Mike Harrington: Can Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, or anyone else, keep the puck out of Sabres' net?
Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has not shied away for admitting when his game drops off. But let's not forget he was at 2.57/.910 in the 2023-24 season, so there is some positive history to go on, too, Mike Harrington writes.
Goalies, man. They're just different. They have to be.
You've got to be a little out there, even with all that equipment on, to want to try to block pucks being fired at you at 100 mph in some cases.
But for all the jokes we might make, one point is undeniable: The goalie can make or break your team. Just think back on the 55-year history of the Buffalo Sabres.
Right from the beginning of the franchise in 1970, you can rattle off the names who dominated the crease through the early years: Roger Crozier, Gerry Desjardins, Don Edwards, Bob Sauve, 2023 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Tom Barrasso and Daren Puppa.
Then you had a 21-year stretch that featured mostly Dominik Hasek (Hall Class of 2014), Martin Biron and Ryan Miller. That's three of the top four winners in franchise annals, with two of them having their numbers in the KeyBank Center rafters and the third becoming a mainstay on the team's television broadcasts. Pretty remarkable.
An empty net is illuminated as former Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller is inducted into the team's Hall of Fame and his No. 30 is retired on Jan. 19, 2023.
Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
How lucky we were to watch them all. Lots of this franchise's playoff springs (remember them?) were built on the backs of having one of the game's greats in the crease for that particular season.
Of course, things have never been the same in the Buffalo net since the night in 2014 when Miller was traded to St. Louis, just as the Sabres were going into full-tank mode.
A frustrated Robin Lehner once told me a few years ago, "the fans and all you media guys got spoiled by Hasek and Ryan Miller," and he was probably right. Goaltending had always been a lock in these parts, and you knew where the saves were coming from.
And now we don't.
If general manager Kevyn Adams were to frame a team motto on his office wall, it might read "In Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen We Trust." If the rest of us put up a response, it would probably say, "Maybe Not."
And therein lies one of the biggest dilemmas as the Sabres prepare to open training camp Thursday.
Which version of UPL will we see?
The Sabres have had 24 players man the crease since Miller's departure, a number that will reach 25 this season when Alex Lyon makes his Buffalo debut. And 26 if newly signed insurance policy Alexandar Georgiev hits the ice.The list includes the forgettable career one-gamers like Adam Wilcox, Jason Kasdorf and Andrey Makarov. Brief looks at the likes of Matt Hackett, Nathan Lieuwen, Aaron Dell and Jonas Johansson. And there were regulars who all had some good moments like Lehner, Linus Ullmark, Jhonas Enroth, Carter Hutton and Craig Anderson.
Lehner, for the record, had one of the most underappreciated seasons in the net in franchise history in 2016-17, when he posted a 2.68 goals-against average and .920 save percentage. But his record that year was 23-26-8 because the team scored just 199 goals en route to a 78-point finish in the farewell campaign for coach Dan Bylsma and general manager Tim Murray.
Who would sign up for a 2.68 and a .920 from any Sabres goalie this season, especially from Luukkonen? I can see lots of hands going up.
The big Finn has 71 wins in his career and has made 155 appearances. Both figures already rank him ninth in franchise history by age 26. But his 3.06 career GAA and .898 save percentage are both 27th all-time among the Blue and Gold (and Black and Red).
Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen looks on from the bench against the Philadelphia Flyers during the third period
at KeyBank Center on Thursday, April 17, 2025. Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News
Last year's 3.20/.887 over 55 games from Luukkonen basically torpedoed the team's season. There were obviously other reasons, like the first-half power-play troubles, Rasmus Dahlin's balky back and that wee little problem of a 13-game winless streak. But the bottom line is, you're not getting a sniff of the postseason when you finish 29th in the league in goals against like the Sabres did.
And let's not go overboard blaming the defense either, even though it had some weak links. By the end of last season, 37-year-old James Reimer was more reliable in goal than Luukkonen, whom Adams awarded a five-year, $23.75-million contract just over 14 months ago. The cap hit of $4.75 million is more than reasonable for a starter, provided you get saves.
The goalie is there to bail out his team when it makes mistakes, and the Sabres didn't get those kind of bail-out saves nearly enough from their top guy last season.
Meeting the numbers head-on
According to Moneypuck.com, Luukkonen finished 55th out of 66 NHL goalies last season in goals saved above expected at minus-8.6. By comparison, Reimer was 25th at plus-8, and six Atlantic Division goalies were in the top 20. You think Samuel Montembault being ranked No. 5 at plus-24.6 had something to do with Montreal sneaking into the playoffs? You bet it did.For his part, Luukkonen has not shied away for admitting when his game drops off. But let's not forget he was at 2.57/.910 in the 2023-24 season, so there is some positive history to go on, too.
"I was really impressed with his maturity and his diagnosis of his game and his season overall," Adams said when he met reporters in April after last season ended. "I have a ton of faith in him. I think with goaltenders, especially relatively young goaltenders, there is a lot of variability year to year, just in terms of ups and downs, and so I have a lot of faith that he'll bounce back and have a really strong season next year."
Luukkonen's 2024-25 splits were incredibly mediocre. Home of 3.09/.886, road of 3.33/.887. A save percentage no higher than .894 against any division and brutal numbers against the Atlantic (6-9-1, 3.56/.876). Not to mention his terrible March (3-7-0, 4.11/.848) that put his entire standing in the organization in question.
"I don’t want to hide behind the fact that the team’s game hasn’t been where we want it,” Luukkonen said late in the season. “But I’ve got to be better, too, and I feel like that’s what helps me through those moments is to focus on my own game, knowing that I have to be better instead of finding the excuses somewhere else. We’re not going to play perfect every night, so it’s about focusing on your (side of the game). During those stretches, I have to be better.”
What about this latest injury?
And now there's the injury question.Luukkonen suffered some sort of "tweak," as the Sabres called it, prompting Adams to go sign Georgiev behind Lyon.
We'll find out this week what kind of tweak it is. For now, it's unclear what kind of training camp Luukkonen can have and how much we'll see him in the exhibition season.
There's also the confidence factor overall in the No. 1 guy. If Luukkonen is ready but gets off to a slow start, doesn't Lindy Ruff have to quickly turn over the crease to Lyon? The Sabres can't chase yet another season if their No. 1 goalie is trying to work himself back into playing shape again and Lyon has proven his worth in recent seasons in Florida and Detroit.
Alex Lyon won 35 games over the last two seasons in Detroit before signing a two-year deal with the Sabres on July 1.
(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
This is a team that shouldn't struggle to score, even after trading JJ Peterka to Utah. The defensive upgrades among the forwards without Peterka, and on defense with Michael Kesselring and Conor Timmins, should help all the goalies.
The Sabres finished 10th in the NHL in goals last season. They were third in goals per 60 minutes at 5 on 5 (2.77), a stat they've been no worse than 11th for the last three years. Over the final 20 games of the season, the power play was ninth in the NHL and converted at 26%. If they can keep that going all season, it would make a huge difference.
So would consistent saves at the other end.