u2019s been a winning formula.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s more from Monday\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NHL has been an adjustment for Metsa after two-plus seasons in Rochester, with more frequent games, fewer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-501146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}