Alex Isn’t Lyon! There’s No Naughty List In Buffalo.

Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!

I know you’re all getting things ready for the holiday, so let’s keep this brief and focused.

There’s one group of NHL players who are certainly NOT on Santa’s naughty list this year. They’d also be perfectly happy to find just one thing underneath the tree tomorrow morning.

A written guarantee from Santa that they’ll break the team’s 14-year playoff drought this April.

I swear. I’m not lyin’. Buffalo is actually good.

Sabres fans can thank Alex Lyon – 24 saves on 26 shots, and the 3-2 OT win at OTT. 

Don’t look now, but the Sabres have won 7 straight games!

What in the name of Chris Drury and Daniel Briere?!

I mean, with a new GM named “Jarmo”, we can’t get much closer to a biased vote of confidence from your Tuesday night recap guy here. 

And the streak all goes back to the anti-jix from this guy…

The good people of Buffalo don’t deserve this torture they’ve been put through. pic.twitter.com/ooc34mdlCi

— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) December 11, 2025

Are you on Team Whit here, or do you think the Sabres are ready to shred the naughty list and bring joy to all those little Whos in North Tonawanda?

Here’s what else I saw in Tuesday night’s NHL action…

Bowen Byram – 2 G (8), 1 A (9), +3, 2 SOG, 1 GWG, 1 BLK.  You know things are clicking when this guy is putting up 3-point nights.

Linus Ullmark – 22 saves on 25 shots in a 3-2 OT loss. A bit of Buffalo payback for the former staple in the Western New York crease. This one snapped a 4-game win streak for Ullmark. He’s 14-8-5 with a 2.86 GAA.

Tim Stutzle – 1 G (18), -2, 3 SOG, 2 H, 1 BLK, 21:41 TOI. The goal extends Stutzle’s point streak to 8 games (15 pts).

Jeremy Swayman – 23 saves on 29 shots and the 6-2 loss to MTL. I always say that I dislike the Leafs even more than the Habs. Then, when I sit through a game like this, it reminds me how much I miss Zdeno Chara introducing Max Pacioretty to the stanchion. Ugh.

David Pastrnak – 1 A (26), -2, 2 SOG, 1 PPA, 1 H. It was a rough one for the Spaghetti Man on Tuesday night. (More below).

Nikita Zadorov – Zero points. -2, 17 PIMs. VIOLENCE! There were more than a couple of tussles in last night’s Habs/Bruins game. Zadorov had a nice scrap against Andrej Xhekaj, after Josh Anderson took on Tanner Jeannot after the opening puck drop. 

Speaking of naughty lists, Zadorov leads the league in penalty minutes with 80.

This game got out of hand in the third, and the Bruins tried to send a message just before the final whistle. Boston is 1-3-1 in their last 5 home games. Talk about a lump of coal.

Jacob Fowler – 26 saves on 28 shots and his third win. Fowler shut out the Penguins on Saturday night and followed that up with an equally strong outing in Beantown.

Ivan Demidov – 1 G (9), 1 A (20), +1, 4 PIM, 1 SOG, 1 BLK. The goal was a beauty breakaway, and the young rookie deked Swayman out of his jockstrap. Nic Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky had 1G and 1 A each, too.

And speaking of Demidovs…there’s only one more sleep until the next installment of Stranger Things!

One rookie forward, plus one-dimensionally challenged pet monster = DemiDog!

Lane Hutson and Noah Dobson – 3 A each. That gives Hutson 30 on the year (35 pts) and Dobson 17 (23 pts). What a nasty one-two punch from the back end.

Stuart Skinner – 25 saves on 29 shots and a 6-3 loss at TOR. He’s 11-10-4 with a .886 SV%. Poor Stu.

Bryan Rust –  1 G (13), -3, 3 SOG, and 9 PTS in his last 8 GP.

Sidney Crosby – 1 A (18), -2, 2 SOG, 1 H, and 12/22 faceoffs won. Not much to report from a not-so-flashy night for the Pens, but Sid hit a pretty huge milestone this week.

There’s a new king of the igloo.

Joseph Woll – 29 saves on 32 shots and his 6th win of the year. The Leafs are 4-4-2 in their last 10 games and are looking up at the Sabres? Let’s see what Paul Bissonette has to say about that!

William Nylander – 2 G (13), 2 A (27), +2, 3 SOG, in 18:01 TOI. 

Max Domi – 1 G (4), 1 A (10), +1, 2 SOG, 2 H. It’s a nice game from Domi, but nowhere near what the Leafs hoped for, or need, at this point in the season. 14 points in 34 games isn’t enough.

