BUFFALO – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen knows all about the trade rumors involving his name. Not that the Sabres goalie goes out of his way to read them. But these days, he knows you can’t escape the outside noise.
If he stays off social media, a friend will inevitably inform him.
“I think anybody who says that they don’t see it or they don’t read it, they’re lying,” said Luukkonen, whose name has been bandied about for months. “… It’s kind of, I think, a stupid mentality to kind of think that, ‘Oh, if I don’t see it, it’s not happening.’”
On Friday, the Winnipeg Jets traded Connor Hellebuyck, a star goalie the Sabres reportedly pursued, to the New Jersey Devils in a blockbuster deal, so the rumors should quiet down. Perhaps Luukkonen can breathe a little easier.
Earlier this week, Sabres general manager Jarmo Kekalainen also spoke to Luukkonen and publicly supported him, a sign he would be staying put.
While he respects Kekalainen for backing him – “It’s great we had that conversation,” he said – Luukkonen knows in the big picture, no one is untouchable.
“It doesn’t matter what anybody – my agent, GMs, coaches, my mom, my dad – says,” he said following Friday’s practice in KeyBank Center, shortly before the Hellebuyck trade was officially completed. “In the end, it’s you’re always available for getting moved.”
In his six-year career, Luukkonen, 27, has never experienced outside noise as intense as he has over the last few months.
“You kind of learn to deal with it,” he said. “You can’t kind of escape it, but it’s just good that (the Hellebuyck trade is) getting finalized now.”
Luukkonen, who’s expected to make his fifth straight start Saturday against old friend Alex Tuch and the Washington Capitals as the Sabres begin a four-game road trip, has been under the microscope from the get-go this season.
Each goal he allows is dissected. Each outing is scrutinized.
It hardly helped when both the Finn and the Sabres started slowly this month. He wasn’t particularly bad, mind you, just kind of meh trying to play behind a porous defense.
He has allowed at least three goals in each of his seven starts. His overall numbers – a 3-3-2 record with a 3.53 goals-against average and an .864 save percentage – are weak. The league average save percentage entering Friday’s schedule was .894.
But since replacing Colten Ellis early in the second period Oct. 12, Luukkonen has carried the load, sometimes showcasing his terrific form of a year ago, when he compiled a 22-9-3 mark with a 2.52 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage in 35 games.
He has registered a 2-1-2 record with a 3.22 goals-against average and an .895 save percentage in his last five appearances.
Those numbers, however, don’t illustrate the critical stops he made during that stretch.
“There’s been just key saves and key times in the games for us that have really made a difference,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “We know that there’s kind of a threshold he gets to when he plays a number of games, and then we need to get somebody else in the net.
“But I think any time a goalie gets to roll a few games in a row, he gets a little bit of momentum if he starts to feel good about parts of his game.”
Luukkonen did not start more than three consecutive games last season while sharing time with Alex Lyon, who’s recovering from a shoulder injury, and Ellis.
While hardly satisfied, Luukkonen knows he has recently elevated his play.
“The games have been better,” he said. “The numbers are not what I want, not what we want, but still better than what the numbers show. I think the start of the season wasn’t the best the couple of first games there, and (I) kind of found a groove and … it’s feeling better now.”
Some improved team play him has also helped buoy him.
“You have more time to kind of figure out the details you want to kind of focus on,” Luukkonen said. “… They’re still happening, some rough edges on the game we got to clean up. But just overall, I think the details have been a lot better.”
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Ruff acknowledged coaching against Tuch, who left the Sabres in a sign-and-trade deal on June 24, less than a week before he could’ve become a free agent, will be “strange.”
“For some guys, it’ll seem a little awkward at times,” he said.
So far, Tuch, 30, who has a new eight-year, $84 million contract, has delivered for the Capitals, scoring a team-high five goals and seven points in the first nine games.
The Baldwinsville native, one of the NHL’s best two-way forwards, was a popular teammate during his five-year tenure in Buffalo.
“He’s someone I was really close to on this team,” Sabres center Tage Thompson said. “Our families were really tight. Obviously, a huge piece of our group when he was here. It’s kind of the business you’re in. I think everyone’s gone through something like that … and you play against him, and it’s definitely a different feeling.”