The future is bright in goal for the Buffalo Sabres and everybody knows it. They have top prospect Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in Rochester, where he was named AHL Player of the Week on Monday and is bouncing back after a difficult start to the season. They also have elite college goalies in Erik Portillo (Michigan) and Devon Levi (Northeastern).
The issue is navigating the present. Craig Anderson has been a fountain of youth at age 40, and Dustin Tokarski, a kid by comparison at 32, has been excellent in completing the tandem. But Anderson is out for at least another couple weeks with an upper body injury believed to encompass his head/neck area. Aaron Dell came up from Rochester and struggled badly at the start of his Sabres debut Saturday, stopping just 21 of 26 shots in the 5-4 loss to Toronto.
Good news has been hard to find of late among the Sabres' injured quartet.
The Sabres want Luukkonen to keep developing in the AHL, where his confidence is growing each game, and aren't likely to pull an about-face and do a quick callup. It seems like the net is Tokarski's for the forseeable future. He's expected to start for the fifth time in six games Tuesday night in PPG Paints Arena as the Sabres meet the Pittsburgh Penguins.
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"Honestly, the focus this year is just just day to day," Tokarski said after practice Monday in KeyBank Center. "Maybe it looks like I'm doing something extra or special this year than in the past. But for me, it's just the day to day and you work hard and focus on the goals of that day. That kind of just pushes you to be better the next day and you just try to build on that."
Tokarski is 2-3-2 with a 2.95 goals-against average and .908 save percentage in seven games. Those are pedestrian numbers at first glance, but don't reflect how he's played. Three of his losses have been by a goal, and another was the 5-2 defeat in Seattle where the Sabres were badly outplayed and Tokarski kept them afloat for long stretches as he made 33 saves.
Dylan Cozens scored twice in a span of 5:14 for his first career multi-goal game, and goalie Dustin Tokarski delivered several remarkable saves in the third period to help the Buffalo Sabres snap their five-game skid with a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers.
Tokarski's signature stint came in Friday's 3-2 win over Edmonton, when he stoned Connor McDavid & Co. by making 14 saves in the final 7 1/2 minutes of play. He stopped 33 of 35 shots in the game.
"It got a little 'whirly' for a bit there, but it was fun," Tokarski said. "The guys battled hard. You guys saw guys absolutely lay their bodies on the line on the (penalty kill) all night. I thought that was amazing how many shots we blocked. It was incredible. And we found a way. Huge blocks, couple saves, and guys battled right to the end and we beat a good team."
Tuesday will mark Tokarski's 21st game with the Sabres over two seasons, all in calendar year 2021. He had only 34 games in the NHL with three teams from 2010-2016 and didn't get another chance until March 22 of this year in New York, when Carter Hutton left his final Sabres game with an ankle injury.
The Sabres signed Anderson and Dell in the offseason and Tokarski was ticketed for Rochester, but it didn't happen. He clearly outplayed Dell in preseason and broke camp in the NHL.
"It's pretty awesome," coach Don Granato said Monday. "You want your players to compete, we all do. We all come to these games and want to see some passion and competitiveness and something that excites us to watch more. And he encompasses that. He battles. And the same thing in practice. ... So many players have had opportunity in this league and haven't been able to take advantage of it. And I think he knows the value of that at his age and his road to this point."
"He's been standing on his head," defenseman Jacob Bryson said. "I can't say enough about how well he's been playing. He was a brick wall last game."
It was a ragged, loose Sabres-Leafs game full of wild highs and lows. The Sabres were in 3-1 and 4-2 holes and battled back to tie and create good old-fashioned Buffalo-Toronto chaos.
Tokarski needs to continue to keep the Sabres strong in goal because Anderson (4-2, 2.50/.921) had started his season with a flourish. Any slumps, and the Sabres may have no choice but to go to Luukkonen before they would like to.
"I definitely don't take a single day for granted," Tokarski said. "I come in and enjoy my teammates, hang out with them and work hard on the ice. It's the top league in the world. I'm thrilled to be here and thrilled to be part of a team that works hard every night. We're competitive and we enjoy being around each other."
In Rochester, Luukkonen has turned around his game in November (1.77/.949) after a disastrous October (4.92/.818). He went 2-1 in a four-day span last week and stopped 112 of 117 shots, going 1.68/.957. Included was a 32-save outing in his first AHL shutout, Saturday's 4-0 win over Cleveland.
"His momentum changed because he works. He's a worker at heart," Amerks coach Seth Appert said after Saturday's game. "I was never worried about him when he was struggling earlier because I know the work the young man puts in. Usually you're going to work your way through your problems. If you sit around and feel sorry for yourself, usually you stay in your problems. 'Uppy' is a worker."
"It's been an all-right week for me, a couple good games," Luukkonen said. "You just want to take the positive things out of it, find the things you need to improve and continue from there. ... Of course the start was a little bit rough, but it's only a couple games. There's no need to look backwards. There's so many games in front, the only thing you can do is improve."