Casey DeSmith – 21 saves on 25 shots in a 4-3 OT loss at DET. He has 2 OT losses and one shootout loss in his last 10 games. The rest are wins. He’s 9-1-2.

Mikko Rantanen – 2 A (37), +2, 2 PPA, 20:01 TOI. Two more points for Rantanen extend his streak to 5 games (9 points).

John Gibson – 19 saves on 22 shots and his EIGHTH straight win! Gibby is on fire these days, and the Wings are here for it. I think if you asked anyone outside of Michigan who they thought would be leading the Atlantic at Christmas, you wouldn’t have heard the Red Wings mentioned.

James van Riemsdyk – 1 G (9), 1 A (2), +1, 2 PIM, 1 SOG, 1 PPA, 3 H. Last week, I said I was surprised to see Vladimir Tarasenko was still playing. This week it’s van Riemsdyk. Although with 10:12 of ice time, I guess you could argue that he’s still playing much at all.

Dylan Larkin – 2 G (20), +1, 2 PIM, 3 SOG, 1 PPG, GWG, 2 H, 2 BLK, and a 50% faceoff total (12/24). 20 goals for Larkin before the break puts him on pace to shatter his previous career high of 33 goals (2022/2023). 

Lucas Raymond – 3 A (30), +1, 2 PIM, 3 SOG, 2 PPA, 1 H, and 17:42 TOI. That whole first line in Detroit is cooking.

Moritz Seider – 2 A (23), 2 PIM, 4 SOG, 1 PPA, 2 H. Nothing like a bit of hot Seider on a cold winter night. (Nailed it!)

Igor Shesterkin – 29 saves on 32 shots and the 7-3 win at WSH. The good news is that’s three straight wins for Igor. The bad news is he’s allowed 11 GA in his last 4 GP.

Taylor Raddysh – 2 G (7), 1 A (4), +3, 3 SOG, 3 H. He’s tallied 36% of his points (11) in his last two games.

Will Cuylle – 1 G (10), 2 A (13), +2, 1 SOG, 1 PPG, 4 H. A perfect example of a guy that will help you in those deeper leagues with categories outside of your basic scoring setups. His 131 total hits put him third in the league behind Yakov Trenin (182), and Kiefer Sherwood (164).

Vincent Trocheck – 2 G (8), 1 A (12), +2, 2 SOG, 1 PPA, 1 BLK, and 20 points in 25 games. He had one goal in his last 13 GP, so hopefully this is a sign of him turning things around.

Logan Thompson – 14 saves on 20 shots and the 7-3 loss to NYR. Whoa. Who was manning the goalie hook in this game, the guy who put together Team Canada’s 4-Nations roster? Ouch.

Aliaksei Protas – 1 G (13), 1 A (11), +1, 1 SOG, 1 H, and 17:04 TOI. Really? Aliaksei? Man, those Belarussians sure do like their vowels.

Ryan Leonard – 2 A (13), +1, 4 PIM, 2 SOG, 1 PPA, 1 H, 1 BLK. Not bad for his first game since December 5th (shoulder injury).

Sergei Bobrovsky – 17 saves on 19 shots and the 5-2 win at CAR. You’re back on the case, Bobrovsky!

Brad Marchand – 1 A (21), +1, 2 PIM, 18:54 TOI. I’m glad I didn’t get a chance to take Marshy as my 3-point challenge guy for Tuesday night.

Sam Reinhart – 3 A (19), +1, 1 SOG, 2 H, 2 BLK. I’m not glad I didn’t get a chance to take Reinhart as my 3-point challenge guy for Tuesday night.

Frederik Andersen – 17 saves on 22 shots. The good news is he had the same number of saves as Bobrovsky did. The bad news is that Florida had three more shots than Carolina did.

Andrei Svechnikov – 1 G (9), +1, 2 PIM, 3 SOG, 4 H, 12:52 TOI. That’s 6 points in his last 4 GP!

Jacob Markstrom – 23 saves on 25 shots in a 2-1 loss at NYI. 

Dawson Mercer – 1 A (14), +1, 2 SOG, 1 BLK. Nico Hischier had one assist in this one, too.

David Rittich – 31 saves on 32 shots in the 2-1 win. Rittich earned his paycheck Tuesday night and hasn’t allowed more than 3 goals in any of his last 8 starts.

Simon Holmstrom – 1 G (7), 1 A (9), 1 SOG, 1 H. 

Juuse Saros – 30 saves on 32 shots in the 3-2 OT win at MIN. All of this excitement about the Sabres might make some of you forget that the Predators are 7-3 in their last 10 games. They’re on a three-game winning streak of their own.

