The Buffalo Sabres have had some great goalies in their franchise history, like Dominik Hasek and Ryan Miller, but neither has been able to accomplish what Alex Lyon has this season. On Saturday against the New York Islanders, Lyon won his ninth straight game and tied Gerry Desjardins, who set the franchise record during the 1976-77 season.
The win moved him one ahead of Ryan Miller, whose longest win streak with the Sabres was eight (which he accomplished twice), while Hasek's longest win streak was six, which he accomplished during the 2000-01 season.
Alex Lyon is proving he can handle a bigger role for the Buffalo Sabres
When the Buffalo Sabres signed Alex Lyon as a free agent this summer, the expectation was that he would be the backup to Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. However, Luukkonen was dealing with injuries entering the season, and Lyon stepped into the starter role.
Early in the season, when the Sabres were struggling, Lyon was doing his best to keep them in games. He is still playing great hockey, but the skaters in front of him have improved, and he is benefiting from that improvement with a win streak like this.
Through 23 games, Lyon has a 12-6-3 record with two shutouts and currently has a career-best goals against average of 2.70 and is just .001 off his career-best in save percentage at .911. He certainly is being kept on his toes as he is facing on average 25 shots per game and making big saves to keep the Sabres in these games.
That was evident against the Islanders, where the Buffalo Sabres were on a power play, and he had to stop three short-handed shot attempts, all on the rush. He has shown time and again that he can make big saves for the Buffalo Sabres when they need them, which is key down the stretch as they try to end their playoff drought this season.
Lyon was put in a similar position earlier in his career with the Florida Panthers, as he was a key reason they made the playoffs in the 2022-23 season. He would be called up from the AHL after Sergei Bobrovsky was dealing with an illness. He would win six straight starts and not allow more than two goals in a game during this stretch.
This stretch helped the Panthers get into the playoffs as the second Wild Card and make an improbable run to the Stanley Cup before they lost to the Vegas Golden Knights. The Sabres' goalie has been in these situations before, and that experience should help.