“I’d do it again if I had to” – Sabres’ Dylan Cozens relishes his statement made to defend Rasmus Dahlin

“I’d do it again if I had to” – Sabres’ Dylan Cozens relishes his statement made to defend Rasmus Dahlin

Dylan Cozens

After seeing fellow Buffalo Sabres defenceman Rasmus Dahlin take a cross-check in the neck area from Auston Matthews during the game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Dylan Cozens knew it was important to show his teammate that he had his back.

The incident took place late in the third period when Cozens delivered a big hit on the forward which drew a subsequent response from Michael Bunting and Ilya Mikheyev. Following this, Cozens had received a 10-minute misconduct on the play and made it a point to say he would have done it again on Tuesday.

“At that point in the game in a normal game, if nothing had happened before that, I probably wouldn’t have taken that hit,” Cozens said while explaining the statement he made at the end of Sabres’ big win. “But just seeing what he did to (Rasmus) – that was a really dirty cross-check and a dangerous cross-check by him – I decided at the moment there to finish my check on him.”

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“Dahlin’s a star player and he’s going to be a great player for us”

Rasmus Dahlin
Rasmus Dahlin

The Whitehorse native Cozens went on to leap massive praises for the young Dahlin, who brushed off the incident as something that happens in the heat of the moment.

He added: “Obviously, a couple of guys didn’t like that, but I’d do it again if I had to. Dahlin’s a star player, a young defenseman, one of the best defencemen in the league and he’s going to be a great player for us, so that’s a guy that anyone on this team would stick up for. I’ve got to take exception to that one.”

Apart from Cozens, the Leafs forward Bunting was also given a 10-minute misconduct for going after Cozens after the hit on Matthews. 

“He’s just sticking up for his star centreman, too,” Cozens said about Bunting. “Good on him for that, but I think there are different ways he could have gone about it if he really wanted to fight.”

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