Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - Just to tell you how tight the Eastern Conference standings are, it took a nine-game winning streak to get the Buffalo Sabres from the bottom of the conference to a Wild Card playoff spot. When the team won its 10th-straight game, it got them into the No. 1 Wild Card position.
All they did was lose one game this past Saturday, and the Sabres are now in ninth place and out of a playoff position.
The Sabres have a points percentage of .575, but they look down the standings, the Florida Panthers are 10th at .573. If they look up, the Pittsburgh Penguins are riding a five-game winning streak and are in the No. 2 Wild Card spot at .598. The Philadelphia Flyers are in the No. 1 Wild Card spot at .613.
In the Atlantic Division, the Montreal Canadiens are second at .619 and the Detroit Red Wings are third at .614.
All this is after Buffalo has won 10-of-11 games.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was totally on top of his game in the three games that he played during the streak. He was off his game in Saturday's loss in Columbus against the Blue Jackets, but the team in front of him was also off its game.
With what he’s seen from his netminder, head coach Lindy Ruff isn’t worried about a bounce back from Luukkonen on Tuesday against the Vancouver Canucks.
"The group didn’t have a good game, we know that. We were falling down, we made some ill-advised plays, he’d like a couple of goals back for sure. But the reason we got there is because the goalies played so well," said Ruff following Tuesday's morning skate. "He gave us some real good hockey, and I’ve got all the faith that he’s going to continue to give us good hockey. I think he’s in a good place."
This season, Luukkonen is 7-6-1 with a 2.58 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage.
Jason Zucker will return after missing 11 games with two different injuries. Before he got hurt, he had played nine games since missing two weeks with an illness. In those nine games, Zucker had five goals and six assists for 11 points.
In their last six games, the Sabres are 0-for-14 on the power play. Zucker is second on the team with nine power play points, including a team-leading five goals. Ruff is hoping the power play gets a shot in the arm with Zucker’s return.
The Sabres have won four in-a-row at home, and 6-out-of-7.
Tyler Myers is back in the building with the Canucks on Tuesday. It’s amazing to me that he’s almost 36-years-old. It seems like yesterday when the Sabres made him the 12th overall pick in the 2008 NHL Draft.
His first season at the age of 18 may have been his best. The 6-foot-8 defenseman was still growing, and after scoring 11 goals and 37 assists for 48 points, he went home with the Calder Trophy as the league’s best rookie.
Ruff was his coach when he arrived in Buffalo, and looks back fondly of his time spent with Myers.
"It was how good he was right off the bat," Ruff said. "Maybe not quite strong enough, but his initial push as a young defenseman, you could tell he was going to be a real good defenseman. He’s turned out to be, I think, probably more than I thought he would be, and he’s still playing good hockey."
On Feb. 11, 2015, Myers was traded to the Winnipeg Jets along with Joel Armia, Drew Stafford, Brendan Lemieux and a first-round pick - that turned into Jack Roslovic - for Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian and Jason Kasdorf.
After four-and-a-half seasons with the Jets, Myers was off to the Canucks when he signed as a free agent on July 1, 2019.
Myers has played 1,107 games in the NHL, scoring 100 goals and 303 assists for 403 points. With Buffalo, he played 365 games, scoring 45 goals and 106 assists for 151 points.
Interestingly, he has never spent more time on the ice than he did in Buffalo, averaging over 22 minutes per-game.
On Dec. 11, Buffalo went on the road and beat the Canucks, 3-2.
Vancouver is on a three-game losing streak, and has lost 5-of-6 games. With a .451 win percentage, the Canucks are the second-worst team in the NHL.
Vancouver is 26th in the league in goal scoring and 30th in goals-against. They’re also 30th on the penalty kill.
With Kevin Lankinen playing the Canucks' last game, there’s a pretty good chance it’ll be Thatcher Demko in net on Tuesday. He’s 8-8-1 this season with a 2.72 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage.
Elias Pettersson has 10 goals and 15 assists for 25 points in 33 games, and is Vancouver’s leading scorer.
The day after losing to the Sabres, Vancouver traded one of the best defensemen in the National Hockey League, Quinn Hughes, to the Minnesota Wild.
Looking at the players they got back in the deal:
- Marco Rossi is hurt after playing eight games, scoring one goal and one assist for two points.
- Zeev Buium has one goal and three assists for four points in 10 games.
- Liam Ohgren has two goals and two assists for four points in 10 games.
The Canucks also received a first-round pick in the deal.
Tune in during "Schopp and the Bulldog" for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6 p.m. when you’ll hear from Ruff, Luukkonen and Alex Tuch.
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