BUFFALO — It can be easy to forget now. Goalie Alex Lyon just performed dynamically while winning three games and backstopping the Sabres to their first postseason series win in 19 years.
But a few weeks ago, Lyon, 33, was a bit of an afterthought as the Sabres entered the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2011.
In his last three starts of the regular season, he struggled mightily, posting a ghastly 6.24 goals-against average and a .772 save percentage. Then he suffered a muscle strain, shelving him for the final five games.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, the goalie he had alternated starts with over an 18-game stretch, won his last three outings and earned the nod in Game 1 of the Sabres’ first-round series against the Boston Bruins.
Lyon, who began practicing days before the playoffs began, slid into a backup role as the postseason started.
Tonight, fresh off one of the most memorable stretches of his career, Lyon is expected to start Game 1 of the Sabres’ best-of-seven second-round series against the Montreal Canadiens in KeyBank Center.
If he dazzles again like he did in the opening round, the Sabres have an excellent chance of advancing to their first Eastern Conference final since 2007.
After relieving an ineffective Luukkonen against the Bruins, he morphed into the Sabres’ backbone, posting a minuscule 1.14 goals-against average and a gaudy .955 save percentage in five games.
“He was nothing short of sensational,” Sabres winger Beck Malenstyn said of Lyon’s performance in the first round.
Lyon was at his best in Friday’s 3-1 series-clinching win in Boston, making two critical stops early in Game 6.
“He likes the big moments, and he’s not afraid of them,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said following the game. “He stands on his head when we need him.”
Lyon has enjoyed the best season of his career, in part because he has bounced back from slumps with a vengeance.
Overall, he posted terrific numbers – a 20-10-4 record with a 2.77 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage in 36 games – during the regular season.
Still, Lyon struggled at times. His game began slipping in November following a hot start, and with Luukkonen and rookie goalie Colten Ellis available to Ruff, he played just once over an 11-game stretch.
When he started playing regularly again in early December, he went on a 10-game winning streak, helping ignite the Sabres.
“Every goalie throughout the course of a season goes through ebbs and flows,” Lyon told GNN Sports. “Nobody can escape from it, nobody can hide from it. It’s just the reality of our position. And so you just learn that for every time that something’s feeling a little bit bad, you just have to get back on the horse and try to turn it around.”
The ultra-competitive Lyon said other than two or three guys, every netminder experiences ups and downs.
“That’s just the reality of the season and the nature of the season,” he said. “It’s about just responding and having that hunger when you come back and trying to start something fresh that feels good.”
Ruff said Lyon’s ability to self-evaluate and work diligently at his craft has helped him find a groove following any difficult stretches.
“He always looks at himself first when he struggles,” he said. “He knows there’s part of his game he’s got to work on. I think Mike Bales (the assistant coach in charge of goalies) and the goaltenders have done a good job with that. When he identifies something they need to work on, they work on it.
“He will go out of off days, he will go out on game days. If we choose to have an optional, he’ll be the guy on the ice working on his game. He’s one of the hardest-working goalies I’ve been around, and he’s just a real student of the game.”
In their eight months together, Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin, who’s known for his competitiveness, said he has learned Lyon is a “gamer.”
“He competes like crazy out there, even in practice, in everything,” he said. “I really love guys like that, hates to lose and want their opponent to look bad and stuff. You saw it the game he came in (Game 2 against Boston), he started chirping guys right away. I really feed off that. I love guys who have that energy.”
Lyon, who went viral for yelling at Bruins rookie Fraser Minten in Game 2 and engaging a fan in Boston in Game 3, possesses what Malenstyn calls “a unique demeanor.”
“The common theme among most great goalies is their calmness,” he said. “You look at them, they looked relaxed. He has a little bit of a mix of that. He seems very poised and relaxed in his game, but he also has that fire and that bite about him, too, right?
“I mean, it’s what we love about him.”
As opponents in the AHL, Malenstyn remembers hearing it from Lyon.
“Some of the stuff he’d say to you when you’d go by the net, I’d be like, ‘I don’t know who (you are). What did I do to you?’” he said.
Malenstyn said when he would throw a puck on net from the outside and try to get off the ice, Lyon might tell him, “Oh, you think that one was going in?”
“He has that unique mix of being able to be that locked in, fire, competitiveness, combined with his just poise and calmness and control within the net,” Malenstyn said. “I think it just gives a lot of confidence.”