BUFFALO – Sabres goalie Devon Levi has a strong appreciation for hockey history and the netminders he watched growing up and who played decades before him.
So Levi, 22, always wanted to sport a retro look that resembles the leather equipment goalies wore until the early 1990s.
During a trip to CCM headquarters in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, a borough of Montreal about 20 minutes from his offseason home, Levi spotted a pair of brown demo pads the equipment company had made. He instantly fell in love with them.
“So I took them from them,” Levi told the Times Herald following Monday’s practice in LECOM Harborcenter.
Since training camp, Levi has been wearing the brown pads – they’re manufactured the modern way, only the color is a throwback – and a matching blocker and glove.
The vintage aesthetic makes the youngster stand out on the ice.
“The brown is so nostalgic to the past,” Levi said. “Some of the best goalies wore the leather brown pads. So it’s pretty cool wearing it, too. They’ve been working, I’ve been feeling good in them, so so far I’m sticking with them.”
Who could blame him? In his two starts this season, he has been rock solid, compiling a 1-1-0 record with a 2.57 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage.
In Saturday’s 5-2 victory, the Sabres’ first triumph this season, he stopped 23 shots. With the Florida Panthers trailing by two goals late, the Sabres clamped down, limiting the defending Stanley Cup champion to just four shots on goal in the third period.
While they’re just 1-3-0 so far, they’ve often played a more mature style, showing a willingness to embrace new coach Lindy Ruff’s system and expectations.
“The boys have been playing unreal, honestly,” Levi said. “I think Lindy’s been great, along with the rest of the coaching staff. I think the guys have really, really taken ownership of playing the right way, and it’s been really cool. I don’t think I have those two starts without the boys. Not even close.”
The sample size, of course, is small, but it appears Levi has built off a rookie season in which he split his time between Buffalo and the Rochester Americans.
“I thought the last game we gave him a real solid game in front of him,” Ruff said. “… It just seems like he’s fresh, he’s quick, he’s read plays. He made the big saves when we needed them.”
Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin said Levi looks “aggressive” and “confident.”
Levi experienced a little bit of everything last season, beginning the campaign as the Sabres’ starting goalie and finishing it backstopping the Amerks in the Calder Cup Playoffs. In between, he often shuttled between Buffalo and Rochester as Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen tightened his grip on the No. 1 job.
“I felt like I learned so much,” Levi said. “I got so much experience, so many different types of games. Games where I’m not seeing a lot of shots, games where I’m seeing a lot shots. American League Hockey versus NHL hockey. Getting those two very different experiences, I think, helped me a lot as a goalie. Not only on the ice but off the ice.
“As a pro athlete, as a professional hockey player, just understanding how the schedule works, managing my body, not burning myself out too early in the season, making sure that I’m injury-free, it’s the best stability, being able to play.”
Levi owns a well-deserved reputation for being a rink rat and working diligently at his craft.
“He’s a real student of the game,” Ruff said.
During the offseason, having endured the rigors of a full season of pro hockey and gained some perspective, Levi evolved his off-ice workouts to make them more goalie-specific.
“Instead of being strong as an athlete, I wanted to be strong as a goalie in goalie situations, goalie positions,” he said. “So kind of training those muscles. Like, a lot of stability work, core work.”
That work has helped ignite his strong start. Luukkonen began the season as the No. 1 goalie, but so far, he and Levi have each played two games. With road contests Wednesday against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Thursday versus the Columbus Blue Jackets, they will likely split the next two games.
“I really feel we’re going to need both guys,” Ruff said. “Yeah, there might be a period where one might take over. I don’t know the answer to that right now. I just need both of them to play well, because there’s a lot of hockey down the road.”
Levi said he and Luukkonen, 25, “rely on each other to play good hockey.”
“When he’s in, I’m cheering him on and hoping that he comes out with two points,” he said. “I know that he’s thinking the same thing when I’m in there. We both want what’s best for the team. We got that common goal.
“So we’re not working against each other, we’re working together. So he’s a great a dude and he’s a great goalie partner.”