26-year-old Swedish defenseman Rasmus Dahlin (dah-LEEN) is the captain of the Buffalo Sabres, my beloved and eternally frustrating hometown hockey team. He has been a Sabre the entire eight years he’s been in the NHL, captain for two, and he’s just excellent.
In the 2025-2026 NHL season, Dahlin was the sixth highest-scoring defenseman in the league with 19 goals and 55 assists (a total of 74 points).1 He played 77 of 82 possible games, missing a handful in the middle of the season to take care of his fianceé who was recovering from a heart transplant in Sweden; the Sabres lost all three games that they played during Ras’s relatively brief absence.2
This season, in the middle of the second period of the October 12th game against the Florida Panthers, he left the ice with an unspecified upper body injury.
The injury is especially poorly-timed because it happened immediately after Dahlin seemed to deviate from what is broadly known as the Sabres’ “dogwater power play.”3 A power play in hockey is a man advantage that results from a penalty; the Sabres’ is dogwater because assistant coach Seth Appert’s plan is to have the players constantly drop pass (leave the puck so that a player behind the one who had possession can scoop it up) instead of attempt to use the man advantage to drive towards the opposing team’s net and — you know, score.4 In the game against the Florida Panthers5, Ras tried to break through their defense on the man advantage instead of doing fancy drop pass choreography and, you’ll never believe this, scored.
In his absence, we lost to the Montreal Canadiens twice in the same week — not good, considering the Habs (a nickname born of a misunderstanding, short for habitants, the French settlers of modern-day Quebec) are the team that knocked us out of the playoffs last season. It was messy. I watched in real-time as people developed a deep and personal beef against a 25-year-old Czech goalie named Jakub Dobeš.6
The Buffalo Sabres are also in a precarious position. Last season, they broke out of a fourteen-year playoff drought after some depressing headlines and the firing of their general manager, Kevyn Adams7. The city of Buffalo is remembering that it’s a hockey town again, and is desperate for confirmation that last season wasn’t a fluke.
Image: Matthew Fairburn (@MatthewFairburn) on X
And I — well, I’m finding myself in a really weird position. I have this really clear memory of sitting in a meeting once and saying to my boss, “We can’t keep putting this much weight on a single contributor.”
The year was [REDACTED] and the project was [NDA]. I was working myself to the bone and watching the industry reckon with a burnout epidemic, reading the phrase “death march” in trade press with alarming regularity. I wanted — want — a better future for game developers and I became obsessed with safeguards and redundancy. We’re all “just” workers after all, and no one should be expected to carry a disproportionate burden.
From a pipeline standpoint, there’s two big risks in having a load-bearing team member: One, what if they get hit by the lottery and disappear overnight? Two, that person could quickly become a bottleneck if the scope of their responsibilities is not carefully managed. This has been a problem on all the projects I’ve been on thus far in my career.
There are also team composition and morale risks. Having a so-called “superstar” who does a bulk of the work and gets a bulk of the praise can put unnecessary pressure on that person while also demotivating their teammates. Often, these high-performing team members will also put in extra work off the clock, which introduces scope risks (Production may overestimate the capability of the team if they are relying on this unaccounted-for bonus output) as well as dependency risks (the work completed may be detrimental to the project if it was completed without awareness of dependency risks, high-level decisionmaking, or project politics). They may also become a de facto team lead (even if a formal lead exists in the structure) and will get pinged on the side for advice, reviews, and other leadership tasks.
However, it can be detrimental to both that team member and the team at large to force uniformity as a kind of fool’s fairness. So how much pressure and responsibility is okay to put on a teammate? To what extent is it okay to be “load-bearing” at work?
We can look at this from a couple of angles. I often cite Daniel Pink’s rephrasing9 of Ryan & Deci’s Self-Determination Theory10, in which intrinsic motivation has three components: Autonomy (the ability to determine how a task is done), mastery (which can never be achieved, only approached asymptotically), and purpose (an understanding of the common goal). In ‘Drive,’ Pink also cites studies that show extrinsic motivators (bonuses, comp time, etc) to have diminishing returns.
