The Buffalo Sabres walked into Thursday night coming off a 3-2 comeback win over the Minnesota Wild, but the good vibes didn’t last long. Against one of the Western Conference’s top contenders, the Dallas Stars, Buffalo got buried early and never found its footing in a 4-0 loss.
It was the kind of night where almost nothing clicked. By the later stages of the second period, the game was effectively out of reach, and the Sabres were left sorting through a rough performance with a few obvious problem areas staring them in the face.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen got his third start of the season, and it was another uneven outing. He stopped 14 of 18 shots, and while the loss wasn’t all on him, he didn’t do much to change the conversation around Buffalo’s crease.
He’s been solidly average through his chances so far, and the Sabres’ goaltending situation still looks unsettled. With Alex Lyon’s return timeline unclear, the case for giving Colten Ellis a longer look is getting louder.
Buffalo’s goals-against numbers already sit in the bottom 10 in the NHL, and the problems in front of the net haven’t helped. If the Connor Hellebuyck trade remains a possibility, the Sabres would need to push hard.
The third line has also gone quiet in a hurry. Ryan McLeod, Josh Norris, and Konsta Helenius have been shuffled around some, but through four games they haven’t made much noise at all.
Between them, they’ve managed just one goal and two assists, and the minus-eight rating is a bad early-season sign for a group that was supposed to give Buffalo useful depth. Lindy Ruff has already shown he’s willing to move pieces around, so this trio may not stay intact for long.
Josh Doan is working through an injury and playing lower in the lineup for now, and once he’s healthy, one of these forwards could be bumped down to the fourth line.
The biggest headache, though, is the power play. Buffalo went 0-for-3 against Dallas and is now 0-for-13 to start the season, making the Sabres the only team in the NHL without a goal on the man advantage.
That kind of drought goes beyond a bad week. It’s the sort of issue that can reshape expectations if it keeps dragging on.
Team defense looks more fixable, but the power play has been a recurring mess for several seasons, and changing personnel hasn’t solved it. Jason Zucker’s return from injury should help, though even that may only move the unit from outright ineffective to merely “bad.”
Now the Sabres need to shake this one off fast. They’re heading into a difficult stretch with Utah Mammoth and Florida Panthers at home, then back-to-back games against the Montreal Canadiens on the road before a trip to face the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Saturday’s game against Utah already feels important. Buffalo needs a sharper response, because another sluggish start could turn this early-season bump into something worse.
In Other News...
Stars Just Saw The Sabres Problem That Could Haunt Buffalo
The view from Dallas on Tuesday offered a reminder of how quickly a shaky start in net can shape a season. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has opened with three straight outings allowing three or more goals, and Buffalos early issues have shown up in the numbers, too: a 4.02 goals-against average and a .782 save percentage. Some of the damage has come with the defense leaving him exposed, but the overall picture has been hard to ignore for a Sabres team trying to stay in the mix in a tough division.
Luukkonens underlying results have only deepened the concern for Buffalo, which needs steadier play from its No. 1 goalie if it wants to keep pace. The Sabres can point to breakdowns in front of him, but the wider analytics view suggests the problems go beyond a few bad bounces or one sloppy night. For a team already leaning on him to provide stability, this is the sort of early stretch that can linger if it does not turn quickly. [Read more 🡒]