BUFFALO – Following one game serving as Alex Lyon’s backup, Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen said he will play again Thursday against the St. Louis Blues, his second nod in the last three games but just his third this season.
As the Finn, 26, recently recovered from two lower-body injuries, Lyon, 32, emerged as the Sabres’ workhorse and early-season MVP.
Now, Luukkonen, fresh off Saturday’s stellar 31-save outing in which he stopped all five shootout attempts in a 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals, feels healthy and has started displaying signs of his old form.
The Sabres, who also have rookie goalie Colten Ellis, 25, on their roster, could begin utilizing Luukkonen more frequently.
Ellis, having performed splendidly in his NHL debut on Oct. 22, making 29 saves in a 4-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings, also deserves another start. He was scheduled to play Oct. 25 in Toronto before waking up with a stiff back.
So Sabres coach Lindy Ruff must deal with a good and challenging problem.
“It’s not easy to navigate for them, it’s not easy to navigate for myself,” Ruff said following Wednesday’s practice in KeyBank Center. “But I know that all three have been a big part of getting us going in the right direction, putting points on the score sheet every night.”
Lyon has enjoyed a terrific opening month, earning nine of the Sabres’ 14 points while starting 10 of their first 13 games. He dazzled throughout Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Utah Mammoth, stopping 33 shots.
Even with Luukkonen back, Lyon, who credits his teammates for how well they’ve clamped down defensively, could be the more enticing option.
The Yale product has played just 123 NHL contests over parts of nine seasons and never eclipsed the 44-game mark in a campaign. Still, he’s used to handling a heavy workload.
In 2022-23, he started the Florida Panthers’ last eight games. In 2023-24, he played 37 of the Detroit Red Wings’ final 47 contests.
Lyon said that dizzying three and a half month stretch two years ago helped prepare him for the consistent action he has earned this season. He started the Sabres’ first six games before finally receiving a breather.
“It’s hard to do that,” he said of playing so frequently in the NHL. “It’s like a skill that unless you go through that like once, it’s hard to know. Playing goalie every day at a high level is such a difficult thing, not just the goalie part of it, but everything else – taking care of your body, your diet, after you play a game coming down quickly, starting to prepare for the next game.”
By last week, Lyon said he could feel his “game starting to trail off” as he lost both starts by 4-3 scores in overtime.
“It’s just natural,” he said. “When you start playing a lot, there’s an end of that wick all the time, right? It’s gonna burn down.”
Lyon has done a bit of everything in his career, having started, backed up, been in a three-goalie system and moved between the NHL and minors.
The unique experiences have helped shape him and buoyed his development at a stage of his career when many goalies are already on the down side.
He said by the end of his long run in Detroit two years ago, he “got burnt out.”
“I was just pushing and pushing and pushing because I wanted to stay in the NHL,” said Lyon, who signed a two-year, $3 million contract to join the Sabres this year. “I wasn’t like that solidified yet, and I’m still not.
These days, he feels he has reached a better spot emotionally to handle the rigors of an ultra-demanding job.
He said he considered Tuesday’s game “a test run” for when he needs to recapture his strong form.
“What are the things that I can do?” he said. “What’s the recipe to get on top of my (game) again? And so just like that’s how I go about my life, that’s how I think about it because it’s just like, the season is never like this.”
Lyon then raised his hand and moved it in a straight line.
“Just knowing that you have that in the chamber of like when I need to get it back together, I have that,” he said. “And so that’s a good feeling.”