BUFFALO, N.Y. — It's been a mixed bag of a season when it comes to the Buffalo Sabres. But one man on the roster is trying to keep cool and keep pucks out of the net. The recently announced starting goalie for the Finnish squad in the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off is a simple guy with plenty on his shoulders between the pipes.

"You know, once you step on the ice, you don't think about it. You just try to stop the puck. It doesn't matter who's shooting it," said Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

One of the best goaltenders in the world, Luukkonen is gearing up for the season's 4 Nations Face-Off. 

"A best-on-best tournament in hockey. We haven't had that in years past," he noted. "So, being part of that will be an honor."

Captain Rasmus Dahlin will join him, but from the other side of the ice representing where UPL will man the crease he was born to love.

"It's a big thing. I think I said it many times that, when you grow up in a hockey-crazy country like Finland, it's something to be part of."

Still months away, Ukko-Pekka shares that love of country and defending the net with Sabres teammate Henri Jokiharju.

"Just having him here is great. He's a really, really good friend of mine," said Luukkonen. "Even outside of the hockey, you spend a lot of time together. So, you know, it kind of makes getting away from hockey easier to having your countrymen here. It's easy to talk to him about nonhockey things."

Both UPL and Jokiharju helped the Suomi (Finland) win the 2019 World Juniors and bring promise to this hockey town through recent struggles.

"We know how good we can be. We have shown how good we can be, but we just haven't reached a level on, you know, enough of the nights," he said. "Something we need to really figure out is what's the problem there?"

The buy-in from the locker room, Ukko-Pekka works day in to keep his game up and try to be part of ending the 13-season playoff drought.

"I play as well as I can and help the team to work, team to win that way. -- you know, I feel like there's me a good case. But I got to be better, too."

This 25-year-old goalie has the experience and hardware to help push this team to the next level and the roster is right there with him.

"Even though we're a young team, we have a lot of games under our belt. I don't feel like it can be an excuse anymore to say that we're young."

Just remember, it's not how you start the season — it's how you Finnish.

The 4 Nations Face-Off is effectively serving as the all-star game this season, so congrats to Rhasmus Dahlin and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. There's still time to right the ship this season for the Sabres, but we'll see if this team can pull it together between now and then.