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Twisted Rister

July 18, 2018, 5:34 PM ET [18 Comments]
GARTH'S CORNER
NHL news by Garth • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Judging by the physical evidence I'm seeing on social media of Rasmus Ristolainen's summer, the feisty Finn likely had a tense, emotional exit interview with his head coach and GM on locker clean out day.

Ristolainen, 23, is one of the best defenseman in his age group. He is one of the most intense, driven athletes I have ever been around. Mature beyond his years, Ristolainen has had it up to here with playing on a losing team and finishing at the bottom of the NHL standings.

My guess is that he, Phil Houlsey and Jason Botterill had it out during their closed door session on break up day.

I wasn't in the room, but I'm guessing the tone was tense and direct. I'm guessing it went something like this:

Houlsey: "Risto. You had a nice season. A really nice season. You gave us scoring pop at even strength and you ran our power play, which fell from #1 to #31 from last season to this season. I need more from you. Your teammates need more from you. I need you to be more of a vocal leader".

Botterill: "Phil's right. You were good last season, but good isn't good enough. You have the potential to be a great NHL defenseman. I think you can be a Norris Trophy candidate if you put your mind to it. We appreciate the quantity of your body of work. Now we need you to give us better quality of work. We finished in 31st place last season and I'm embarrassed by that. Phil's not happy about it. You appear to be bothered by it. I'm looking for a new goaltending duo. I'm not re-signing the UFAs. I'm trading away guys who don't want to be here and I'm replacing them with guys who know how to compete every shift, every game, every night.

Thats my plan, Risto. What is your plan?

Do you want to be here next season and beyond?"


Ristolainen: (Staring directly into Botterill's soul, stiff upper lip)

"This. Is. MY. Team. I'm sick of the losing and the excuse making! I hate losing more than anything in the world. It makes me sick to my stomach. I'm a winner and I will continue to bust my ass for my teammates, my GM, my coaches, and my owners. You want better quality work from me? Fine. I'll see you in September".

(Slowly walks out of room looking deep in the eyes of Housley and Botterill; heads to Buffalo International Airport for flight to Finland).


With that, an understandably pissed off Ristolainen left Buffalo with a raging forest fire with the strength of 10,000 suns blazing in his belly.

After a brief stop over in Finland, Ristolainen headed to the south of Spain to one of the sickest
fitness factories in the world.


"You want quality? I'll show you quality", said the voices in his head.

Ristolainen spent the month of June grinding in the swelytering sun at the world renowned Mike's Gym in the south of Spain.


Situated on a picturesque compound, Mike's Gym features a world famous assault course, said to be the toughest in Europe, that definitely pushes their elite professional athlete clients their your limits!

Ristolainen is an elite athlete. He can handle the intensity and the physical toll that this style of training takes on his body.


Ristolainen seemingly has been using his anger and disdain for losing to conquer the OCR specialist course, which is fully equipped gym, boxing ring and weight lifting gym.

It appears to my eyes that Ristolainen's disdain for losing has been acting as a tail wind for him rather a head wind. In other words, rather than allowing his failures reduce his speed, he's allowing it to propel him forward to the next plateau. We've all biked or walked into a heavy wind. It's brutal to navigate through. You expend all of your energy working harder. Ristolainen appears to me to be working with the wind at his back now. In other words, using the oppressive energy of losing to advance him rather than allowing it to decelerate him.


Like Ivan Drago, Ristolainen continues to attack his deep rooted passion for being the best that he can be like never before.

He is challenging himself to be better than ever before.

He appears to be refining the quality of his work while respecting the quantity of his output.





No pain no gain 🥊 #ivandrago 📸 @otto.rosti

A post shared by Rasmus Ristolainen (@rasmrist) on








The fitness mania didn't end in Spain.

Ristolainen has been spending time at an elite training center in Sweden where he is investing quality time in increasing his strength, explosion and cardio vascular fitness levels.







(Click on the arrow at right of photo to watch workout videos)




Ristolainen is entering the prime years of his NHL career. He still has room to grow and improve as a player. The world hasn’t seen yet the best hockey that Rasmus Ristolainen has to offer.


At 26:29 TOI, Ristolainen averaged the most ice time per game of his career in 2017-18.

It was the highest ATOI by a Sabres defenseman in a full season by a Sabre since Alexei Zhitnik (26:33) in 2002-03.

In 346 career games with the Sabres, Ristolainen has scored 31 goals and 120 assists. He has scored 10 career power play goals and added 78 power play assists.

Zero. Playoff. Games.


