Following the bad news that Buffalo Sabres goaltender Eric Comrie will miss several weeks, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has a golden opportunity.
Controversies are never fun, and they can often drag a team down. However, with 23-year-old Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen set to make some appearances given Craig Anderson’s old age and Eric Comrie’s lower-body injury, Luukkonen can spark a controversy if he steps in and plays well.
While Luukkonen started off hot in Rochester, he has since cooled and posted what I’ll generously say are average numbers, with a save percentage of 0.898 and a GAA of 3.07. Luukkonen’s save percentage has dropped slightly, but he is allowing fewer goals per game, given his GAA of 3.28 a season ago.
Despite the pedestrian AHL numbers over the past year-and-a-half, Luukkonen enjoyed success in the NHL last season, posting a 0.917 save percentage and a 2.74 GAA. And this type of performance came when the Buffalo Sabres were struggling with injuries, so we know he can do the job.
Luukkonen can spark a controversy for the Buffalo Sabres
If Luukkonen posts similar numbers when he gets an opportunity to play, do you keep him around the Queen City for the long haul when Eric Comrie gets back? Because if he plays well, expect a controversy, especially since Comrie is currently allowing a GAA of 3.64 goals per game, and a 0.887 save percentage.
Not that the poor numbers are a reflection of Comrie’s performance, given the AHL-caliber mid-to-lower defensive pairings and overall dysfunction he found himself playing in front of. But if Luukkonen faces similar adversity and plays well enough for the Sabres to snag a W, there will be a controversy.
So what should general manager Kevyn Adams do? As the old saying goes, go with the hot hand. We also know that Anderson is going to be finished after this season, and that Comrie has spent most of his career as a backup, so we know a few things about them.
We have a small sample size in Luukkonen given his cameos over the past two seasons, but we really don’t know what we got in him. He could be a star, or he could be a backup.
But we won’t know until we see an extended sample size. So if Luukkonen takes full advantage of this opportunity, there will be questions thrown back and forth over what to do with him, especially with Comrie intended to be pegged as the starter for the most part this season.
But if Adams and head coach Don Granato are smart, they will give Luukkonen the bulk of the playing time if he is durable and consistent. And they should also reassure him that one or two bad performances will not mean he gets booted back to Rochester.
(Statistics provided by Hockey DB)
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