Goaltending will be key to Sabres’ success in playoffs

Congratulations to the Buffalo Sabres, who after a 14-year absence from the postseason, have made a resounding return to the Stanley Cup playoffs now that they’ve clinched top spot in the Atlantic Division. Making the playoffs after such a long drought is certainly worth celebrating, but this season’s Sabres are too good to have a “just happy to be here” mentality.

Buffalo’s 3.46 goals scored per game and 2.93 goals allowed per game are both top ten marks in the NHL, so it’s hard to identify one aspect of their game they’ll need to clean up to have playoff success. One area they’ll at least have to sort out is in goal, where goaltenders Alex Lyon and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and successfully split time this season. The Sabres are unlikely to maintain that platoon in the playoffs, so they’ll have to decide which of their two goaltenders will take over the crease.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed the importance of Buffalo’s goaltending come playoff time.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The Sabres will win their first-round matchup, which will be either Boston or Ottawa, is what happens, Hutts?

Carter Hutton: If they get the goaltending. I think that’s their question mark, and I think their defensive end. I think there’s been a lot of heat on Owen Power at times, with inconsistency in his game. I think UPL has to be big. He has to be a big-time difference maker, because I think it sets the tone for their whole game when he is playing well. I think the other factor for me is having the freedom to play. What I mean by that is hockey can be debilitating at times when you start to overthink it and you start to try to do more than you expect and not playing freely. For the Buffalo Sabres, that monkey’s off your back, and you’re not sliding in as a wild card team, you’re sliding in as the Atlantic champion, and now you’re going to get that matchup where you’re supposed to win. Can you still play with pace, with speed, and freedom in the way that’s given them success come playoff time when every single eye is going to be on you.

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Wednesday’s episode here…