Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres have sent goalie Devon Levi back to the Rochester Americans, while calling up Eric Comrie.
It’s been a struggle for consistency for the 22-year-old netminde,r as he’s 9-6-2 this season with a 3.13 goals-against average and an .897 save percentage. In Rochester this season, Levi has gone 2-1-0 with a 2.97 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage.
The Sabres just started their bye week, and then comes the NHL All-Star break, meaning they won’t practice again for another week, and they won’t play again until the Dallas Stars come to town on Feb. 6.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is now the Sabres' clear No. 1 goaltender, as he’s gone on a nine-game streak that has seen him post a 6-3-0 record with a 1.57 goals-against average and a .940 save percentage.
Rochester will have three games while the Sabres are off, giving the rookie a chance to play.
This is a move Levi needs. He has to play, and he needs to stay in Rochester for the rest of the season. Luukkonen has earned the crease, while Levi has played just one of the Sabres' last eight games and, again, has been wildly inconsistent.
Comrie played four games in Rochester, going 3-1-0 with a 2.26 goals-against average and a .934 save percentage. In Buffalo, he’s 1-5-0 this season with a 4.01 goals-against average and an .863 save percentage.
If you look at the Sabres' schedule, they don’t have another back-to-back situation where the No. 2 goalie would play until March 6 and 7. They will have two more in March, so theoretically, Luukkonen could comfortably start all the rest of the Sabres' games except for three.
The Sabres go into the break with a decent 9-6-1 record in their last 16 games. If Buffalo played that level of .594 hockey all season, they'd be in the Eastern Conference's No. 1 Wild Card position.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are at .590 this season, while the Detroit Red Wings, who are in eighth place now, are at .582.
As it stands on Sunday morning, the 9-6-1 record has done nothing to help the Sabres catch up. They're still nine points behind the Red Wings.
The only small thing the run has accomplished for the Sabres is it allowed Buffalo to catch and passed the Montreal Canadiens. That means the Sabres now have five teams they need to vault over in the standings instead of six.