Last season, Ristolainen struggled in his own end of the barn, however, still scored 6 goals and 35 assists in 73 games played.

Of his 41 points, 23 of them were scored on the power play (1 PPG, 22 PPA).

Of his 151 career points scored, Ristolainen has 10 PPG and 68 PPA. Nearly 50% of his points production has come on the man advantage.

If the Sabres are going to make a Colorado Avalanche-like climb from the gutter to the playoffs in one offseason, they are going to need more even strength points production from Ristolainen, et al.

I can guarantee you that Housley and Botterill are demanding more even strength scoring from Ristolainen in 2018-19 and beyond. In Housley's high tempo, four-men in the attack at all times flow offense, its imperative for the D to jump in and join the rush at 5v5. Last season, Ristolainen struggled to grasp the importance of jumping in the rush.

Or, did he?


My theory is though he wanted to green light and joing Eichel and company in the o-zone, Ristolainen knew damn well that the third man wasn't going to cover him high. This caused turnovers at the offensive blue line which led to dozens of odd-man rushes against Robin Lehner and Chad Johnson. Ristolainen was caught in no man's land. Thinking too much instead of reacting and delivering the goods. He was stuck in the moment and couldn't get out of it. He was victimized too many times by his forwards failing to be in the right position to support him. So, he did what most people would do in his situation. He stayed at home and dropped back.

Thus, he disobeyed Houlsey's commands to jump up and join the rush.

Risto was probably saying to himself: I'd rather get yelled at by Houlsey than get my head caved in by Robin Lehner death stares and right upper cuts.

Such is life on a 31st place team that failed at the fundamentals of hockey.


Back to work 💪 📸- @otto.rosti

A post shared by Rasmus Ristolainen (@rasmrist) on





Ristolainen has been a part of five brutally ugly losing seasons in Buffalo.


The Sabres have not made the playoffs during Ristolainen’s time in Buffalo.

One wonders if all of the chronic losing and negativity has gotten to him.

Is Ristolainen immune from trade possibilities?

No. If Botterill is going to fetch a 30-goal scoring winger like Max Pacioretty or Artemi Panarin, he may have to use Ristolainen as trade currency.

Buffalo back end needs more speed, skill, size and snarl. If Housley and Botterill wish to pursue right shot D Jacob Trouba from Winnipeg, The Sabres would likely have to part with Ristolainen.

On Wednesday, Elliotte Friedman tweeted that Trouba is asking for $7M AAV on a long term contract extension while the Jets are offering the RFA $4M AAV. Trouba and the Jets will meet with teh arbitrator (or not) on Friday morning.




If the two sides can't settle on a mutually beneficial AAV, the odds of Trouba being traded will increase exponentially. It was two summers ago that Trouba demanded a trade because he was unhappy with the way he was being used by Paul Maurice. His TOI increased and his role was elevated as a result of injuries to Tyler Myers and other Jets D-men.

I'll be keeping a close eye on Trouba. If his case goes to the arbitrator, and he doesn't get a contract award in the elite AAV neighborhood, he may ask for a trade.

Jason Botterill and a dozen other NHL GMs will be monitoring the Trouba situation closely as well. Botterill is a Michigan Wolverine alumnus. So is Jacob Trouba. Phil Housley coached Trouba aand Team USA to the gold medal at the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championships.

I'm not advocating for Botterill to trade Ristolainen, but if you are going to demand an elite player from another team, you better be prepared to trade an elite player back the other way.

In the past month, Botterill has turned over his roster. Botterill has welcomed six new players into the fold in Conor Sheary, Tage Thompson, Patrik Berglund, Vlad Sobotka, Carter Hutton, and Matt Hunwick. Botterill shook hands and parted ways with six players in Ryan O’Reilly, Robin Lehner, Benoit Pouliot, Jordan Nolan, Viktor Antipin and Jacob Josefson.

To say nothing of the Evander Kane deal.



Are more changes coming?




Ristolainen is entering year three of his six year, $32.4 million contract. He has not yet hit his prime years of production. Ristolainen, a future Norris Trophy candidate, creates a ton of value for his economical $5.4M AAV.

Rasmus Dahlin is a right shot D who will likely grab top pair minutes in Buffalo early in the 2018-19 season. When that happens, how will Ristiolainen react to being the second pair right shot D? What if Dahlin and Jack Eichel ignite the production of the woeful powerplay? What happens when Dahlin becomes QB of PP1?

Will Ristolainen's nose get out of joint?


The Battle Of Rasmii will be an entertaining reality TV show to watch.



Get your popcorn ready!



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