00:00We have not talked about goaltending really with you yet.
00:02How do you feel like that's going for you overall?
00:05And, you know, we talked trade rumors with you earlier,
00:07how often that happens.
00:08How do you feel like Lukonen deals with the trade rumors that happen about him,
00:14the atmosphere around him in the city,
00:17and if you feel like he is good at blocking all of that out
00:20or if that factors in at all to his struggles early on?
00:26I don't know.
00:27No, I think that you probably need to ask him about that.
00:32But, you know, goaltending is such a tough position.
00:36Every mistake that you make is on the board,
00:39and people criticize goaltenders on goals that they basically have no chance of getting,
00:47no goalie would have a chance of getting.
00:49Sometimes it hits you, sometimes it goes by you,
00:53and if it does on a deflection, for example,
00:56then you probably have no chance of stopping it.
00:59But I was just joking with the coaches one day.
01:03We were talking about it when we beat a good goalie with a shot,
01:08and it's a great goal, what a shot.
01:11And then the same shot comes on our goalie,
01:13and then we're like, oh, maybe he should have had that.
01:15And why is that?
01:19The goaltenders get so unfairly criticized for some of the goals that they let in
01:25because, as I said, the mistakes show on the board,
01:30and that's why it's such an important position.
01:32It's the hardest position in hockey for sure.
01:36I couldn't even imagine playing a goalie, and they're so good at it.
01:41Today's goalies, they're incredible athletes with reaction time that we only dream about.
01:49But the consistency is the key.
01:53Has he been on the level that he was last year?
01:55Probably not.
01:57Does he get there?
01:59I believe he will, and I think that he's a pretty level-headed guy
02:03who can put out the noise in the background and just concentrate on the job.
02:08But we're all humans too, and as I said,
02:14the pressure on goalies is completely on a different level than it is on anybody else on the team.
02:21But we believe in our goaltending.
02:24They had really good numbers last year.
02:26They were good for us, all three of them.
02:29Alex Lyon's been hurt, and he's close to coming back,
02:33and we'll see where he's at when he does.
02:36Colton Ellis played some excellent games for us last year.
02:39He hasn't been quite as good as he was last year,
02:42but we believe he'll get there again.
02:44He'll be a big part of our team.
02:46But Ukope Kalukunen is a really good goaltender
02:50that has a lot to give to the Buffalo Sabres,
02:56and he'll be a big part of our future.
