Devon Levi absent contre le Canadien: les Sabres doivent ajuster leur alignement des gardiens

(Buffalo) Ceux qui étaient impatients de voir le Québécois Devon Levi à l’œuvre contre le Canadien devront attendre.

The Dollard-des-Ormeaux goalkeeper is actually nursing a lower body injury. Levi did not participate in Monday’s morning practice. It is therefore Eric Comrie, who won against the Islanders on Saturday, who will defend the net for the blue men.

“It shouldn’t be much longer,” said Sabres head coach Don Granato about Levi.

His absence means that the Sabres have a break in their goaltending management. Like in Montreal, the team started the season with three goaltenders, Comrie, Levi and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. The latter has still not played this season and Saturday’s game was Comrie’s first start.

At 28 years old, Comrie is the veteran of the group, well ahead of Luukkonen (24 years old) and Levi (21 years old). “It’s going well, our goalie coach makes sure we always have a sufficient workload,” he said in the Sabres’ locker room.

Comrie explains that the starting goaltender gets his “own net” on the morning of a game and the day before, while the other two have to share the other net.

The Sabres are less stuck than the Habs, as they still have the option of assigning Levi to the American League; he doesn’t need to go through waivers. The other two, on the other hand, would first have to be offered to the other 31 teams. Comrie knows this well: he has been claimed off waivers four times (!).

But it is especially Luukkonen that the Sabres fear losing. How long will they maintain this system, awaiting a resolution?

“It’s not a matter of how long we can continue like this. It’s our situation, plain and simple, and we’re doing what’s necessary,” Granato said. The difference here is that none of them have been a No. 1 in the NHL. It’s not like one of the guys is used to the No. 1 role. Comrie just played his first game, he’s used to waiting between starts. UPL started playing last year and Levi is one step behind him.”

The Sabres will also play on Tuesday, in Ottawa. They will have the opportunity to give Luukkonen a start, and all three goaltenders will have seen action since the start of the season.

The Canadiens are in the middle of a sequence of five games in eight days. It will be interesting to see if they take advantage of this to send Cayden Primeau into the mix. If he doesn’t play during this sequence, one wonders when he will get his chance if Jake Allen and Samuel Montembeault stay healthy.