Devon Levi having better season than you think

Devon Levi having better season than you think

He look at that a win we’re all stunned well we got two things out of it the kid line and Devon Levi I want to get to both of them when we come back here in the locked on Sabers Podcast your locked on Sabers your daily podcast on the Buffalo Sabers part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day and thanks for making lock on Sabers your first listen every day we are free and available wherever you get your podcast part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more right now new customers

Get50 and bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet visit fanduel.com locked on to get started five to3 Sabers over the C things I told you when I was going through my sneaky parlay before the game although I did not hit it because Ras stene didn’t score but I told you the

Sabers are weird this year they’re going to lose to the worst team one of the worst teams in the league in Anaheim they’re going to come back they’re going to beat a struggling team that’s pretty good in the LA Kings and that’s exactly what happened lot to get to from this

Game a tremendous performance from the Sabers kid line the Legion of Zoom also Devin Levi back between the pipes little bit of an up and game but I was impressed and I got some numbers on Levi that I want to get to is just a a look

Check in on how his season is going since he hasn’t really played in a while until this game and then a look at the playoff race which in one game can kind of sound like it’s suddenly closer than you think because this is what the

Sabers do they win a game and then we or they lose a game and we say oh they’re over the season’s over and then they win a game we go well guys they’re only a five-game win streak from getting back in it and then inevitably they lose the

Next game because this team is still looking for its first win streak Beyond two games in a row of the entire damn season which is got to be historic that it still hasn’t happened for a team that’s not like in last place so we’ll get to that in the third segment of

Today’s show check us out on our TextLine go to join sub.com loock ons saers you can sign up there and then you can be a part of our group chats during games except for these super late games I mean a 10:45 start I mean come on you

Know even if I didn’t work in the mornings I was never going to be up for that 10:45 do we really need an an Kopitar ceremony to delay the game an extra 20 minutes the guy’s not even retired yet he’s still out there playing maybe we save the Ceremonies for when he’s done

Playing someday Los Angeles I don’t know what they were doing with that but great player he scored in the night looked good so you know I’m not just I’m not criticizing him just weird decision to have a a ceremony for him in the middle of the season and as I’m saying that I

Didn’t see this it’s not his thousandth game right he would have he would have cruised past that years ago um I should have checked because I just assumed it’s not his thousandth game yeah it was his 13 37th game so I that wasn’t a

Milestone as far as I as far as I know anyways before we get into the game your Sabers droughty fact of the day how many days has it been since the Buffalo Sabers were in the playoffs 4,657 days since the Sabers last played in a playoff game the longest stretch in

NHL history between playoff games for one franchise today’s droughty fat of fact of the day Britney Spears had two songs two songs in the top 40 the last time the Sabers were in the playoffs that’s how long it’s been Britney Spears had two songs not one but two in the top

40 she had a whole album out that’s how long ago it was uh has been pretty much inactive as a musician any time since now it’s just documentaries and stuff so what happened last night if you went to bed maybe you watched the re the highlights back after maybe like me

Watch the condensed version of the game the Sabers do get the win and had you stayed up or tried to stay up you might have given up on it because it looked like a typical Buffalo Sabers hockey game this season where within three minutes of the game

Beginning there’s the other team to take the lead an early lead Kopitar scored two minutes and 55 seconds into the game JJ petka did answer immediately after but 23 seconds after petka scored his 15th of the year there’s Adrien Kee to get a goal and then four minutes after

That there is Pierre Luke dubba to make it 3 to one all three of the Topline forwards for the Kings all scored a goal in the first 10 minutes of the game so we are now for lots of saber fans would have tried to stay up you’re now not

Even halfway through the first period and they’re already down 3-1 to a good team that is known for their defensive prowess so if we’ve watched the sabes this year we know how they operate when they get down early teams play the Trap the one31 against them and the Sabres

Look unable to break through it and then they get frustrated and then the game gets out of hand this was one of those rare games it’s why maybe the Kings have been so bad lately they’re a good team they’re still in a playoff spot but they

Have lost now eight of their last 11 and they call the game embarrassing uh their coach did after the game so they we know they’re struggling because the Sabres pulled them out of that defensive shell it kind of looked like a game from last year where the the sabes would get a