Alas, intrinsic motivation is such an effective driver that too much of it can lead into a passion tax and burnout risk area. One of the easiest ways to become load-bearing at work is to do unpaid, unreported overtime or extra work. This is okay once in a while — if the purpose of the work is made clear. For example: An animator regularly staying after-hours to polish for the sake of polishing may conflict with project quality bars, and that spit-shine may be less noticeable than making an exception to standard work hours once or twice to polish a combat impact for an unlockable attack that needs to feel “worth it” for a player.
Autonomy, like purpose, can be used as both a component and a guardrail for intrinsic motivation. The ability to determine the way a task is done includes both the technical process and the boundaries required to do so within the technical constraints of the project. As professional creatives, our job is to not only be good at the craft, but to be good at implementing it within a pipeline, which means that everyone is responsible for baseline communication skills.
When a person can understand why they are doing the work they are assigned and can consult on where their extra effort will be maximally impactful, and when they are comfortable with their own process and boundary-setting within the constraints of a pipeline, we can start to think about the dual function of mastery as both the thrill of improvement and the desire to be challenged. Taking on new responsibility can and should feel exciting, and like an opportunity to contribute in a more meaningful way for both the project and for one’s own personal development.
In this way, becoming more important at work can be good for both the project and the person taking on the responsibility.
Image: Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP
A second way to look at this is through the lens of team dynamics. As I mentioned above, a team member whose extra work is not planned for or made explicit can end up naturally taking on disproportionate responsibility without support, acknowledgement, or compensation. Conversely, a team member who is consistently called out by management may be seen as a favorite, and their excellence may be a source of distrust and a demotivating influence. When they inevitably make a mistake or are unable to deliver, as we all do, the disappointment may be disproportionate.
And what about team leads? These are people who by definition have singular decision-making responsibility and can direct the work of other team members or the shape of the project at large. At the director level, this person’s unique lens and vision and the way in which it interacts with the lenses of other directors makes them even less replaceable.
Additionally, when a load-bearing team member on one of my projects gets sick, most of them take “time off” and end up checking in throughout the day. When I used to be in load-bearing positions, I would do the same. No one wants to feel like a bottleneck, and a team structure that puts this much pressure on a single person therefore depends on them being well and able. When Rasmus Dahlin is absent, the team flounders. It’s in the numbers. His absence is a blacklight.
There is no perfect answer to these problems. Working with other people creates inherent risk, and all we can do is mitigate. I think the best mitigations here are trust and delegation.
In terms of regular ground-level team members, delegation is a matter of volume and trust is a matter of understanding one another’s specialties. On creative teams, one way to support these types of relationships is through healthy peer feedback structures: Taking an analytical eye to one another’s work not only helps better the technical aspects of the assignment, but can also function as peer-fostered professional development, an opportunity for recognition, and peer reinforcement of the purpose of the work within the structure of the project or milestone.
This is also true at the lead and director level, but the delegation can both be lateral (another director can make decision or direction aprovals) as well as hierarchical (a lead or senior may be able to approve assets and use the opportunity for their own professional development).
Much like a hockey team has multiple alternate captains (shout out Buffalo’s Mattias Samuelsson, always where you need him), multiple team members will usually split the work of the one that needs support. An absence can be a blacklight as well as an opportunity for folks to step up.
Having said this, no amount of trust, delegation, communication, boundaries, or academic reading on the nature of intrinsic motivation will make up for the individual work we all need to do on ourselves in order to be the best team members we can be. A healthy team dynamic relies on our individual abilities to be curious, to take our teammates words and efforts in good faith, to be able to communicate through conflict, to offer productive feedback, to understand when its warranted, to be earnestly supportive, and to work through our own insecurities. Mine are plentiful.
In the absence of most of the institutions that I used to hold in high regard, I’ve realized that I was relying on their names and my titles within their hierarchies to grant my skills legitimacy. Not to mention, being good at something requires taking on responsibility and the expectations of other people, and invites the potential of letting someone down. Watching someone else be in their element comfortably and taking on pressure willingly sometimes makes me scared on their behalf.
Trusting other people is important, yes, but at this stage in my career I am learning to trust myself. In an era of eroding institutions, I must trust my own work and unique lens, and how those things can contribute to the types of teams and style of craft work I want to see in the future. The steps I have been able to take towards this goal have been a result of my constant and punishing quest for self-improvement and the support I have been getting from friends and colleagues, in equal parts.
