After an otherwise routine practice Sunday morning in KeyBank Center, goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was sitting at his locker when the Sabres' omnipresent social media team greeted him with a surprise.
Seriously, who doesn't want cupcakes? Even if you are a professional athlete who should be watching the refined sugar. Four of them in a plastic box, with a number '5' and a '0' with candles in two of them.
Saturday's victory over Detroit was the 50th of Luukkonen's career, a mini-milestone at best. But it actually has some real significance when it comes to the Sabres.
Happy 50 career wins Upie! 🎂 pic.twitter.com/kAywgyhUG8
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) October 28, 2024
Luukkonen entered Monday's game against the Florida Panthers tied with old friend Linus Ullmark and 1980s backup Jacques Cloutier at 50. Getting to No. 51 is a significant milepost for the Sabres as well because it will represent the most wins for any goalie since Miller was traded to St. Louis in 2014.
And much like the Bills drifted aimlessly looking for a replacement for Jim Kelly, the Sabres have gone through goalies like potato chips since Miller departed. This was a franchise that spent the first 45 years of his existence with huge stability in net. All the way from Roger Crozier to Gerry Desjardins, to Edwards and Bob Sauve, to Tom Barrasso and Daren Puppa, to Hasek and Marty Biron and then Miller.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is becoming a fixture in goal for the Buffalo Sabres.
Since the Miller trade, 23 players have manned the net for at least one game. There hasn't been the long-term promise of Luukkonen and current backup Devon Levi.
The Sabres made their faith official in July when they signed Luukkonen to a five-year, $23.75 million contract extension. Remember that he was drafted in the second round in 2017 but is still only 25 years old. That's how it goes with goalies. He played 23 games in Cincinnati and 69 in Rochester, and had double hip surgery. Last year, he won a career-high 27 games, posting a 2.57 goals-against average and .910 save percentage.
| No. | Wins | Goalie | Years |
| 1. | 284 | Ryan Miller | 2003-2014 |
| 2. | 234 | Dominik Hasek | 1993-2001 |
| 3. | 156 | Don Edwards | 1977-1982 |
| 4. | 134 | Martin Biron | 1996-2007 |
| 5. | 124 | Tom Barrasso | 1984-1989 |
| 6. | 119 | Bob Sauve | 1977-1985 |
| 7. | 93 | Daren Puppa | 1986-1993 |
| 8. | 74 | Roger Crozier | 1970-1976 |
| 9. | 66 | Gerry Desjardins | 1975-1978 |
| 10t. | 50 | Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen | 2021-pres |
| 10t. | 50 | Linus Ullmark | 2016-2021 |
| 10t. | 50 | Jacques Cloutier | 1982-1989 |
Luukkonen entered Monday at 3.01 and .899, small sample-size numbers bloated by the six-goal struggle he had in a Oct. 16 loss at Pittsburgh. But in the three games since? He's at 2.33/.924. That's top-flight stuff.
"There's the ups and downs of it, but there's a lot of people in the organization who never gave up on it with me," Luukkonen said. "Of course, there's a lot of work on my part and that I feel I earned it, but it still takes the confidence from the organization and the dedication they had to give me time to develop.
"I'm nowhere perfect yet and I feel like I can still get a lot better. But, for sure, they have done a good job handling my situations."
Defenseman Mattias Samuelsson goes back with Luukkonen to their days in Rochester during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons and continues to be impressed.
"I've always known what he was capable of and then I think the second half of last year, he really, really took off," Samuelsson said. "You just see his confidence growing in the net. And he's obviously a pretty big human being (at 6-foot-5), so takes up a lot of the cage. He's a rock back there.
"He's athletic in net at his size, You give up a breakaway, odd-man rush, anything like that, I think everyone has faith that 'Upie' can bail the boys out."
The Sabres have done a good job of surviving what had already become two key crisis points of the season, avoiding the first 0-4 start in franchise history with their Oct. 12 win over Florida and escaping a 1-4-1 rut with a 4-2 win Oct. 19 in Chicago.
It's hard to imagine what would have happened if either game had been a loss, particularly a bad one. Sure seems like general manager Kevyn Adams, in particular, needed those games to go his way and they did.
While the fan base was quickly turning apoplectic, the dressing room was not.
"I think that comes from the coaching staff," Luukkonen said. "Lindy did a really, really good job with that and overall, I think players are really confident in our team and the teammates around them. We believe that we're a good hockey team, and I think we showed it now."
Luukkonen walks by the Sabres Hall of Fame every day going on and off the ice. He's met Miller a couple of times, too. Over the next five years, how many wins are in his future? Two more sets of 50 would put him with the big three of the franchise.
"A great guy. We talk about hockey but not just all hockey all the time," Luukkonen said of Miller. "You know you've been watching him growing up and how great of a goalie he was. When you meet guys like him, you kind of go home and the next day you think about and you're like, 'Oh, that's the guy I really was watching growing up and was looking up to.' Crazy sometimes to think about."
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