Defensive team to open up and play more of a runand gun style of game this game had 77 shots between the two teams 40 for La 37 for Buffalo scoring chances all over the place a lot of high event hockey which is not the style of hockey

The Kings like to play it’s also not style the Sabers have been able to get teams to play a lot this year it’s what made them so successful last year but they got that style of game with a couple of goals in the second period and

You know what they did need some goals to go in that probably shouldn’t have by cam Talbot but I mentioned that as a storyline going into this game that the Kings don’t have the greatest of goal tending this season and cam talet has been an example of that so you know

Talbet probably should have stopped one of those couple of shots from the outside maybe two of them JJ petka both of his goals were solid you get a rebound opportunity after he set cousins up for a for a scoring chance puts it home from a bad angle top shelf nice

Goal by petka and then his goal to make it three to2 to get the Sabers back in it Midway through the second that’s a breakaway that is him shooting behind the defense that’s Jack Quinn making an incredible defense uh individual effort to dive for the puck to get it out to

Petka at Center and then petka puts it five hole as he saw it open and Jack Quinn Then followed up an assist with a goal of his own a really nice shot was from a little bit of a ways away but we’re talking a bar in goal bar in to

Top Shelf which is really hard to do for a sniper in Jack Quinn his fifth of the season so again one where you might want tablet to stop that but it’s a really good shot by Quinn Alex tuck got a rebound goal or a puck from behind the

Net for his 13th of the year and then Dylan cousins um made it five to three with another great play by that line petka behind the net finds cousins out in front um or no excuse me that’s the other night right this goal was cousins coming in by himself into the offensive

Zone and he was even further out than Quinn was but same as Quinn he goes bar in a goal of talbat probably should have stopped he should have at least stopped one of the two a good goalie you want to stop both of those pucks uh an average

Goalie maybe one a bad goalie lets both in um because they were perfect shots but goalie still should stop that so they got a little bit fortunate but they did a good job of getting them into a style of hockey like that knowing what the goenda Quinn and petka who have now been

Back together for a couple of weeks for the most part since Quinn got healthy and you see the chemistry they have you see that Dylan cousins is a little bit more lively he’s got I think 10 points in his last 15 games since Quinn returned from injury which is still not

Where he was last year but it’s a lot better than what what he was doing before that so I think Quinn has really inspired a lot of confidence in cousins but durka has just kind of been solid all year uh with his ability to score

He’s now at 16 on the season you know he might lead the Sabers and goals this year uh for sure um nice to see cousins get on the scoreboard again scored on Saturday night gets a goal here uh now his ninth of the year just try to get

Back to having a respectable offensive season by the way I think the media made a mistake on the three stars I have to assume they made a mistake on the three stars copar was the third star no problem with that he was good and he scored second star was Jack Quinn no

Problem with that he had a goal and two assists the first star was Tage Thompson and Thompson had a fine night he was pretty good you know his Advanced numbers were good um but no goals no assists zero plus minus like a goose egg across the board

For Tage and I saw that and went how did he get voted as the number one star I’m not even saying he wasn’t good but what did he do to get the number one star and he didn’t put anything up on the box score I think I want to bet on the La

Media made a mistake and thought thought they were voting for JJ PKA or got JJ pka’s number wrong or maybe they passed the slip down and they accidentally put Tage on there maybe they thought a two can look like a seven right so maybe

They thought it was a 72 when it was a 77 because PKA should have been the number one star of that game right undoubtedly he had what was it two goals and an assist on the night and Three Points two goals both were nice and Thompson had zeros I got to think they

Made made a mistake and that PCO is the number one star not that it matters I don’t think there’s like incentives or anything but an overall good game by the Sabers I thought uh as they got back in it after you know getting down and having a pretty rough first period when

We come back Devin Levi was pretty good on the night I’ll talk about his game but where we’re at with Levi a checkin on him as he has not played in a while and I’ve got an alarming stat for you that you might be surprised on an unlikely or a for

