ROCHESTER – On Tuesday, goalie Devon Levi arrived at Paul Louis Arena, a 70-year-old rink the Americans occasionally use to practice, and found Carl Hirner, the team’s equipment manager, had put a winter hat around the top of his mask.
The antiquated single-pad facility is less than a mile from Blue Cross Arena, the Amerks’ regular home, and, for lack of a better term, absolutely freezing.
It was New Year’s Eve, and the Amerks had a day off coming Wednesday. They were skating in a building so cold they could see their breath. It would’ve been easy to simply go through the motions.
Still, players jumped on the ice early and stayed long after the practice ended, putting in extra work. Levi, the Buffalo Sabres’ top goalie prospect, was the last one off, no doubt warmer than the others thanks to Hirner’s contraption.
“Everyone wants to be on the ice,” the affable Levi told the Times Herald in the rink’s slightly milder lobby following the session. “Today’s an easy day to kind of just get out of your gear and go home and kind of enjoy New Year’s, but that’s just the culture that’s instilled.”
It’s so cold in Paul Louis Arena that Devon Levi is practicing in a toque. #Rochester #Amerks pic.twitter.com/bHz7GmpY2m
— Bill Hoppe (@BillHoppeNHL) December 31, 2024
His teammates’ commitment has wowed Levi, who joined Buffalo’s AHL affiliate in mid-November. The scorching Amerks have won four straight games and 11 of their last 13 entering Friday’s road contest against the Springfield Thunderbirds.
They roared into first place in the AHL North Division at the end of a torrid 9-2-0 December.
“I just credit the group to buying into the things that we’ve been talking about that you need to win hockey games,” coach Mike Leone said of what has created the Amerks’ success.
Among other things, Leone cited his team’s competitiveness, physicality and ability to pressure the puck.
“If you look at that we’re generating to what we’re giving up, the guys have been outstanding,” he said.
As of Wednesday, the Amerks’ average of 32.6 shots per game ranked second in the AHL. Meanwhile, their 26.1 shots against per game ranked fourth.
In his 13 outings with the Amerks, Levi has faced just 25.1 shots per game. In one game, he said he went 37 minutes without seeing a shot.
In his six starts for the Sabres this season, he faced an average of 31.6 shots per game.
“I’ve never really played for a team that gives up below 30 shots every game,” Levi said. “It’s a different game to play as a goalie. It’s a cool, different experience for me, because I’ve always been on teams that I’m in the 30 to 40 range.”
So Levi, 23, has been learning how to manage games featuring less action, a new challenge he believes will help his development.
“It’s great because in the NHL there’s a lot of games like that; there’s a lot of times where teams don’t want to shoot everything, they kind of pass up opportunities to hopefully get another one,” he said. “You don’t really see a lot of 40-shot games in the NHL.”
When he’s seeing the puck less frequently, Levi said “the mind starts wandering.”
“It’s hard to stay present,” he explained. “You start kind of picturing plays happening in your mind just to kind of stay warm. It just happens naturally, your mind just wants to think about different situations so that you still feel like you’re in it and you still feel like you’re getting shots.”
So sometimes Levi must snap himself back to attention.
“I think a big part of goaltending is being able to kind of like turn the brain off and just be present, be in the moment, because if you’re not 100 percent there, you’ll miss a guy, back-door play that might happen,” he said.
Levi hasn’t missed much during this stint in Rochester. He has adapted well and morphed into one of the AHL’s best netminders, compiling a 10-2-1 mark with a 2.21 goals-against average, a .911 save percentage and two shutouts.
He has quickly established himself as their backbone and biggest difference-maker.
Leone said Levi’s hockey sense – “His ability to read plays and where danger is on the ice,” he said – doesn’t receive enough attention.
Levi’s penchant for making timely saves to keep games within reach has also boosted the Amerks.
In Friday’s 6-3 win over the Utica Comets, they looked sluggish coming out of the Christmas break and fell behind 2-0 in the first period.
“He made a couple saves to keep it 2-0, not 3-0,” Leone said.
Levi, who was assigned to Rochester to play regularly, appears to be developing into one of the AHL’s most dynamic goalies. Dominance in the minors is often a strong sign a player is ready to graduate to the NHL.
“It’s really important for a player, especially a goalie, to carry the mail,” Leone said.
Of course, Levi, having been a dominant college netminder at Northeastern, would love to master another level of hockey.
“I feel like the more I play, the better I feel, the better I’m getting,” he said. “I think I’ve been given an opportunity here to get into rhythm and flow. I feel like I’m building up to something good. I feel like every day I just continue to work on my craft. I feel like I’ve been playing well and we’ve been winning, but I know, obviously, I have another level I can get.
“I feel like just sticking to the process, every level I’ve played it’s ended up coming.”
It’s 2025 and @BillHoppeNHL has opinions already! Come for the commentary on the absurdity of the MVP conversation and stay for Bill’s rant on the Music City Miracle. We also discussed the most palatable wild-card matchup for the #Bills and some #Sabres.https://t.co/lkXBrqkq48
— Nick Sabato (@NickSabatoGNN) January 1, 2025