Sabres need someone to stand up in Tage Thompson’s absence

With Buffalo Sabres head coach Don Granato announcing that Tage Thompson will miss "significant time" due to an upper-body injury, Steven Ellis and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss who needs to step up in Thompson’s absence for Buffalo. 

Tyler Yaremchuk: The Sabres are going to be without their star for some time and it’s a big blow to the Sabres as he was just starting to heat up a bit as the Sabres were off to a sluggish start and a lot of that had to do with their stars not performing. Now the stars start producing, they’re hanging in there in their division and now it’s like without Tage do they have the guns and horses to keep up in the Atlantic.

Steven Ellis: Have you heard of a guy who leaves the game in one period with an injury and then comes back and leaves the game the next period with a different injury in the same game? Very rare. It almost feels like they should’ve just kept Matt Savoie up as he would’ve been a good replacement. This is a group that unfortunately is underperforming and for me, one of the big concerns heading into the season was goaltending.

Steven Ellis: Devon Levi was pitched to be the No. 1 guy, he’s going to the NHL from college without a pro game between there. Outside of that injury he’s had, he has struggled and his numbers aren’t great. Then when it comes to Ukko-Pekka Lukkonen he’s one of the most inconsistent young goalies I’ve seen. In some games, he’s stealing them and in other games, he’s throwing it away. Not a great result last night against Boston but when it comes to this group I’m not sure what is going to work. There are a lot of young players hoping to transition the team and challenge for a playoff spot but it seems like what we have seen in Ottawa this year and in Buffalo, it’s like the hockey gods just want to push Detroit into the playoffs. Thompson needed some more consistency, at his pace he was still looking at 30 goals and 60 points but that’s a step-down. 

Tyler Yaremchuk: Just three points separates the Red Wings and the Sabres. Ottawa is not that far back with 12 points on the year. If you’re the Sabres, this is the perfect time for your goaltending to take over and bounce back. One of these guys needs to step up win you some games and go on a run. 

Steven Ellis: Yes. If it’s UPL and Eric Comrie great, if it’s Levi, great. The thing with Levi is I don’t want them to push him if he’s not ready. I wanted him to start the season in the AHL. Again, look at the success rate of NCAA to NHL and it’s almost nothing. It would’ve been good to allow him to learn from the mistakes and the energy of the pro game and not just throw him to the wolves where a lot of people thought better things would happen to the Sabres. There are three goalies there who could get hot at any given point and it just takes one.