Ryan O’Reilly – 1 G (11), 1 A (21), -2, 2 PIM, 2 SOG, PPG, PPA, and 6/12 in faceoffs. 0/1 in not driving his truck into a Tim Hortons drive-through wall.

Steven Stamkos – 1 G (15), 1 A (7), -1, 4 SOG, 1 PPA, GWG, 3 H, and 7/9 in faceoffs. Stammer has a 3-game goal streak going and has scored 7 in his last 7 games.

Filip Gustavsson – 26 saves on 29 shots in an OT loss to NSH. I was hoping Gustavsson would slip up at some point just to get us some more Wallstedt starts. This was his first loss in five games, though. He’s not getting the bench anytime soon.

Quinn Hughes – 1 A (24), +1, 1 SOG, 29:11 TOI. Guy almost played half of the entire game. Pardon the holiday pun, but…Jesus. 

Vitek Vanecek – 25 saves on 26 shots and a tough luck 1-0 loss to Colorado.

Lawson Crouse – 3 SOG, 1 H, 1 BLK. It was between him and Jack McBain (4 H, 5 BLK) for the secondary stats.

Scott Wedgewood – 32 saves on 32 shots for the 1-0 shutout vs UTA. That’s his second shutout of the year and three wins in a row for Wedgewood. He’s 16-1-1.

Samuel Girard – 1 G (2), +1, 1 SOG, and I bet you can guess if this was the game winner or not.

Dustin Wolf – 34 saves on 39 shots and a 5-1 shellacking in EDM. This one was a classic “Battle of Alberta” with 89 PIMs for the Flames and 65 PIMs for the Oilers.

Zayne Parekh – Calgary’s loss is the Canadian Junior team’s gain. Thank you, Flames fans, for your sacrifice.

Connor Ingram – 18 saves on 19 shots, and one guy who is happy that Stuart Skinner is in Pittsburgh and Tristan Jarry is hurt.

Connor McDavid – 5 A (44), +1, 2 PIM, 6 SOG, and 67 points in 38 games. It’s kind of silly that this guy makes the rest of the NHL look like he’s playing against high schoolers.

Leon Draisaitl – 3 G (20), 4 SOG. Only 55 points in 38 games? Pssh. 

Zach Hyman – 1 G (10), 2 A (9), +1, 6 SOG. More importantly, frequent commenter ASHTRAY with the 3-point challenge victory! Well done!

Evan Bouchard – 2 A (29), 2 SOG, PPA, 4 BLK. Maybe if McDingDong didn’t hog all the assists, I would’ve cashed in on the 3-point challenge too!

Samuel Ersson – 2o saves on 21 shots in the 3-1 win at CHI. Ersson’s first win in five starts.

Travis Konecny – 1 G (11), 1 A (22), +1, 2 SOG, 1 PPA. Is this guy on the Mount Rushmore of underrated forwards? 33 points in 36 games.

Spencer Knight – 23 saves on 25 shots and a 3-1 loss to PHI. His 4th loss in a row. What? Do you want him to flip his pads off and go score a couple each game, too?

Ryan Donato – 1 G (9), 5 SOG. One assist went to Matt Grzelcyk, and the other one went to Joe Juneau. Ok, maybe I’m laying the ‘former Bruins’ thing on a little thick there.

Yaroslav Askarov – 12 saves on 16 shots, the early exit, and the eventual loss.

Alex Nedeljkovic – 7 saves on 10 shots and the no-decision. Just getting ready for baseball season.

Carter Hart – 21 saves on 23 shots and the 7-3 win over SJ. 

Pavel Dorofeyev – 13 different skaters had at least one point in last night’s game before the start of the second period. That’s…not easy to do at the NHL level.

Mitch Marner – 2 G (9), +2, 5 SOG, PPG, 1 H. That’s 9 points in his last 5 games. Mark Stone, Reilly Smith, and 4 others had two points in this one.

Joey Daccord – 35 saves on 37 shots and a 3-2 win at LA. 

Joey with a big game? Whoa!

Eeli Tolvanen – 2 A (17), +1, 2 SOG, 3 H, 1 BLK. 

Pheonix Copley – 25 saves on 28 shots and the loss. Phoenix? Come on. Some of these spellings are making me think it’s not just football that has some ridiculous names.

There’s NO 3-Point Challenge night because the league is off until Saturday! 

I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions or comments, leave them below. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!  

Happy Wednesday, Merry Christmas…and I’ll see you next week!

Follow me @marmosdad on Twitter/X and Bluesky @marmosdad.bsky.social