Buffalo Sabres’ Robin Lehner Is Rounding Into Form
Buffalo’s netminder continued his streak of strong play against the Ducks in Anaheim Wednesday night.
Time for a Throwback – it is, after all, Thursday!
It was back on June 26, 2015, that the Buffalo Sabres acquired goaltender Robin Lehner, along with veteran center David Legwand, from the Ottawa Senators.
The cost? The 21st pick in the 2015 NHL Draft.
At the time, using a first-round pick on Lehner didn’t seem smart, as Lehner was just 30-36 with a 2.88 GAA and a .914 save percentage to his name. Hey: if you are trading for Henrik Lundqvist in his prime, you give away a first-round pick . . . but a backup like Lehner? Come on.
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Fast forward to today, however, and the trade does not look that bad. Playing on the road, without Ryan O’Reilly, the Sabres had to face the super red-hot Anaheim Ducks in the Honda Center Wednesday night. If you thought this was a recipe for a blowout, you were not alone . . . yet the Sabres only lost 1-0, thanks mostly to the efforts of Lehner, who stopped 28 shots against a team that had been averaging 4 goals per game while winning 14 of their last 17.
I’m not saying Robin Lehner was worth a first-round pick – we’re still dealing with too small a sample size to determine just how much Lehner is worth to the club – but it’s impossible to ignore the fact that he seems to be the heavy favorite to be the Buffalo Sabres’ starting goalie the next few years. More importantly, Lehner seems to be ready to be a LEGITIMATE starting goalie, not just the guy who got the job on a crappy team because he had no real competition.
Consider: in his last five starts, Lehner has allowed only 7 goals, posted one shutout, and stopped 152 out of 159 shots faced, good for a .956 save percentage. He’s held Ottawa, Anaheim and Colorado to one goal apiece* – not bad when you consider two of those teams are currently playoff-bound.
*Let’s just agree to forget about the four goals allowed at home against Pittsburgh, okay?
The best part is that he’s done all of this behind a defensive corps that allows 30.9 shots per game, fourth-worst in all of the league. All you have to do is watch Lehner to see that he is fiercely competitive. His fire really came out back on February 6, following the terrible penalty shot that was award to Boston’s Brad Marchand. It was on display again just last week against the Columbus Blue Jackets and included a punch in the face to Nick Foligno and a near-fight with Jack Johnson. At no point has Lehner looked like a goalie who is just looking to end a forgettable season with a cellar-dwelling team; instead, he has looked like a guy fighting for his playoff life, despite the fact that the promised land is nowhere in sight.
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Most fans were probably not too impressed with Robin Lehner’s performance back in January, but how fair is it to assess a goaltender’s worth in his first few backs following an injury that had him sidelined for months? Lehner appears to be shaking the rust off and is battling every night. Only time will tell if he was worth a first round pick, but the price the Buffalo Sabres paid to get him seems more fair every day.