Buffalo Sabres Head Coach Don Granato Confirms Devon Levi Start In Montreal
Will Robinson be your forward scratch tonight uh undetermined at this point just we had some uh some things we’re dealing with so how about d uh the D similar situation so unfortunately won’t announce until a little bit later when it’s 45 minutes into your morning skate and you see your starting goalie still
Out there do you want to go grab get get him out of there or you you no matter what you do sometimes you don’t watch Norm warm-ups when you watch your starting goalie so goalies are always a a nerve-wracking thing for coaches and and uh that’s
Never ever going to change what can we expect from D playing in front of his home family year in Montreal or you know he’s going to be enthused and uh obviously uh what a great atmosphere what a great building um but uh he’s done a nice job of dialing in and and
Sticking to the task at hand his job uh that’s been a strength of his why he’s been able to perform well in college and Advance his career as fast as he has um so those tactics or skills will come into play tonight I’m certain Don what
Do it do for a team when you have somebody as competitive as rasine in the way that he practices um like him in a small area game he’s he’s not holding back whatsoever it’s everything uh you want guys to compete you know I’ve said that
Quite a bit and that’s a habit that’s a daily part of your daily routine and habit and for Rasmus he elevates uh compete in our games he elevates compete and practice uh and he does so with consistency he never not competes uh uh and that’s why he’s such a great player
And that’s why he’s such a great leader how have you seen him manage the ups and downs of this season since he is somebody like a lot of your players put so much pressure on himself carries a lot of stress uh feels a lot of pressure
As a result puts a lot on his plate the line out on his back um and you know so you have to have certain conversation with him as a coach what to let go what to he can go after uh but he like I said he’s a leader and he pushes other guys
And uh you know part of the NHL learning you know as part of growth his learning how to do that uh and become better at that and he is and he’s gotten better at that he certainly commands the respect of the room um because of everything we
Just said what impressed you the most about Zack Benson I’m sorry what impressed you the most about Zack Benson game uh Zam Gus’s game I’m not Zach Benson oh Zach Benson I apologize yeah no problem um he’s the consistency is one I mean uh his positional play his
Play without the puck his intelligence when he does get a puck he his situational awareness he knows what the situation is prior to possession or defending uh and what the situational uh options are upon transition or changes so very very intelligent player also gritty um also
Keeps himself ready to play is it a challenge for a coach to know how to use a young player like that it is but he makes it a lot easier um he he’s one guy I can tell you had lots and lots of young guys we have a extremely young
Team again uh as we did a year ago and yes it’s trickier with young guys but him it’s been much much less trickier because of his intelligence and compete last time against Montreal you got over 40 shots you got it to a shootout but you only got one point out of the game
So what do you need maybe to get yourself over the hump to be able to get the win especially if you play the same way yeah it’s certainly not worried about last game uh that we just played or last game we played against them we got to get in the moment period and
That’s why I say that like you you can you know too much talk about the past too much talk about concern of this or that we need to get in the moment we have not been in the moment um with any consistency this year and for us tonight
Uh it’s the next game and and that should be everything to to to elevate to compete and stay in the moment Don switching subjects a little bit women’s pro league is underway and I don’t know if you’ve seen any highlights or anything but just any thoughts on it now
That it’s actually going and we’ve seen the sort of public reaction to it all yeah it’s very exciting I’m I’m unaware of the public reaction but they should be extremely exitting excited it it’s when I flipped it on um it’s uh it’s impressive as you knew it was going to
Be from the standpoint of the talent and the skill uh the hockey sense the plays that are made are are you know it’s it’s it’s fun to watch it’s it’s uh pure entertainment if you love the sport of hockey that’s entertaining uh and then to see it pulled all together uh the
People that did it the people that care about it uh to take the initiative needed to to to uh um to to basically bring exposure is some Ser some serious Talent within our game uh is is great so commend everybody that uh has put the
Work in and puts the work in to get this product out in front of people so they understand uh how talented those athletes are it’s it’s like I said it’s fun to watch you flipped it on was that the the first game that you the first game uh what was it New Year’s
Day yeah and then um and highlights and you know um the other night I watched in the hotel I wanted to grab their VCR like I thought I was at home I wanted to rewind it and watch the play again and I couldn’t so um so yeah it’s it’s it’s
Nice what one thing that stands out is that it to me at least was that it’s it’s really physical like and the refs are holding their whistles back well again I mean I followed it for decades now and know and have had the privilege of getting to know a lot of pretty
Famous uh female hockey players um and and I’ve always been impressed with it I always loved going on the ice uh with with them as Elite athletes and now the world gets a better view into it U because of a lot of work of a lot of
People and and that’s uh it’s about time really it’s it’s nice to see and uh for me again you can see my excitement toward it I’m sure you would have loved to seen a league like that when Cammy was playing for her to be able to play
In a league like that yeah Cammy had a lot of incredible experiences that the generation before her didn’t have uh so you do you feel bad for the generations uh because you know they’ they’ve uh the Pioneers even before Camy built things and made you know made helped Cammy be
More even more successful in playing in Olympics or two or three and and um yeah so it’s it’d be it’d be great to have her play in this she would enjoy it but I know she’s uh very proud of again all the people that got this together and the girls
Buffalo Sabres head coach Don Granato spoke with the media after morning skate in Montreal on January 4, 2024.
Subscribe to the Buffalo Sabres YT Channel: https://bit.ly/2G1G8eT
For More Sabres Action: https://bufsabres.co/2XAYg5m
#BuffaloSabres #Sabres #NHL
For more Sabres action: Sabres.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/BuffaloSabres
Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/buffalosabres
Follow us on Instagram: Instagram.com/buffalosabres
Follow us on TikTok: https://bufsabres.co/TikTok
