LUUKKONEN IS THE BEST SABRES STORY THIS SEASON – Sabres Semantics

LUUKKONEN IS THE BEST SABRES STORY THIS SEASON – Sabres Semantics

He’s doing everything he can he’s not quite Sudbury ukap lugan in but he’s pretty dang close he’s as closest he’s ever been in the NHL and like when you give up 17 goals and 10 games as a goalie like that’s pretty impressive so he deserves a lot of shine he has turned

Into maybe every I don’t know I don’t exactly know what their exact expectation was like when Adams took over I think when bodell drafted Lucan in the hopes was he would be the future number one don’t exactly know what Adams long-term Outlook was for Lucan in when

He took over but he’s at right now at worth I would call him an average starting goal tender which is all we really wanted from Buffalo and honestly the way he’s been playing now there’s the argument that he’s an above average starting goalie which we haven’t had in

A while so he deserves a lot of credit the team in front of him kind of letting him down which is really weird because that wasn’t the case last year it’s basically a complete 180 and I don’t see an end inight to it unless the Sabers are somehow capable of flipping a switch

And Tage Tage Thompson Dylan cousins and Tuck start scoring at a breakout Pace again because it’s frustrating like last year every game we could be at least be like oh man like at least the saber scored five goals Lucan didn’t play that well but the saber scored five goals now

It’s what the hell guys lukin’s playing his ass off and you guys just aren’t doing anything for him and I look at it as if you would have told me coming to this season that you know Devon Levi would be in Rochester and the the goenda be stabilized you know I wouldn’t have

Probably believed you because I don’t think any of us saw Lucan in taking the step that he has as the the basically the starter because they’ve got Eric Comer as the backup and you know sure as hell he ain’t going to play unless it’s a back-to-back situation um and even

Then they could probably just stick Lucan in there or end up calling Levi up from Rochester even though they they like the fact that he’s getting into games but I think Lucin has been you know I guess the diamond in the rough this year of all of what the team has

Been and everybody underperforming but you know number one in the net he has actually looked the part and like you said he had a dominant career with the Sudbury Wolves in the in the ol and winning a league MVP as a a high-scoring league that’s not easy to

Do so he was obviously a great Junior player and you know even when I talked to him uh when I covered the Dallas game you know he just talked about uh you know that kind of level preparing him for the American Hockey League and grinding his way up to the NHL and now

Finally having the confidence of being an NHL goenda and it was actually a pretty good quote considering uh you know our thoughts on Don Granado this whole podcast but uh this is quote from him uh uko has been amazing the trajectory and the progression for him has been

Significant it’s no Co coincidence he had great mentorship with Craig Anderson over the last few years but once we brought in Devon Levi you could see the youthful competition it’s something that’s pushed both of those guys to be the best version of themselves now uko is looking like somebody that is a

Pretty good goenda that has really helped push him to see as more of a veteran guy with more experience he has been able to seize that because of the work he’s put in Prior and it’s nice to see from a coaching perspective so that was directly from dong Grado on the play

And and the maturation process of of uko pekcan in yeah no absolutely and it it’s weird the AHL never really seemed to click for him which is why you know I was a little bit doubtful but he’s played really well in the NHL this year and we’ve seen the flashes right and it

Kind of seems like we already knew he was a big athletic goalie and you could tell maybe early on in his NHL career he was just relying on his athleticism a little bit too much not really the technicality like again I’m not a goalie so don’t whatever but you can kind of

Just tell like I still see it every once in a while where he’s a little bit over and over pursues the puck but you can just see now he’s just so much more technically sound like in position still relying on his athleticism every once in

A while but it’s not you know what I mean like not every save is a sliding cross crease making the save he’s finding himself in position to stand in front of the puck direct the rebound to where it needs to go you know Big R lanky athletic goalies if they ever

Figure it out they usually become the best goalies and like I’m not ready to say he’s 100% figured it out but he’s clearly figured it out relatively well and if he keeps developing and he can kind of lock it in he still has a chance

Like he’s a young kid still has a chance to become something really really really special and it might work out well for Buffalo because they they might have I mean I’ve seen enough to at least to commit to him for a couple years you don’t have to necessarily promise him to

Be the number one goalie but you at least have seen enough from him to sign him to a midterm contract and keep him here right worst teas your 1B he’s at least shown he’s capable of that and that’s kind of really all you need from him and he’s only 24 years old exactly

So like you have Levi who’s 21 and Luca and I feel like he’s been here forever but he’s only 24 like do you want to have a situation happen again where you know a little bit different but you let lenaar go and then he instantly becomes you know Boston’s 1A

