BUFFALO – In the coming days, perhaps as soon as tonight in Chicago, Sabres goalie Alex Lyon is expected to make his season debut and display the latest version of himself that he spent the offseason and the past several weeks developing.
Lyon 10.0 – he spent at least parts of 10 seasons in the NHL – has gotten rid of some bugs and promises to be better than ever.
“I definitely think that I’m getting better,” Lyon, who has been sidelined since the preseason with a left shoulder injury, told the Times Herald following Tuesday’s practice in KeyBank Center.
Lyon, who turns 34 on Dec. 9, is a bit of a hockey unicorn, having morphed from essentially a journeyman – an AHL workhorse who occasionally earned recalls – into an NHL netminder who keeps improving with age.
Last season, he won a franchise-record 11 consecutive games and 20 overall, posted a career-low 2.74 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage.
At an advanced age in which many goalies have declined or are graying, the American had never been better.
Passion and an ability to study and work at a complex and strenuous position has buoyed his unlikely success.
“I love being able to get better at my craft,” he said. “To last in the game, that’s really what you have to be addicted to, and the guys who last the longest are addicted to that process, especially goalies.”
When Lyon played for the Detroit Red Wings, a teammate, defenseman Olli Maatta, told him any time off gives him an “opportunity to get better.”
“There’s not enough time in the lifetime to master playing goalie, and so any time you can get time on ice with NHL shooters in an NHL practice, that’s like gold,” he said.
Early in his career, Lyon said, he might go to practice to get through practice. It was simply a precursor to a game.
“Then at some point you realize, like, I only have so many skates left in my lifetime, and I think now I love practice,” he said. “I love being able to get better at my craft.”
Lyon said he has become “obsessed” with the process of improving and figuring out the nuances of his demanding job.
“It’s like heaven for me,” he said. “And then the game is like a test … to a degree, to see if you’ve been thinking about the right things, doing the right things.”
Lyon knows he reached his physical peak years ago. As he tries to stave off father time, his mind has become perhaps his greatest asset.
“My brain and my will have never been stronger,” he said. “My love for coming to the rink has never been stronger. I’m more appreciative now for my profession than I ever have been, and that also helps a lot in that love and obsession.”
Lyon did not dress for Wednesday’s 8-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tonight’s contest against the Blackhawks kicks off a six-game road trip.
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On one hand, Jiri Kulich scored 15 goals and spent the end of his rookie season centering the Sabres’ No. 1 line. On the other hand, he just missed nearly a full season recovering from a blood clot and has struggled to find his game this year.
Could a short trip to the AHL benefit Kulich, perhaps infuse him with some much-needed confidence?
The Sabres scratched the Czech, 22, against the Lightning. He hasn’t played for the Rochester Americans since a four-game stint two years ago.
“Sometimes that can go two ways,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “Sometimes it can be a positive. Sometimes it can be extremely tough on a player that thinks he should be in the NHL, that has been in the NHL and has been a good player and has been a difference-maker and has scored quite a few goals.”
Ruff said mentally, “that’s a really huge challenge that some players can’t get over.”
“Does it benefit some players?” he said. “I think it benefits if you go down and you play a lot and you start to feel good about yourself.”
Ruff said on Tuesday that Kulich is “still searching for his game.”
“You hope that you can get back to your game after a year off,” Ruff said Tuesday. “I think there’s two factors now: he came back, he got hurt, sat out some games. Then he got hurt again.”
The youngster has compiled one goal and three points in 10 games this season.
Ruff wants Kulich to showcase a “B game.”
“Whether it’s hanging onto pucks a little more, getting above the puck, playing well away from the puck that sometimes can create extra chances,” he said. “And then when you have it, don’t complicate things, but what’s the next play you can make?”
He sat out once earlier this season as a healthy scratch. He recently missed five games with a concussion before playing the last two contests.
Forward Ryan McLeod replaced Kulich, returning from a two-game benching.
The Sabres scratched defenseman Louis Crevier (healthy) for the third straight game.