ROCHESTER – Buffalo Sabres prospect Devon Levi can’t tell you how many shutouts he has recorded this season or the gaudy save percentage he registered during the Americans’ first-round sweep that leads the Calder Cup Playoffs.
“I don’t know my shutouts,” Levi told the Times Herald following Friday’s practice in Blue Cross Arena. “I don’t know my save percentage, either.”
For the record, the goalie has compiled nine shutouts, including an AHL-best seven during the regular season, and boasts a .978 save percentage in the postseason.
Levi, for that matter, can’t share any of the numbers – the 25 wins and 2.20 goals-against average he registered in the regular season – that pop off his stat line.
“It’s something I don’t really care about,” he said.
Levi, who’s expected to start Game 1 of the AHL North Division final tonight against the Laval Rocket, chooses to stay in the moment. The next puck speeding toward him is the most important one.
He said he prefers to focus on the process that led to an outcome. He tries to repeat it to generate consistency.
“If Dev gave up seven goals and we won 9 to 7, he doesn’t care because he wants to win,” Amerks coach Mike Leone said. “… Unless someone tells him, he doesn’t know how many shutouts he had or all the stats.”
That mindset has helped Levi, 23, develop into the Amerks’ backbone and one of the AHL’s elite netminders. In the near future, he could be using it with the Sabres, for whom he has played 39 games over the last three seasons.
“The past games are in the past,” he said. “You got a good save percentage, you got a not-so-good save percentage, it doesn’t change anything going into this present moment, into this game. So it just helps me stay present, not looking about, like, past results.
“You got one game; it’s the game in front of you.”
The heavyweight Rocket is the next opponent for Levi and the Amerks. The Montreal Canadiens’ affiliate earned a league-high 101 points during the regular season, nine more than the Amerks.
If they upset Laval in the best-of-five series, Levi and his teammates will likely have to perform as dynamically as they did last month while disposing of the Syracuse Crunch in three games.
After falling behind 2-0 in the second period of the opener, the Amerks outscored their fiercest rival 11-0 to close the series.
“The response is the biggest part, you know?” Levi said. “When you get punched in the face, what are you going to do about it? And we got punched in the face, and we punched back.”
Rochester, which won 42 of its 72 regular-season games, might be hitting its stride at the right time.
“I think that we’re playing our best hockey,” Levi said. “That’s a team (Syracuse) also that is able to score greasy and grimy goals, and they always get bounces. And for whatever reason, they didn’t. I think that credit goes to the team, the defense, the boxing out, the forwards back-checking.”
Levi, whose two shutouts are tied for the postseason lead, stopped all 65 shots he faced in the final two contests. He blanked the Crunch for the final 136:31 of the series.
While he made some terrific saves, the Amerks buckled down against a heavy Syracuse team, limiting prime opportunities.
Levi’s rebound control, a significant part of his growth, according to Leone, also factored in keeping those chances to a minimum.
“If you look at how many actual grade-A scoring chances, we were less than seven every single game,” Leone said. “Like, everything was in the corner, everything was in the slot. Yes, he had to make big-time saves, but (Levi) put pucks in areas (away from the net).”