Goenda or letting Lucan in go you know and then he goes on to become a really good starter with whatever team you trade him to or um you know if Devon Levi is not ready for that role I do I think everybody believes that Devon Levi is going to be the long-term golender

The Buffalo Sabers but that might not be for another another two or three years before he’s ready to take that Elite level step he’s going to be able to play in the league but can he handle the bulk of the starts which we’ve seen with goenda for a few games like that could

Really hurt their development and gaining their confidence back with young goenda 21-year old goenda I mean Carter Hart went through his trials and tribulations with the Philadelphia Flyers barring all of the other controversial stuff I’m just talking about strictly on the ice when he started out as a young go tend and Lucan

In 24 this is his technically he’s already going to surpass his most games played in a season here coming up shortly so and we’re we still got you know a quarter of the Season left here so I mean he’s going to play the most games he’s ever played in the season but

You’d want to hope you’d want to almost think that he’s earned the opportunity next year to go and possibly start in 50 or 60 games for this team to really see okay what do we have in this guy is he going to be a starter or is he going to

Be a backup is that is that fair to say yeah 100% And like the good news for buffalo is he’s RFA right so he’s a restricted free agent unless you trade him he doesn’t really he’s not really going anywhere so this the silver lining in this season might be lucin’s play where

Buffalo has seen enough to be like hey we can give you a three-year deal and make you our deao starter next year if they work something out either Levi can be your 1B but you don’t have to put a lot of pressure on him because you know

Lucing can do it or best case scenario you can let Levi Play 60 games in Rochester next year and you find a way to get a veteran back up on a one-year deal allaha Eric comry maybe a little bit more stable than that and run with

That and Lucan in I don’t know the good like that’s the best the best thing so far this season has been Lucan in in the fact that next year you almost don’t have to bank on Levi making this team if he makes the team that’s fantastic you

Can run with lcan and Levi and be confident because unfortunately right now for Eric Comer no disrespect to him at all this team has no faith in him like you just said they won’t start him unless it’s a back toback and I wouldn’t even be surprised to half the time if

It’s a back to back if they just call Lei up not wrong and again like they’re they’re relying on a 21 and 24 four-year-old golender going into the year and I don’t think that we gave them enough criticism for that because we we like Lucan and we like Levi but was that

The smart play going into this season with how fragile this team has been you know on the offensive side and you know as far as their team defense to put all that pressure on a 21y old and the 24y old and we saw you know Levi’s been up

And down and now it seems like they finally got a plan for him starting in Rochester which probably should have been the plan from the beginning but you almost you saw last year and you wanted to grasp onto that and say okay we’ve got lightning here let’s use it but like

It almost looking back on it now in retrospect like was this you know a failed plan from the beginning in in wanting to rely on a 21-year-old Devon Levi and a 24-year-old UK peka lcan as the backup when they should have had you know like you said a contingency plan in

Place here to have Levi start in Rochester have a veteran goalie better than Eric comry to be able to you know help supplement the starts at this point yeah I mean it probably would have been the way to go um I realized the market wasn’t exactly the greatest I mean I

Mean look at Ottawa what they threw at corus Alo I think nobody would have been happy if Buffalo did anything remotely close to that the options weren’t exactly the greatest but there probably was a move out there that could have been made I don’t know exactly what it

Could have been but if they tried hard enough they probably could have found one but that being said they put themselves in this position they’ve kind of locked into Lucan and he was not very stable at the beginning of the year but he definitely stabilized now it kind of

Sucks maybe that’s because he didn’t know where he stood organizationally now that he kind of knows hey I’m the guy I don’t know I don’t know how it works I’m not a I know they’re very they’re very weird characters but yeah I don’t know it’s just he’s literally middle stats

Also been a bright spot like I don’t want to just glass over that but like figuring out that Lucan and can be a long an intermediate like piece for this team like maybe not a long-term seven-year guy but you can definitely rely on him for the next you know three

Four years that’s big because I don’t know if we knew that coming into the season so really this season and has been lucan’s breakout year I guess and that’s probably the main headline we’ll see like I said we’ll see what they with Casey midat if he’s still here because

If he gets moved or extended that will probably take over as one of the top headlines of the year but right now I think lukanin deserves on that this the best story so far for the sabers

In this short episode clip Brandon Caputo and Austin Broad discuss the emergence of 24-year old goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen as the Buffalo Sabres starting goalie, after an impressive stretch of games in the crease this season.

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