This will be Alex Lyon’s night, win or lose. Whatever happens, the Buffalo Sabres goalie is ready to face the New York Rangers when his team opens the season at 7 p.m. Thursday at KeyBank Center.
Lyon begins his 10th season of professional hockey, and he will make his first start in an NHL season opener. Western New York is the newest stop on Lyon’s path, which has winded from Minnesota to the Ivy League, from southeastern Pennsylvania and North Carolina to Chicago, and from South Florida to downtown Detroit.
“Challenging, for sure,” Lyon said, when asked to describe that trek. “Like a lot of people in this room, you never think you’re going to make it this far, and you get to a point where you just try to enjoy it and appreciate it. I try to appreciate every day that I’m here, but I haven’t been given anything. And, like most guys, I’ve had to fight for everything that I’ve gotten, so I’m going to continue to do that until they rip the jersey off my back.”
Lyon signed with the Sabres as a free agent in July after two seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, as a likely backup to Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, the Sabres’ No. 1 goalie in 2024-25. Lyon carries currency in his career: He’s a proven No. 2 goalie who can assimilate to any situation, whether he starts games, enters in relief of a faltering goalie or steps into the crease on an emergency basis.
Lyon is the Sabres’ opening-night starter after Luukkonen sustained two separate lower-body injuries, one prior to the start of training camp in September and one in his only preseason game Oct. 1 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Luukkonen begins the season on injured reserve, which makes Lyon’s signing invaluable, given the worth of a No. 2 goalie in the modern era and his experiences at the NHL, AHL and college levels.
The No. 2’s evolution
Henrik Lundqvist is a Hockey Hall of Fame goalie who is now a studio analyst with the NHL on TNT, and explains the practicality and the benefit of acquiring an experienced goaltender like Lyon.
Lundqvist played for 15 NHL seasons and has seen the changes in the role of the No. 2 goalie. Lundqvist played in a minimum of 70 games in four of his first five seasons with the New York Rangers (2005-10), and starting goalies were used to playing a heavy workload during the course of an 82-game season.
“Now, it’s a totally different story,” Lundqvist said. “They play a huge part in if you’re going to make it or not. You expect a certain amount of wins from your starter, but the difference is going to be if you have that No. 2 guy to be able to step up and win a lot of games.”
In this case, Lyon will be the Sabres’ starter until Luukkonen, who is considered week to week, returns to the lineup. Lyon is 51-38-11 in 113 NHL games, with a career goals-against average of 2.98 and a saves percentage of .902.
He’s had his share of career-defining moments at the college and pro levels. He led Yale to the 2014 and 2015 NCAA Tournaments. He was the backup to Sergei Bobrovsky when the Florida Panthers reached the 2023 Stanley Cup Final, falling to Vegas, and helped the Panthers earn the final playoff spot by a point in the Eastern Conference by earning a win against the Sabres in April 2023. He also helped Chicago win the AHL’s Calder Cup championship in 2021-22, going 18-7-3 in the playoffs.
Brian Boucher played in 328 games for seven NHL teams from 1999-2013 but never played in more than 45 games a season. Now an analyst with the NHL on TNT, he has to chuckle at the evolution of the backup goalie – and his own poor timing.
“I wish I was playing in an era like this,” Boucher said. “I might have been valued a little bit more. Backups get paid a little bit more because they’re relied on a little bit more, and that’s good for everybody. The starters are trained not to play as much as a guy like (Henrik Lundqvist) did. Their mindset is not to play 70 games. It’s a different goalie in today’s game, and everybody’s going to chip in.”
From four goalies to two
“Everybody” means “everybody” for the Sabres, who at one point earlier this week had four goalies on their roster before Luukkonen was placed on injured reserve Monday and Alexandar Georgiev was placed on waivers Tuesday.
“Everybody” in goal is now Lyon and Colten Ellis.
Ellis was with Springfield of the American Hockey League earlier this week and made the 5½-hour drive between western Massachusetts and Western New York on Monday to join the Sabres.
Before this week, he’d spent the first four seasons of his pro hockey career in the AHL or ECHL. Picked up by the Sabres on waivers, Ellis spent most of the drive in the euphoria that comes with an unexpected promotion but he quickly locked into the NHL mindset when he arrived in Buffalo.
“It was a quick turnaround,” said Ellis, who was 22-14-3 with a 2.63 goals-against average and a .922 saves percentage in 42 games last season with Springfield. “I got a few hours of sleep and you’ve got to flip the switch and get to work. Show I belong here. Take it day by day and lock in.”
Ellis now has another role to fill and learn: Become a reliable No. 2 goalie, the role Lyon was originally brought in to fill, for however long the 25-year-old from Nova Scotia is with the Sabres.
“I’m here to get my opportunity and earn some playing time,” said Ellis, whom the St. Louis Blues originally drafted in 2019. “Alex, he’s been great since I came in (Tuesday), with the conversations we’ve had, it’s been really good to me, so far. We’re looking to help each other and compete with each other. Obviously, I can learn some things from him and, hopefully, share some of my ideas with him.”
Lyon offers some direction and perspective to Ellis, given his familiarity with the role.
“He has to play hard and stop the puck, that’s what it comes down to,” Lyon said. “There’s no secrets. He’s got a long path ahead of him and the goalie journey is a very long, arduous journey of ups and downs and he’s just starting. I envy him in some ways, and I don’t envy him, in some ways.”
Lyon speaks from experience, something that Boucher believes will be beneficial for the Sabres.
“Lyon has battled and grinded and found a way, and guys like that are good to have around,” Boucher said. “Teams feed off personalities like that.”
But as far as being the opening-night starter? Lyon takes the measured approach, one that comes with being a proven veteran.
“I’m going to do the things that I do that make me successful,” Lyon said. “I’m just excited to start the process and just looking forward to it. The best way to do it is to keep it simple, and focus on bringing our best, for 60 minutes.”
Get in the game with our Prep Sports Newsletter
Sent weekly directly to your inbox!
* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Rachel Lenzi
News sports reporter
Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!
Your notification has been saved.
There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Followed notifications
Please log in to use this feature
Log In
Don’t have an account? Sign Up Today