Observations: Not much help for Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen as Sabres fall to Blue Jackets

If the team in front of him is going to play as poorly as the Buffalo Sabres did for the first 40 minutes Monday night, the rookie goalie probably can get more out of playing behind a quality AHL lineup.

There wasn't much Luukkonen could do as the Sabres (1-3) fell into a four-goal hole through 40 minutes and lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 5-3, in mostly empty KeyBank Center. Jakub Voracek led a veteran Columbus lineup with a goal and two assists.

It was a formidable challenge for Luukkonen against a Columbus forward corps that included Voracek, Patrik Laine, Boone Jenner, Gustav Nyquist, Oliver Bjorkstrand as well as No. 1 defenseman Zach Werenski. He made several decent saves, and was particularly sharp with his glove hand, but dealt with a sea of open players in the Sabres' defensive zone.

Coach Don Granato admitted he pondered pulling Luukkonen with Buffalo facing a 5-1 deficit in the second intermission, even though really none of the goals were Luukkonen's fault. 

"Might have thought differently, might have done differently if it was regular season," Granato said. "But in this case, it was good to see him play as solid as he did in the third period and battle the way he did. If we pull him out, we wouldn't see that he wouldn't have that opportunity to fight through."

Luukkonen made 25 saves in the game and stopped all nine shots he faced in the third period.

"There's no point thinking backwards and thinking about the goals you let in," he said. "You want to make a good last impression on the game. There's still 20 minutes left so play as well as you can and leave it on a high note."

The Sabres struggled mightily in the first period of this one with shoddy breakouts, poor passing and too many giveaways. Defensive zone coverage then fell apart in a three-goal Columbus second period.

"We were not quick to close out anybody," Granato said. "Where we got in trouble tonight was hesitation. And it killed us there."

"In the second period, we made a couple fatal mistakes and kind of let the game get away," said Buffalo center Casey Mittelstadt, who scored twice. " ... A couple of those goals, we hung him out to dry, but I thought it was a helluva response by him coming out in the third."

Luukkonen gave up six goals in his other preseason start, Thursday's 6-2 loss in Detroit, although that included an 18-save first period. Craig Anderson and Dustin Tokarski seem to have a leg up on the goalie competition, with Luukkonen and Aaron Dell the likely tandem for Rochester.

Still, of the five goals Luukkonen gave up, none saw the goalie be the major issue on the play. Voracek burned Luukkonen from the right circle on a power play at 3:31 of the first period and Emil Bemstrom made it 2-0 on a breakaway at 12:49, beating Luukkonen on a backhand deke after a last-man-back giveaway by Rasmus Dahlin at the Columbus line.

Jenner beat Luukkonen with a low shot through the legs at 1:35 of the second period and the Jackets then scored twice in a 72-second span late in the period, a snapshot from in tight by Laine off a Voracek feed at 16:12 and a screened Bjorkstrand backhander at 17:24.

What worked for Luukkonen in the third?

"Just the fact that there's no goals, plain and simple," he said. "Shutting the door on that and just playing better, being more confident. An all-around better period."

Here are some other observations on the game:

The lineup: It seems like the Sabres' top forward line is close to being set with Mittelstadt between Jeff Skinner and Vinnie Hinostroza, who has been the top newcomer in camp. Dylan Cozens will be the No. 2 center and he was between Rasmus Asplund and J-J Peterka on Monday.

The other two lines had Zemgus Girgensons centering Drake Caggiula and Victor Olofsson and Tage Thompson getting a look in the middle between Linus Weissbach and Kyle Okposo after Arttu Ruotsalainen felt under the weather in the morning.

The defense pairs were mostly regular-season level: Dahlin with Henri Jokiharju, Robert Hagg-Colin Miller and Will Butcher-Jacob Bryson. 

The Buffalo goals: Mittelstadt banged home a Hinostroza rebound off the back boards at 17:12 of the first and then beat backup goalie Daniil Tarasov with a laser off the goalpost at 11:15 of the third. The goal of the night was by Peterka at 6:26 of the third as the rookie blew by Werenski in the Columbus end.

"He knew there was an opportunity to score 120 feet away from the net, meaning he knew, 'Here is a goal scoring chance. I'm going to create one out of this,' " Granato said. "And then when it got between him and the goalie with a guy draped on him, he knew right where to put it."

Sign of things to come?: There did not appear to even be 2,000 people in the building. The tickets-sold count was 6,328. 

Next: The Sabres will have another morning skate Tuesday and then head to Pittsburgh for a 7 p.m. game against the Penguins that will be aired on MSG (using the Pittsburgh feed) and WGR Radio (with Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray).