This won’t be a long post, but not all research returns lengthy results.

JFresh and Patrick Bacon are on a role to start the season over at hockeystats.com. In a landscape where the numbers have the heaviest weight of the content, they’re working to make accessible visualizations to get more people interested in underlying data.

Other than their game score, their player cards are probably the feature that you are most familiar with. And since the title did the heavy lifting of the article hook, let’s take a look at the one card we can’t stop looking at:

If there’s one Sabre whose card provides insight into the eye test, it’s Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s. If your eyes are telling you that it seems like Luukkonen’s path to an average-or-so save percentage is comprised of some good saves but also a goal or two a game that you would like a save there, well the numbers match it too, even across the same of 2023-2026 and then the first handful of games this season.

The team’s trend of 2-0 deficits into third period comebacks is leading to Luukkonen’s GSAX hovering mostly in place with the Blue Jackets and Stars games having carried a lot of weight, but through all of it, he still finds himself with a 3.53 GAA through 8 games.

There’s more to say about how the Sabres have come to their 4-4-2 record, but with the goaltending itself, the numbers match the confusion that comes in the eyes with watching Luukkonen starts this season.

The save percentages of all three Sabres goalies last year were within thousandths of points from each other, but does Lyon’s card feel like a different path to getting there? Perhaps. Colton Ellis has not played enough games to be eligible for a card.

And as a reward for making it to the end, oh hey how did that get there

(Photo credit: Buffalo Sabres)