Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff’s decision to yank goalie Alex Lyon barely six minutes into Thursday’s 6-3 road loss wasn’t performance-related.
“It had nothing to do with Lyon,” Ruff told reporters following the game against the Colorado Avalanche.
No, with the Sabres trailing 2-0 – Martin Necas scored on a breakaway at the 52-second mark before Artturi Lehkonen converted a rebound at the net – replacing Lyon with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen essentially gave them a much-needed timeout to regroup.
“Taking the goalie out was to buy me some time to talk to the team for a second to get organized and say, ‘We’re gonna get back in this game,’ and I thought we did,” Ruff said.
Lyon, Buffalo’s early-season MVP, made just one save and watched his goals-against average jump from 2.92 to 3.07 before Luukkonen took over.
“You got a backdoor tap in and a breakaway,” Ruff said of Colorado’s early goals. “That has nothing to do with your goalie, and I told him that when he came off the ice, too, ‘This is to buy some time and shake the other guys up.’”
The move worked, as the Sabres settled down and tied the contest at 3 in the second period before the Avalanche pulled away late.
But the Sabres, who close their four-game road trip Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings, can’t settle for moral victories. If they have any hope of ending their NHL-record 14-year playoff drought, they must start rattling off wins.
Seventeen games into the season, having earned just 14 points, the NHL’s second-lowest total, they’re in last place in the Eastern Conference.
“We got to win hockey games,” said Ruff, whose team is playing without four of its top forwards and captain Rasmus Dahlin. “There’s no excuses. … We’ve had some bad stuff happen to us, but you just got to keep clawing.”
The Sabres have lost four straight games in regulation, five consecutive overall and won just once in their last nine outings (1-4-4).
Incredibly, they’re the only team that hasn’t won a road game.
“In every road game we’ve been within a goal and haven’t pushed through yet,” Ruff said.
Perhaps a terrific goaltending performance will help them earn that elusive road win Saturday.
The Sabres, who had Friday off, have been utilizing three goalies: Lyon, Luukkonen and Colten Ellis. It’s unclear who will start in Detroit.
Ruff might feel inclined to go back to Lyon, who spent the last two years with the Red Wings before signing with Buffalo.
Ellis, however, has already beaten Detroit this year. On Oct. 22, the rookie backstopped the Sabres to a 4-2 win, making 27 saves in his NHL debut. He looked sharp in Wednesday’s 5-2 loss to the Utah Mammoth, stopping 32 shots.
Meanwhile, Luukkonen, who was expected to be the Sabres’ No. 1 goalie before battling injuries, stepped in against the Avalanche and stopped 27 of the 30 shots he faced.
Luukkonen told reporters in Denver that Gavin Brindley’s go-ahead goal from the right circle 26 seconds after Sabres center Tage Thompson’s power-play score knotted the game deflected off defenseman Owen Power’s stick and changed direction.
“Not happy about it, but other than that, I think it was a good game,” Luukkonen said.
At first glance, it appeared to be a shot the Finn should stop.
“It’s tough to read those because you have a read on the guy where he’s shooting it, then it goes somewhere completely different,” he said.
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Shortly after Christmas last season, Ruff shifted Thompson from center to right wing to help him deal with an injury.
He played so well on the side that Ruff left him there after he recovered, only occasionally moving him to center.
This season, Thompson has mostly played right wing, although he has skated at all three forward positions.
After he registered zero shots on goal and attempted just four in Wednesday’s loss, Ruff moved him back to center, his natural position, in Colorado.
The moved ignited Thompson, who recorded five shots on goal and attempted eight.
“I felt like myself,” he told reporters. “I felt way better in the middle. I thought I was moving my feet really. I thought for me, I like being in the middle. You can carry the puck and kind of dictate the pace of the game. I feel like it just gets me involved in the play more.
“So (it helps) being able to skate up the ice with the puck and make plays and find myself in pockets to shoot.”
Thompson has scored a team-high seven goals this season.