Forgotten goat that’s not the word I want I want like someone to get blamed you know goat means something good now a forgotten person that might be a big reason for why the Sabers are not in a playoff race and there’s a Devin Levi stat that kind of shows you why that’s

Coming up here in the lockdown Sabers podcast we are presented by FanDuel Sportsbook we are past the Midway point of the year you know these games are not interesting to everybody it could be tough to watch him sometimes but check them out in terms of some anytime goal

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Sports today on YouTube subscribe to the first ever National Sports 247 streaming Channel I’m sure they’ll be talking plenty about how Bill bich looks like he’s not going to get a head coaching job uh in this cycle anyways back to Sabres and Kings 53 Sabers over the

Kings and Devin Levi got back between the pipes after a pretty solid run by ukap peka Lucan who I would fully expect to be back between the pipes on Saturday against San Jose but they weren’t going to play him in a back-to-back Lucan in had played six games in a row and seven

Of the previous eight Levi had not started since January 9th he went more than two weeks without starting for the Sabres he did get go down to Rochester got some minutes there uh to shake off a little bit of the rust to keep his development at least a little bit Fresh

So Le I got back in and wasn’t going well early on I would say kind of like talit two of the Levi goals I think I want him to save especially the Adrien Kee goal it’s a good tur curled uh tow drag by kempe to a scoring area in the

Faceoff Circle but that’s Mano imano that’s Levi against kempe there’s no traffic in front I I want him to square up and make that save it’s not the worst one of course you’ve ever seen But I want him to make that safe anyways he let three goals in in the first period

And it’s not a good situation because upl’s been playing so much I know the last thing Don Granado wants to do is have to put ukap peka Lucan in back in the net but three goals in the first 10 minutes I mean at that point Levi is on

Pace to let in 18 goals on the night you know it’s not gonna happen of course but he completely bounced back after that I mean he didn’t allow another goal after the third one so the final 50 minutes of the game zero goals allowed and he made

A lot of big saves along the way including one that I thought was very impressive where a king forward was driving to the front of the net got in between the Sabers defenseman and Levi I think it was kempe and Levi poke checked to try to get it off his stick he missed

The Poke check but because of his athleticism and his flexibility of course he was able to stay firm with his pads post to post spread evenly and made the save and stayed firm in his stance and didn’t allow a rebound to get past him so that was only one but there were

A bunch of really nice saves that Levi made on the night in total the Kings had 26 scoring chances in this game and to only allow three goals on that is a pretty solid job um the save percentage ends up looking pretty good as well so

Again I think you go back to Lucan in of course against San Jose and then you get the All-Star break the the Sabers don’t have a backtack by the way they listen to this the Sabers don’t it’s it’s January 25th today Le the Sabres don’t have a back-to-back until March 3D March

2nd and third over a month so they might have a decision to make they have one more game here then the All-Star break and then all of February is either one day in between or multiple days in between and if Lucan keeps playing well and they want to keep riding him as the

Number one you got to send Levi to Rochester you know I think he deserves to be up here and to get some games but Lucan in deserves to play every game he can until he starts you know not performing and if that’s the case until Lucan in struggles I think you send Levi

Down to Rochester because he’s got to get games you can’t have him go a month plus without playing hockey so that would be my preference in saying that and keep in mind I’m not saying to play Eric Comer at all I found some pretty interesting stats on Devon Levi today

And luukinen as I was kind of looking through some goalie stats how are the Sabers goalies performing this year so the first thing I do is I go and look at safe percentage okay uh goals against average throw it out the window it’s a horrible stat even safe percentage is a

Little bit incomplete but it’s better so safe percentage on the year okay Lucan in unsurprisingly best saber a 908 save percentage solid Levi an 891 H not as great Le Levi’s record 97 and two this year Lucan in 111 and two and then I go to look at goal saved

Above expected oh before that actually sorry quality start percentage how consistent are you Lucin has equality start 63% of his starts Levi 42% comry 28% if you’re wondering about what you would expect same thing then I go to look at what I think is the most telling stat about goenda on the Sabers

Goenda let me go to seven games because that’s the few that’s the amount of games that Eric Comer’s played this year so I get every saber ranked on this list seven game minimum out of 71 goenda Lucan in is 32nd maybe I thought he’d be a little bit higher but that’s

