{"id":620874,"date":"2026-04-22T10:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/620874\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T10:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:54:07","slug":"forget-luukkonens-gaffe-sabres-have-a-much-bigger-problem-to-solve-vs-bruins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/620874\/","title":{"rendered":"Forget Luukkonen\u2019s gaffe. Sabres have a much bigger problem to solve vs. Bruins"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUFFALO \u2013\u00a0It was a tale of two images. The first, Buffalo excitement incarnate, was Bills quarterback Josh Allen, banging the drum before the Sabres<\/a> hosted Game 2 vs. the Boston Bruins <\/a>at KeyBank Center Tuesday night. He bat-flipped the drum mallet, produced a beer from his pocket, slammed it a-la Stone Cold Steve Austin and sent the crowd into a frenzy.<\/p>\n

The Sabres fans were swelling with confidence following their team\u2019s thrilling Game 1 victory, perhaps even louder than they were on Sunday, and it appeared the Bruins had a tall order ahead of them as they tried to even the series.<\/p>\n

The second image: a dumbfounded Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, wondering how Morgan Geekie\u2019s half-ice knuckler found the back of the net midway through the second period. Calling to mind playoff goalie scapegoats like Dan Cloutier, Luukkonen was utterly handcuffed by the one-hopper. It put Boston up 2-0 and plunged the crowd into introspective silence, all those thoughts of being the NHL\u2019s cursed franchise rushing back into their spiralling brains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to get to it before it bounced, but when you start to question yourself and stuff like that, then you get the bad bounce,\u201d Luukkonen said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s unfortunate, but I have to play through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luukkonen had already allowed a softy earlier in the period, a saw-it-all-the-way Viktor Arvidsson backhander that beat Luukkonen five-hole. And the two-goal lead quickly turned into three before the second stanza was up when Pavel Zacha redirected a David Pastrnak pass on the power play. Luukkonen got the vote of confidence to start the third, but his night was done 16 seconds later when Arvidsson ripped home a blocker-side wrister to finish a 2-on-1. With Buffalo down 4-0, coach Lindy Ruff recognized an opportunity to give backup Alex Lyon some reps coming off an injury in case he\u2019ll be needed later in the series, so Ruff pulled Luukkonen, ending his night with just 15 saves on 19 shots against.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way around it, and you\u2019ve just got to do better with those,\u201d Luukkonen said. \u201cI feel like the biggest thing for me personally is that in those situations, if there\u2019s a bad bounce, bad goal, you have to stop the bleeding. But I wasn\u2019t able to do that tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was obviously a nightmarish game for Luukkonen, who, honest to goodness, looked extremely sharp and confident in Game 2\u2019s first period. And his .821 save percentage through two games simply doesn\u2019t cut it. But his teammates weren\u2019t about to blame him for the defeat, and they didn\u2019t feel the gaffe was the turning point in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so \u2013\u00a0they were putting the pressure on us for a while there, and they earned their bounce,\u201d Sabres defenseman Bo Byram told Daily Faceoff. \u201cSo that\u2019s gonna happen throughout the series. Hopefully we get a few going the other way. I don\u2019t think I would necessarily point at that moment and describe it as [the turning point].\u201d<\/p>\n

Another stat should probably matter more to the Sabres right now than save percentage: the number zero. As in, zero goals on the power play for Buffalo in five tries Tuesday night, extending their alarming drought to 0 for 31 dating back March 31 of the regular season. Not only have they looked listless with the man advantage, but a lack of urgency in their puck management is leading to chances the other way; Luukkonen had to stop a Mark Kastelic shorthanded breakaway in the first period.<\/p>\n

Repeatedly during his media availabilities in this series so far, Ruff had shrugged off concerns over the power play, insisting it\u2019s simply hard to score with the man advantage during the war of attrition that is the Stanley Cup playoffs. But that isn\u2019t typically true for teams that want to go deep, is it? The Florida Panthers <\/a>converted more than 25 percent of their opportunities during their championship 2024-25 season; the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> were just south of 22 percent in 2022-23; the Colorado Avalanche<\/a> converted at 32.8 percent in 2021-22. And the immediately important stat: the Bruins are at 25 percent for this series so far.<\/p>\n

The Sabres were fourth in the NHL in 5-on-5 goals this season, but the power play is a problem, period. And Ruff could no longer push back on that fact after Game 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a concern for sure. I think we\u2019ll have to tweak some things,\u201d Ruff told Daily Faceoff. \u201cIf you look at the last power play, we went with a little bit different look on it, we had some personnel that was missing, but we had a scheme that we thought maybe would work a little bit better. I like the amount of shots we generated. Still, some of our executions, some of our puck play, hasn\u2019t been good enough. We stabbed a few pucks that we need to hang on to and would give us more zone time. That\u2019s just the realization where the pressure is coming from again. Obviously at this stage, it\u2019s going to be a conversation in the coach\u2019s room for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bruins\u2019 constant pressure and heavy forecheck is a bugaboo right now for Buffalo at all strengths. The Sabres struggled to gain and sustain zone time in Game 2. At 5-on-5, the Bruins gained an expected goal share north of 65 percent, a dominant number. The Sabres must find a way to respond better to being harassed whenever they have the puck.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we broke the puck out well tonight because of their forecheck, but also I just don\u2019t think we were totally on,\u201d Byram said. \u201cSo it definitely takes the steam out of you. Playing defense is hard. You\u2019re grinding down low, they got big guys, they\u2019re going to the net. You\u2019re competing, it drains you a bit. So then it seems to be, you get out and you change, and then they regroup and come back at you. So you\u2019ve just got to find ways to survive those moments. You\u2019re never going to have the momentum in the entire game in the playoffs. Survive those moments and then capitalize when you\u2019ve got the momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n

About that momentum: The Sabres have a 1-1 split heading to Boston later this week, but in 120 minutes of hockey, they\u2019ve led for just three minutes and 24 seconds. Not good enough. They responded physically, especially after Charlie McAvoy\u2019s low hip check on Beck Malenstyn, which set off a scrum-filled period. And they got the KeyBank Center crowd\u2019s pulse rate up with late goals from Byram and Peyton Krebs, conjuring dreams of another amazing comeback, but it was too little, too late.<\/p>\n

If Buffalo wants to take back its home-ice advantage this series, it needs to do more than make berserker pushes in the dying minutes. It will take a more complete game to best the Bruins.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

POST SPONSORED BY bet365<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Recently by Matt Larkin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO \u2013\u00a0It was a tale of two images. The first, Buffalo excitement incarnate, was Bills quarterback Josh Allen,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-620874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}