Buffalo Sabres Questions: How Will Goaltending Fare?

As the Buffalo Sabres prepare to open the 2015-2016 NHL season this coming Thursday, there are still several questions ahead for the team. After all, it’s a long season and things can change at any point.

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With all of the new additions this summer, which certainly helped strengthen the offensive core of the team, one of the questions that remains to be seen is on goaltending.

Robin Lehner and Chad Johnson are set to be the one-two punch for the Buffalo Sabres this season, with guys like Andrey Makarov, Nathan Lieuwen, Linus Ullmark and C.J. Motte down the pipeline.

Long gone are guys like Jhonas Enroth, Michal Neuvirth, Matt Hackett and co., so it’ll be quite a change from what we saw in net for the Buffalo Sabres last season.

Neither Lehner nor Johnson have played a regular-season game with the Buffalo Sabres yet, with Johnson facing injury issues at the end of last season and Lehner coming in during the offseason. Both have a lot to prove and will need to step up to fill that missing piece for the Buffalo Sabres in the upcoming months.

Lehner, 24, was drafted by the Ottawa Senators in 2009. Since 2010, when he made his NHL debut, he’s played in 86 NHL games in 4700+ minutes. In that time, Lehner has gone 30-36-13-2, but he’s never played in more than 36 games in a single season, and most of his NHL time has come over the past two seasons.

As such, he has something to prove – especially if he’s likely going to be the starting goaltender for the Buffalo Sabres this coming season.

The good news is that since Lehner has spent time with the Sens, he’s got experience playing against Atlantic Division opponents. Over the past two seasons, 22 of Lehner’s 61 games have been against Atlantic Division opponents (with none against the Buffalo Sabres). He went 3-5-1 against Atlantic Division foes last season, and was credited as 4-5-3 against the Atlantic in the previous season.

Chad Johnson, 29, is set to be the other Buffalo Sabres’ netminder this coming season, but he’s also largely unproven at the NHL level, even moreso than Lehner.

Since 2009, Johnson has appeared in 56 games, with 46 of those coming over the last two seasons with the Bruins and Islanders.

Seventeen of those 46 games over the last two seasons have been played against Atlantic Division teams (again, none against the Buffalo Sabres). Johnson overall was credited 6-6-2 in that stretch.

Johnson came to the Buffalo Sabres toward the end of last season, being traded in from the New York Islanders in exchange for Neuvirth (who has since signed with Philadelphia). He suffered a lower-body injury in the morning skate the day he was scheduled to make his debut with the Buffalo Sabres and missed the rest of the season.

With newcomers like Ryan O’Reilly and Evander Kane strengthening the offense, and guys like Zach Bogosian, Josh Gorges and Rasmus Ristolainen leading the charge on the blueline, one of the real questions that remains for the Buffalo Sabres is the goaltending and how these two will perform. Can they step up and help fill the gap on the team this coming season?

Next: Johnson Is Great Backup Goalie

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