Metsa’s work ethic, which he attributes largely to his mom, has guided him through that up-and-down journey to the top level. The 5-foot-9 blueliner, never considered much of a prospect, has had to approach each day like his career depends on it.
“Across every league where I’ve been, whether it’s juniors, college, pro, the biggest hurdles have been when I’ve doubted myself,” he said. “You have a couple bad games, bad plays, and maybe you lose a little bit of that confidence that you normally have. It’s just that grind to keep working to get the confidence back, get back to the spot where you’re able to make plays.”
As one of seven healthy defensemen in Buffalo – Mattias Samuelsson returned to practice and is expected to play Saturday – the right-shot Metsa isn’t guaranteed to make his NHL debut just yet. But his current confidence, the two-season track record in Rochester and Thursday’s promotion suggest the Sabres would be comfortable inserting him into the lineup.
“He’s a guy that has battled to get where he’s at; you’ve got to admire a player like that,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “We go by the rule: if you’re going well down there and we need somebody, you get called up.”
“I’m incredibly proud,” Metsa said. “I wasn’t necessarily someone anyone was looking at in college, I was just working to get ice time – that’s all I wanted to do. Just took it one day at a time, got better, and now we’re here.”
Here’s more from Friday’s practice.