Alex Lyon, your #1 goalie?

[Mango]

8 hours ago, Weave said:

Its still early.  Real early.

We're also hanging him out to dry. It's barely sustainable for great goaltenders.

[msw2112]

1 hour ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I saw Lyon make several unbelievable saves, including one against Boston.

I did not see the Boston game, but I don't doubt what you are saying.  I thought he played very well last night and was always in the right position and stopped a lot of shots through traffic, which was impressive.  I didn't see any saves that were going to make the highlight reel, but I suppose that by being in the right position, he didn't have to.  My main point was that while nobody would be unhappy with "spectacular" goaltending, the Sabres can get by with "solid" goaltending if their offense performs to its capability.  Prior to last night, the offense hadn't.  But if you took last season's offense and added the kind of goaltending provided by Lyon the last few games, they would have made the playoffs.

I like UPL and always want to see guys the Sabres have drafted and developed (and paid) succeed, but UPL was really bad for most of last season.  If UPL plays like he did from January - April 2024, the team would be in great shape.  In my opinion, UPL's play during that stretch was even better than what Lyon had done so far this season.  Everyone thought that UPL had arrived, and the team paid him accordingly, only to see him stumble last season and now start this season on the injured list.  Let's hope he returns to that form, and Lyon continues his strong play, in which case the Sabres will have a great goalie tandem.

[Huckleberry]

 

[PerreaultForever]

Lyon has been good, but he's never played this much before in his career. They will burn him out or get him injured this way. 

[DarthEbriate]

10 hours ago, Taro T said:

Ellis right now is a victim of the schedule, much like the backups were in October of last year.  No back to back nights and the starter is playing well and is still fresh as the season has just begun.  Had they not been 0-3, Eliis MIGHT've gotten the start last night.  But the team was desperate, Lyon is looking ilke the Lyon that came in when Bobrovsky was unavailable, and he's not being asked to play on btb nights, and with it being the very beginning of the season, he's well rested.

Would run Lyon for the most part through October unless the horseshoe falls out of his pants before then.  Am in no rush to activate UPL, at best he gives us the goaltending Lyon is providing, and activating him forces a roster move to either 3 headed monster or Ellis back to the Blues organization.

Will take November as it comes.  Expecting even when UPL is back for Lyon to get 2 of every 3 or 3 of every 5 starts.  It would be foolish to go away from him while he's hot.  But won't expect him to stay hot into December.  Would love to see it; but don't believe he's ever stayed hot for more than 2 months.  

Try to get Ellis a game before activating UPL, but don't believe they have a btb for at least another week and a half, so that may not be doable.  It would be good to be able to keep him long enough to force St. Louis to keep him on their roster should they make a claim on him.

But there was only one backup to worry about last year.

As always, it goes back to Adams and the man who hired him and continues to love and employ him despite all evidence showing he still hasn't learned enough to be effective or efficient at his job. I'm sure he's economical.

They had a goalie with 500 games played experience ready to provide average backup (tandem) goaltending. And that guy whose career numbers are equal to UPL's best season in which he was excellent for half a season? They waived him immediately upon returning to the States after the Prague games.

Adams had an offseason plan to pair the new starter with a veteran. And then he abandoned the plan immediately. It was shown that Luukkonen wasn't at the same level he had been the end of the previous season and Levi wasn't ready. And their defense still included Cozens, Quinn, Power, Muel... etc. and a new system under Ruff. And they went with two inexperienced goalies instead of Reimer.

It was the people in charge of personnel who don't understand teambuilding and roster construction... again.

If Reimer had been retained and provided his usual .900 goaltending, instead of Levi's numbers in Oct/Nov, and if Ruff had allowed Reimer to split the games instead of just riding UPL forever once Reimer had been re-claimed off of waivers...  they probably are 4-5 wins better. And if one of those wins is against Montreal (0-3-1), maybe it's the Sabres sneaking into the playoffs.

-----

Fast forward. This season, they might finally get it. Once again, it's a veteran goalie with career numbers better than UPL's career (though not as good as Reimer's). But there's no reason for Lyon not to be a tandem goalie with UPL.

Let Lyon play. Send UPL to Rochester for a conditioning assignment. Play Ellis once every 4 games so you see what he can do and you don't burn out Lyon. Get the goaltending right. For once. (then fire Sheevyn anyway.) Ellis should play Monday in MTL and at TOR next weekend, and he should already know when he's going to be in net.