He has long been seen as the organization’s goalie of the future, but he finds himself in the thankless No. 3 role and has yet to play this season. We’re not talking about Cayden Primeau here, but rather Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, a guy who likes his double consonants. Quebecer Devon Levi and Eric Comrie have shared the work in front of the net so far. In fact, Levi had gotten the first four starts, posting a rather low save percentage of .892. Then Comrie scored a 3-1 win against the New York Islanders on Saturday. Like Primeau, UPL was drafted in 2017 (54th overall) and must now go through waivers before being sold to the American League. He had difficulties in Buffalo last year (3.58 average, .892 efficiency), but we can imagine the Sabers fearful of seeing a rival pounce on a 24-year-old goaltender with some potential, who measures 6’5”…
Zach Benson stood out at the rookie tournament in Buffalo, in which the Habs participated. The Sabres’ first-round pick came back strong during the preseason, amassing seven points in six games to earn a spot with the team despite his 18-year-old and slight frame. Benson recorded two points in his first four games, before being left out on Saturday. Sabers head coach Don Granato said Benson was nursing a few injuries, but also suggested to local media that the teen needed to “catch his breath.” The Sabers have still not indicated whether they intend to keep Benson all season or send him back to the junior ranks.
Let’s stay with the young people. Last season, Owen Power became the 11th rookie defenseman to finish a season with an average playing time of 23 minutes or more (42 game minimum), third in the last 10 years after Moritz Seider and Miro Heiskanen. Knowing that the NHL has been compiling this statistic since 1997-1998, his feat is not trivial. Power wasn’t drafted first overall for nothing… The big defenseman remains a central part of the Sabres’ defense this season, with an average usage of 24:8 so far. So expect to see the number 25 (and Rasmus Dahlin’s 26) quite often on your CRT.
Last season, Tage Thompson scored 47 goals and 47 assists, prompting the most prescient journalists to target him as a candidate for the Maurice Richard Trophy this season. His partner Alex Tuch scored 36 goals and 43 assists for 79 points. Together, Thompson and Tuch have a goal and an assist after five games. This goes a long way to explaining why the Sabers are 26th in the NHL in goals scored (2.40 average) and 29th in the power play (6.3%). Knowing that the team, with essentially the same personnel, finished last season in 3rd and 9th place in these two categories, it is tempting to see it as a simple question of time.
The closure of borders during the pandemic hurt the Sabres, since Buffalo borders the Canadian border and many of their fans remain in southern Ontario. Before the pandemic, the team attracted an average of 18,000 spectators per match every year. In 2021-2022, this average was only 9,998, going up to 15,567 last season, a figure still far from the levels before 2020. After four home games, here they are at 15,218 spectators on average. So on the face of it, this is a drop from last season, but with the Bills monopolizing the attention in town, crowds are often modest at the start of the season. Thus, last year, the average after four games was 13,532. With their most talented core since the golden years of Daniel Brière, Jason Pominville, Ryan Miller and Henrik Tallinder, the Sabers could finally turn the KeyBank Center into an amphitheater intimidating as the Auditorium was.
