{"id":436396,"date":"2026-01-29T07:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T07:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/436396\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T07:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T07:04:12","slug":"awaiting-word-on-upl-sabres-remain-confident-in-goaltending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/436396\/","title":{"rendered":"Awaiting word on UPL, Sabres remain confident in goaltending"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Buffalo Sabres goaltender Alex Lyon was watching Tuesday\u2019s first period from the Scotiabank Arena locker room when Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen exited with a lower-body injury. Colten Ellis entered in relief, making 16 saves in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/sabres\/news\/buffalo-sabres-rasmus-dahlin-hat-trick-highlights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">7-4 Sabres win<\/a> over the Toronto Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n<p>Lyon, a healthy scratch for the night, sprung into action, preparing as the emergency backup in case anything happened to Ellis. Usually he needs 20 minutes to get ready; on Tuesday he did it in eight.<\/p>\n<p>Coach Lindy Ruff had no update on Luukkonen after Wednesday\u2019s practice, but the Sabres are well equipped to survive whatever time he might miss. Each goalie has gone down with injury this season, yet Buffalo\u2019s .897 save percentage ranks 11th in the NHL. And all three guys own a positive goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck: Lyon at 6.1, Luukkonen at 1.2 and Ellis at 0.1.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the injuries we\u2019ve had, between UPL and Lyon, and Ellis with his concussion, three has been a blessing for us, it\u2019s turned out,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cSometimes tough to deal with, but it\u2019s turned out to be a strength of ours. It\u2019s got us through a lot of games.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Preparation has helped the trio thrive \u2013 especially lately, with a league-leading .916 save percentage during this 19-3-1 run. Lyon credits goaltending coach Mike Bales for his success, and Ellis feels the pregame scouting meetings give him a good read on each opponent whether he\u2019s playing or not.<\/p>\n<p>Add in some friendly competition, and the Sabres have all the ingredients for consistently solid play in net.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buffalo Sabres goaltender Alex Lyon was watching Tuesday\u2019s first period from the Scotiabank Arena locker room when Ukko-Pekka&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-436396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}