Good that’s a starting caliber golender in the NHL that’s an a slightly above average golender against slightly um out of 71 in fact by the way it’s the same number in goal save I’ve expected as eigor shurkin who’s having a little bit of a Down year but lucan’s been good so

Then I don’t have to scroll much further I get to 35th out of 71 there’s Devon Levi little surprising he’s that close to Lucan for every 60 minutes lukanin saves 0.1 goals above expected and Levi saves 0.008 goals above expected so I’m just thinking I haven’t even scrolled down yet to see where

Comry is and I’m like okay they have two goenda middle of the pack out of 71 technically both are slightly above average two slightly above average golender how is it possible that they’re not even in the race then I scroll down and I scroll down some more and I scroll

Down some more 70th out of 71 there is Eric Comer Eric comry allows 75 goals above expected for every start he has essentially cry’s almost allow a goal per game more than he should and for that he’s the second worst goal tender in hockey that has played seven games

This year at least then I go to look at the records of these players here’s what I found the point Pace in the Eastern Conference this year is 92 the Devils right now because of their points percentage being higher than Detroit they played fewer games 92 points right

Now is the bar the project did bar to reach to make the playoffs the Sabers Point Pace this year in just starts by Uka Lucan and Devin Levi is 88 points that’s not a playoff Pace it’s an in the race Pace though and they’re not

In the race right now 88 points would be on the doorstep they’re not in the playoff race there are other reasons too scoring is number one but on the list statistically fact you can just look at it and make this determination the Buffalo Sabers are not in the playoff race right now because

They waited too long to get rid of Eric comre H and I I’m guilty of this too I’m almost mad at them because they allowed me to get convinced that comry could be on the team from what he did in the pre-season but hey let’s take the preseason pledge preseason doesn’t

Matter you shouldn’t make decisions based on it the sabers I said last year I should have stuck to my guns after he allowed Eric comry 10 goals to the Dallas Stars I said he should never suit up in a saber uniform again and they allowed him to they didn’t wave him

During the off season that’s what they should have done and I can look at the numbers their point Pace without him and tell you pretty matter of factly had they waved Eric comry in the off season like they should have and not allowed us all to get convinced that he might have

Something there in the preseason then the Sabres would be in the playoff race right now they’d be a lot closer they might be three points away instead of seven they might be four points away instead of seven by the math they’d be two points away so just looking at the goal tending

Situation Levi’s been fine this year you know the the numbers the advanced numbers the above expected you know shows that he’s getting more chances against him than lukanin is when he’s in but either way lucan’s been great Levi’s been fine this year com’s been horrible I still though still would tell you that

If they’re gonna ride UPL call comry up let him sit on the bench I don’t want him in games unless A Game’s out of hand and at that point I probably don’t care anyway right because you’re probably down five to one or something so call comry up for the All-Star break and

After put him on the bench never play him let Levi get the games in Rochester the moment Don Granado decides I want to play the backup you call Levi up and you put him in that’s to me what the strategy should be with gender the rest

Of the way make sure Levi gets his games to develop make sure he’s the guy that starts when UPL doesn’t marry those two things together and don’t let Eric Comer back between the pipes again unless a game is out of hand that would be my strategy going forward so checking on

Devon Levi I think it’s going better than some of his numbers on the surface might tell you time out here when we come back a little bit of a deeper dive into the playoff race again I mentioned this earlier it kind of looks like they could still be in it but it’s harder

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Loon saers podcast check out our text line join sub text.com lockdowns saers become a sorty today one sorty texted in the season is not over not worth my time and energy though I’ll follow but not feel the need to want to watch every single game or read every single article

Depending on the outcome of this road trip so we’re already two through it might be a good time for a firing getting back from San Jose with the All-Star break after I’ve mentioned this before I’ll mention it again I don’t think they would do a firing until after

The season and I’m not sure how badly you want them to fire Don Granado they’re not gonna fire Kevin Adams right now I don’t know how badly you want them to fire Don Granado because I feel pretty confident at this point not that it’ll be Matt Ellis but that Seth appert

