For the last two straight regular seasons, it looked like the Buffalo Sabres we ready to take a step and climb the standings in the Atlantic Division.
Although the team is certainly capable of scoring, it's their defensive structure and goaltending that is holding them back from pushing for a playoff spot.
While he doesn't want to make any excuses, Sabres goaltender Carter Hutton revealed that he suffered from a vision disorder that limited his puck tracking abilities over a two-month stretch.
You may remember the poor stretch of play Hutton endured when he went 0-8-4 with a 4.04 goals-against average and .872 save percentage from October 24-January 31.
The 34-year-old started taking therapy lessons to improve his eye strength, and his play reflected it. He won six of his next eight starts, and although he finished the season on a four-game losing streak, the GAA and save percentage started to balance out.
"It started to come back around big time in January," Hutton said in an interview with Lance Lysowski of the Buffalo News.
"(Therapy) became part of my daily routine. I would do a ton of different eye training and things to get better at that. In the moment it was obviously tough. Now, moving forward, I learned a lot of skills to help improve that area and make my eye strength better and work on stuff. We weren't sure what it was. It was something I managed throughout the season."
It wasn't just games, but rather practices where he had difficulty making saves. Thankfully, the team's goalie coach, Mike Bales, got Hutton on the right path to an eye specialist where he was diagnosed with convergence insufficiency, which causes a person's eyes to not move at the same together.
Hutton reiterated that regardless of the disorder, he needed to be a better goaltender and more like the one who started the season with a .943 save percentage and a 1.65 GAA while starting the season 6-0. In 2018, Hutton was a brick wall for the team when they won 10-games in a row, going 8-0 with a .936 save percentage.
"I didn't perform as well as I needed to at times, and obviously, I think it was 12 straight I was winless, which is really tough to swallow," Hutton said.
He continued, "It's obviously something that needs to change. During the year, I can't have these lulls and I'll get back to doing what I do best. I've played in the league for a long time. I didn't just forget how to play. I had a rough go with some stuff and we'll get back to it."
Hutton has one more year left on his contract that pays him $2,750,000 a season. He finished the second year of his three-year, $8,250,000 contract with a 12-14-4 with a 3.18 GAA and .898 save percentage.
