Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) - It looks like the Buffalo Sabres may be alternating goalies right now. On Oct. 20, Alex Lyon lost in Montreal to the Canadiens. On Oct. 22, Colten Ellis played his first NHL game in a win over the Detroit Red Wings. On Oct. 24, Lyon beat the Toronto Maple Leafs and then on the next night, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen lost in overtime in Toronto which was his first NHL game this season. Lyon took the next two, overtime losses to the Columbus Blue Jackets and Boston Bruins. On Nov. 1 Luukkonen had a great game beating the Washington Capitals in a shootout, and Lyon played equally as well in an overtime loss to the Utah Mammoth.
Luukkonen will try to build on his very good game on Thursday against the St. Louis Blues. Washington scored two goals on Luukkonen in the first 2:15 of the game and he slammed the door after that, giving up one goal in the next 62:45.
Luukkonen is 1-0-1 with a 3.34 goals against and .877 save percentage. He said he loves the fact that he’s getting right back in net,
“It’s great because you want to play as much as you can and it’s good to be back in the net.
“It helps, especially when you have a game that you feel positive about, you want to keep that good feeling going.”
A goaltending tandem can be in sync and build off each others good games. Luukkonen said,
“100%, in the end we’re a team and he’s a great guy and a great goalie so its been great to work with him, learn from him and build from his good starts.”
Tage Thompson scored three goals in the two games against the Leafs, but he only has five on the season. Ruff said,
“I think the opportunities have to go up, I think last night he was in on two good opportunities. A little bit of how we go has hurt his game when you take his regular linemates out of there, it’s been an adjustment.”
With the condensed NHL schedule due to the Winter Olympics, Ruff has already had to make most morning skates optional and have meetings instead of practices on the ice. The head coach said, it’s not hard to get your point across and coach during meetings.
“We really try to divvy up that meeting, it just isn’t me standing there. Seth (Appert) takes part in that, Marty (Wilford) takes part in that, we’ll take different clips and different coaches will talk exactly about what we need or need to do better because probably 70% of what you need to improve on is going to be done off ice.”
Ruff said he uses other departments to help him decide if they need to be on the ice or not,
“You use a lot of sports science now when it comes to trying to keep the team fresh, you don’t automatically practice. If you think you can practice to get them better, then you fatigue your team, so you weigh what’s best for your team and sometimes you may bypass what you should do and say, 'the hell with it, we’re going to practice anyways,' that’s all part of it.”
When it comes to penalty killing the Sabres are back on top of the league at 90.9%. Buffalo has one regulation loss in their last 10 games going 5-1-4. They have picked up points in their last seven games at home going 5-0-2. All that has them one point out of last place in the Eastern Conference and one point out of the eighth and final playoff spot.
The Blues are the second worst team in the National Hockey League and got blasted in Washington on Wednesday 6-1. St. Louis has won one of nine games and are the worst team defensively in the NHL.
With Jordan Binnington playing in Washington, there’s a good chance Joel Hofer will get the net. He’s 1-3-0 with a 5.02 goals against and .836 save percentage. I think it’s obvious with the struggles they’ve had in goal, the Blues would reclaim Ellis if he became available.
Pius Suter is the Blues leading scorer with five goals and four assists for nine points in 14 games.
Join “Schopp and the Bulldog” for the pregame starting at 6:00 when you’ll hear from Ruff, Luukkonen and Tyson Kozak who is returning to the lineup.