Of the amirs will be the guy that comes in for Granado apert’s also a developmental coach and I don’t think you’re getting anything different with AER than you’re getting with Granado so if you want a new coach I think you might want to be a little bit patient

With given the Sabers you know expectations and wait till the offseason so it is worth mentioning though that right now Don Granado is the betting favorite to be the next coach fired at plus 125 almost even money but I would not bet that because I think someone

Else will get fired this season and Granado you know the the conversation will happen after the year the playoff race right now they won against La so you look at it right now and where are they they are seven points back of a playoff spot on January 25th and on the

Surface if I say that you look at that and say okay it’s not over you’re a win streak away they’ve been a win streak away all season but you could still say it they’re a win streak away from making up seven points teams have made up seven

Points before at this point in the year it’s pretty rare but it’s happened sometimes when those teams make up seven points there are only one or two or three teams in between themselves and the playoff team in this case it’s different you don’t have to only pass

One two or three teams to make the playoffs you got to pass five teams you’ve got to make up seven points on the Red Wings who right now have the second playoff spot and you can’t have anybody else go on a run and that’s where I get tripped up it’s why I don’t

See it being realistic to make it the sabes have not proven that they could go on a stretch that can make up that ground in the first place and two it’s not about the Red Wings for me actually it’s about the Devils the devils are two

Points back of the Red Wings but they do have two games in hand they have three games in hand on the Sabres and are five points above Buffalo I could see the Sabres catching the Red Wings actually I really could I don’t think the Red Wings are that good

I think they get very lucky they have a very high shooting percentage they have a very high safe percentage with players that have proven to not sustain the the level that they’re showing in those numbers I don’t think the Red Wings make it I think the Devils make it the devils

Are proved last year to be a great young exciting Fast Fun hockey team and this year they’ve been perfect even when healthy but a lot of their downfall came from injuries they’ve had a lot of important injuries I mean Jack Hughes headlines that earlier in the year of injuries that they’ve tried to

Overcome so now they’re healthier and I think you can’t trust that they’re going to go 40 games or 30 38 games between now and the end of the season without going on at least one hot stretch I think the devils are going to get in and that’s where I don’t see the playoffs

And making up seven points as being realistic for the Sabers it’s if it were all bad to average teams that I don’t think you know are are that I do think are catchable then I could get there like I could see them catching the Red Wings I could see them catching the

Islanders who their Five Points back up I could see them catching the capitals who they’re four points back of for sure I could totally see them catching Pittsburgh who they’re only two points back of and has been struggling a lot the devils are my problem I think the devils are still legitimately really

Good and I think they’re going to get in I don’t think they make up five points on the Devils with three games in hand New Jersey has on Buffalo that’s where I get tripped up so if they put a win streak together one I’ll be surprised because I haven’t seen

Anything yet this year that implies that that’s going to happen and two we could fire it back up but until until they go on at least a four or five game win streak I don’t think the playoffs are a conversation that could be had I think we’re going to head to the trade

Deadline in a little over a month and we’re going to be talking about selling Parts I think that’s where we’re going to end up hopefully I’m wrong they can they can get within five with a win over the Sharks on Saturday they need some help between now and then also um but it

Is theoretically possible that they could get to the all-star break down five points and that might make everybody feel a little bit better I’m sure so bad team they’re playing at San Jose root against the Red Wings roote against the devils and maybe we can uh we can we can extend this conversation

Just a little bit into the All-Star break Sabers and sharks Saturday at 4 o’clock we’ll talk more more about that game on tomorrow show that’s going to do it for us though today here on the locked on Sabers podcast again if you want more on big stories in the NHL

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Tomorrow here on the lockon Sabers podcast part of the lockdown podcast Network your team every day

The Sabres downed the Kings 5-3, despite getting down 3-1 in the first ten minutes of the game, thanks in part to a strong game from Devon Levi. Sneaky Joe talks Levi’s season and why there’s evidence he’s having a season not too far off of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s.

Plus, the Peterka – Cozens – Quinn line thrives on Wednesday night, and how far away are the Sabres truly from a playoff race?

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