Inside me there are two wolves: One is a scared chihuahua, the other is Balto. I am as determined to finish the run as I am frightened of being seen doing it.
Rasmus Dahlin and the rest of the Buffalo Sabres wear the team crest on their jerseys: A buffalo jumping over two crossed sabers. Every team member’s stats are published for public and institutional scrutiny. They have defined, public-facing roles that are exposed to the fans every time the offensive lines and defensive pairs get posted. The Captains and alternates wear letters on their chest marking them as such. I myself am prone to saying things like, “I will lie down in traffic for this child,” usually about Olen Zellweger or Noah Östlund.
Image: Phil McAndrew (@philmcandrew) on BlueSky
To be on a professional hockey team — or a team of any kind, really — it is important to trust in yourself and the value of your contributions. While the level of exposure these players get is frightening at first glance, I also think it’s kind of freeing. There’s some nuance to the numbers, but at the end of the day they are both a record of a moment in time and a piece of instantaneous feedback. Understanding how to interpret them, how to sort trends and patterns from one off day, is key. A player can neither escape from their deficiencies or their strengths.
Rasmus Dahlin cannot escape from the fact that he is good, he was the sixth-highest scoring defenseman in the league. He cannot escape from the fact that he is important, he wears a ‘C’ on his chest. He cannot escape from the fact that his team plays worse when he is not on the ice, the patterns in their record show that. As a fan, I can only hope that he has the support system he needs to navigate his load.
As a developer, I can only hope to build one for my load-bearing teammates, and hope that they will do the same for me when it’s my time to bear the ‘C.’
1 https://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/seasons/2025-26-nhl-defensemen-stats.html
For comparison, the number four scorer (Lane Hutson of the Montreal Canadiens) played all 82 games and scored 78 points. Rasmus Dahlin was the number four in the 2024-2025 season.
It turns out sports is all stats, strategy, and storytelling — just like my beloved turn-based RPGs.
2 https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/46975981/rasmus-dahlin-rejoins-sabres-leave-care-fiancee
3 The Sabres just cannot convert a man advantage into a point. Not even a 5-on-3 man advantage. It’s really something to be neutral-to-dispirited when your team gets a power play. This is especially embarrassing considering the rumored 60-page report generated during the off-season to “fix” the PP. Game devs, sound familiar? Retro with no follow-up actions taken? Sports is just like video games I swear.
https://sabrenoise.com/one-alarming-stat-shows-just-how-bad-the-buffalo-sabres-power-play-has-been-01m46kcwj7ks
4 Unfortunately the clip doesn’t have the moment where he breaks into the offensive zone but it’s still nice to watch someone whip a puck past a Panther at 83mph.
https://youtu.be/DPRU5IJktNs?si=T_UezcYY6OWFdODe&t=213
5 I am a sworn enemy of Boston and Florida sports teams but the Panthers are currently enjoying fragile neutrality because you simply can’t make me hate Brad Marchand.
https://youtu.be/q09b7AcuDZc?si=DL49ZHgThqbBmUTu&t=20
6 My real and personal 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs beef is against Charlie McAvoy of the Boston Bruins. Did Benny deserve this? Maybe. But still.
https://youtu.be/RjVCmiBKKlw?si=Ku09bA_vJmFTtQG0
But also:
7 https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/47315833/sabres-fire-long-gm-kevyn-adams-hire-jarmo-kekalainen
Funnily enough, the Sabres’ turnaround also happened immediately after the very popular (and extremely charming) hockey romance show ‘Heated Rivalry’ made a joke about how Buffalo sucks, “and so does their hockey team.” Did I bristle? Obviously. Did this make the timing of the turnaround extremely funny? Yes. And I just love to giggle.
Alleged woman writes rambling footnote about TV show show despite the mean joke it made about her hometown hockey team, now that’s all the things she said.
8 https://www.nhl.com/standings/2026-04-17/conference
9 https://www.danpink.com/books/drive/
10 Ryan and Deci are Rochester, New York-based scientists! Fun fact, Buffalo is technically Western New York (WNY) and Rochester, despite being only an hour east, is Upstate. If you call Buffalo Upstate, you can watch me physically twitch.
https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/SDT/documents/2000_RyanDeci_SDT.pdf