Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The Buffalo Sabres open the 2024 preseason on Saturday at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will be in goal, because for the first time in his career, he comes into training camp as the Sabres' No. 1 goaltender.
Luukkonen earned the spot as last season unfolded. He ended up playing 54 games, putting up a 27-22-4 record, a career-best 2.57 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.
The 25-year-old goaltender spent a lot of time this summer at improving his game, but the one thing he won’t say is he’s the No. 1 guy.
"I don’t think it changes much personally. I feel the passion to be better every year, it's still there," said Luukkonen following practice on Friday. "I know what it takes now to be a starting goalie in this league, but I also know that everything has to be earned and nothing is given. We have good other goalies here too, so I’ve still got to get better. I feel like my mindset is the same as past years too."
Luukkonen trains in his native Finland over the summer.
"I still have the same off-ice people that I’ve worked with that have helped me take the biggest steps forward, but I skated a lot with my goalie coach, and just working on my edge work, my balance, because it’s something that I think still happens too often. I lose my balance or my weight goes too far forward, and then I get too small in the net," Luukkonen said. "So being better with my own stance, and being able to move better, those are small improvements that I need to make to my game."
As I remember last season, it seemed like the more Luukkonen played, the better he got in net. That’s something he thrives on.
"Every goalie wants to play as much as they can, and I feel like I could’ve played more, but I just want to play as much as I can," Luukkonen said. "It’s something I feel like works. It’s easier to keep yourself level, you don’t get too high or too low, so I like to play as much as I can."
In the scrimmage on Friday, Luukkonen faced one scoring chance that was shot wide in 25 minutes of work. He says he noticed how hard his teammates were working defensively.
"I like it. I feel like the system we’re going to play is beneficial to goalies, and I feel we’re going to benefit as a team too," Luukkonen noted. "But I think it’s going to get us to the next step, and we’re going to be on the same page as a team. I really like how we’ve been practicing, so I’m really excited.
"In the scrimmage, I thought we showed the things that Lindy wants to play. It was really solid defensively, and in the first half, neither team gave up much. That’s something you like to see as a goalie."
Luukkonen will play the full game against the Penguins.
Sabres assistant coach Seth Appert will be running the power play for Lindy Ruff. The two of them have been going over tape, and are having conversations with each other and the players.
The players will basically be the same that were good with the extra man two years ago, and that were terrible last year. Last season, they spent all year trying to force plays to a covered Tage Thompson.
Appert says those days are over.
"I had some great conversations with Rasmus [Dahlin] and Tage, and the days of Tage standing over there on the dot and hammering one-timers, they’re somewhat over, unless we can get the penalty kill into some level of chaos where they’re out of their structure and the only way you can get them out of structure is to have a shooting mindset. If you can come up with loose pucks in the corner by increasing their puck battle wins, that’s going to be a massive piece of this," said Appert following Saturday's morning skate.
"We need to win more puck battles in the offensive zone, both 5-on-5 and the power play. It’s a lot easier to score on a tired, chaotic penalty kill. If you win that puck battle, you keep penalty killers on the ice, and now their shift extends and they start getting tired. And when you get tired, you make bad decisions."
Appert feels the team needs to score more dirty goals, and have more of a delivery mindset from everywhere on the ice, not just from the one flank.
"Then we need to, as a group of five, win more puck battles so we can get second and third chances on that one possession, instead of having one chance and have it being sent down the ice," he said.
LINES FOR SATURDAY’S GAME:
Forwards:
Peterka – Thompson – Tuch
Benson – Cozens – Quinn
Malenstyn – Lafferty – Aube-Kabel
Kulich – Krebs – Rousek
Defense:
Byram – Power
Samuelsson – Jokiharju
Bryson – Clifton
Goalies:
Luukkonen - Reimer
Join Brian Koziol and myself for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6:30 p.m. ET when you’ll hear from Ruff.
