Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen keeps taking the heat in Buffalo, but Josh Doan made it clear Saturday night that the Sabres’ issues go well beyond their goalie.
After Buffalo dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Washington Capitals, Doan said the team had left Luukkonen hanging again.
"Upie [Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen] has been unbelievable. I think that there's not much you can ask for on the goals against tonight and I think that's become a common theme," Doan said."We've let him down, and I think everyone in this room knows that we've let him down."
"I think we all owe him a huge apology right now."
Luukkonen has now allowed at least three goals in every start this season, and he gave up four once again against Washington. That will keep him at the center of the conversation for Sabres fans, but he is not the only reason Buffalo has stumbled out of the gate.
The Sabres are scoring just 2.75 goals per game in his starts, which leaves very little margin for error. Their penalty kill has also fallen off a cliff, sitting at 69.2% after a drop of more than 10 percentage points from last season. On top of that, the power play has been stuck near the bottom of the league at 10.5%, the second-worst mark in the NHL and only 0.2% ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks.
That doesn’t erase Luukkonen’s rough stretch. He has had his own moments where Buffalo needed more, including the shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens, when he allowed goals on all three attempts he faced. Because the Sabres shot second, the game ended before Buffalo could even take its last try.
Luukkonen has also been part of the wider conversation around the early-season Connor Hellebuyck rumors, with many believing Hellebuyck would have cleaned up the Sabres’ problems. Maybe he would have helped. But if Buffalo keeps bleeding chances the way it has, it is fair to wonder how much one goalie could have changed.
For now, the message from Doan was simple: this is not a one-man problem. The focus may be on Luukkonen, but the skaters in front of him have plenty to answer for, too.
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The noise only got louder because the return was the sort of package that usually forces rivals to ask whether they could have matched it or at least pushed harder. Instead, the deal went through with New Jersey, and the questions now land on Buffalos front office and Jarmo Kekalainens broader trade approach, especially when it comes to landing star talent before another team does. [Read more 🡒]
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The uncomfortable part for the Sabres is that a sharper version of those three would go a long way toward easing some of the pressure on a roster that already has broader issues to sort through. Dahlins influence matters at both ends, Doan needs to provide more of the energy and production that made him useful, and Norris is still searching for the kind of impact the club expected when it brought him in. None of that solves everything on its own, but it does help explain why the slow start has turned into a more pointed conversation about who needs to drive the correction. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres Let A Winnable Game Slip In Another Painful Overtime Loss
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The edge did not hold, though, and the night ended the way too many recent ones have for Buffalo, with another overtime loss in a game it had every chance to finish. Tuch was central to the turnaround, and the Sabres were left looking at a 4-3 defeat after letting a winnable matchup slip away. [Read more 🡒]