On January 17th the Buffalo Bills were eliminated from the NFL playoffs after an overtime loss to the Denver Broncos. Buffalo’s crowning jewel, perhaps only jewel, of professional sports once again failed to deliver the city’s first ever sports championship. The Bills have emerged as the city’s best bet. After all, the only other option the city has in the four major professional North American sports is the Buffalo Sabres.
Well the Sabres have become a “wagon” (hockey parlance for a team that just keeps going with success) and emerged as a playoff contender. It might be too bold to call them “cup contenders” but now the city is all but assured to end its NHL record 14 year playoff drought. The last time the Sabres made the playoffs was in 2010-2011. Back then Blockbuster Video was still in business, the NHL has yet to even consider Vegas and Seattle expansion teams and their now star quarterback Josh Allen was 15 years old.
What exactly was the turning point in the Sabres season? The most likely point was the firing of general manager Kevyn Adams. Since making the change in the middle of December the Sabres rank first in many NHL categories, most importantly in point percentage which shot them up all the way to second in the Eastern Conference. Kevyn Adams built this team so it’s almost inconsiderate to blame their continued lack of success on him. His dismissal was when all the untapped potential seemed to finally break through and now current general manager Jarmo Kekäläinen is enjoying the riches.
Buried in that list of categories the Sabres lead the NHL since then is two key goaltending categories. The Sabres have had a laundry list of failures in their crease in their quest to search for goaltending answers since the Ryan Miller era ended at the 2014 trade deadline. Since the December general manager change the Sabres lead the league in goals against average (2.61) and save percentage (91.37%).
The Sabres goaltending tandem finds both of them top 15 in the league in goals saved above expected. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is 15th at 9.9 goals saved above expected, entering play Wednesday, but the real All-Star is Alex Lyon. Lyon is eight in the league with 15.80 goals saved above expected (entering play Wednesday) in his 34 games of action.
Lyon became a household hockey name by leading the Florida Panthers late regular season push to make the 2022-2023 NHL playoffs where they would make the first of three consecutive Stanley Cup finals appearances. He signed a two year contract in free agency with Buffalo last off season and broke a franchise record for most wins in a row for the Sabres this season. The Sabres even in their futility have been able to score. It’s having a reliable, much better than average, goaltender, that’s contributing to their success even if his jersey isn’t the best seller in the team store.
Some fans have come up with a rather fun reason they think Buffalo has turned the switch to success. Much like the firing of Adams is looked at as a turning point, so was the introduction of “beer sabres” at home games in late November. Novelty beer cups have become a popular item, think baseball bats at baseball games and hockey stick shaped cups at other arenas, but the Sabres decided on a beer filled sword for their games. After some light hearted joking (look at some of the comments on the original X post) the beer Sabres caught on.
Much like the list of quantifiable stats post Adams firing, that also exists for the beer sabre argument. The Sabres are 37-11-2 since then. It is worth noting that the introduction of beer sabres did happen a few weeks prior to the general manager change.
Does anyone actually believe the “beer sabre theory”? The vibes are so high in Western New York we don’t want to ruin them and ask. If New Jersey Devils fans can blame mummies under their stadium for Jack Hughes steakhouse injury, why not this? What’s for certain is the outlook Sabres have for their fans as the playoffs are within reach is much different than the bleak look ESPN had last season when they asked once again what it would take to end the playoff drought. Maybe the worldwide leader in sports should have considered goaltending and beer sabres.