Episode 203 with Devon Levi! #sabres #sabrehood

Episode 203 with Devon Levi! #sabres #sabrehood

Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. What the [ __ ] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. And welcome back everybody to episode 203 of Two Goalies One Mike brought to you by Fatty Beer Company, Western New York’s premier market and tap room with over 300 beers to choose from at six different Western York locations. If you need a beer, make sure you make it a fatty beer. Let them know two goalies, one mic sent you. I am Dwayne, your host. My co-host, Connor Hurley, joining us from sunny and just as hot California. Um, how was your week, girls? And uh, pretty excited for tonight’s guest who will I know you’re expecting to see him now, but he will not be on with us until 9:00. So, hold your horses. He’ll be on soon enough. Yeah, we’re good. Week’s been good. It’s been a Yeah, a hot summer. uh playing a lot of hockey still. I’ve got playoffs coming up in both of my leagues tomorrow and Thursday night. Uh second place in both leagues uh for the regular season. Was in first most of the year and then we faltered a little bit at the end. But I think we got a good shot to to win. Unfortunately, actually, if my team does make it to the championship in both leagues, I will be in Buffalo. I am coming home in couple weeks for uh my best friend’s wedding. Actually, I am. You’re going to miss the championship game in both leagues, unfortunately. But if I do help my team get to the championship game in both leagues, uh, at least in one of the leagues, there’s a chance a guy who may play in the AHL this season fill in for me. So, that would be just good for my team generally. His name is, uh, his name is Matias Bull. Uh, he was a a borderline Hobie Baker finalist at Biji State, uh, past four years. Was it? So, uh, His name is Matias Schaw. He uh just signed with the Ontario Rain the Kings AHL affiliate. So there’s a chance there’s a chance he fills in for me. Yeah. Yeah. He’s Portillo is there. So that would be funny. Uh and also I I don’t think I’d be at risk of losing my spot, which is good because it’s an AHL goalie. Uh so I’m not too worried about that. But um yeah, it’s uh it’s been a it’s been a long season, but yeah, I’ll be home in a couple weeks. uh my good buddy Jeff. I’ll be the co-bas man for his wedding in Buffalo uh August 23rd and then I’ll be spending a week or so in Buffalo. So hopefully I’ll be able to see some of you when I’m out there. Yeah, I’ll definitely obviously set a time to make sure I get get a few soda pops in with you. Um hopefully I’ll be mobile. When is it again? I’ll be home the 21st and then I’m going to New York a week later, but I’ll be home the 21st to the 27th and then this month. Uh yeah, and then the 31st and the 1st. So yeah, we’ll definitely happen sporadically throughout the end of the month and into the beginning of September. Uh but yeah, I’ve got I’ll have some free time aside from the wedding. So it’ll be good. Like tomorrow is a pretty big day for me. Um I just had a CT scan on my like my right ankle a week ago. So like I’ll find out the results of that tomorrow from my like my another follow-up appointment with my like orthopedic surgeon. And uh depending on how that all looks is going to kind of like dictate, you know, a lot of things, you know, it it means the difference between me going to back back to work sooner or later or me possibly being on the shelf even longer. And you know, hoping for the best, man. But I don’t know. Hopefully I’ll be a little bit more mobile when you get here. Um walking a lot better. However, like there’s zero chance I could like run a mile or even a quarter mile right now like or even run down the street or we’ll st you on the LTIR. Yeah, I’m in the long term been on the LTIR. So, like you need me for playoffs. Um, you know, I won’t I won’t affect the cap. Put it that way. I will not. We got the Vegas the Vegas loophole. Um, no man. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s been a fun week. I’m glad we could finally get Devin on with us. You know, for those of you who don’t know, I think we might have mentioned on the show before, he was actually supposed to be in Alex Lion’s spot a few weeks ago, but um Devin uh being the professional that he is, didn’t want to be on a podcast while negotiating a new contract. Obviously, we all know he just signed his new deal. You know, congrats to him, but I get it, you know. Uh so, next boss, best possible uh guest we could have on that spot was the newly signed Alex Lion. And that was an electric interview in itself. So yeah, it was uh it was pretty great. I listened back to it today and we were talking about a few of the oneliners he gave us and just generally giving us 45 minutes I think it was and how forthcoming he was with a lot of his answers and his approach to the position of goalending in general I found to be unbelievably enlightening and interesting. He’s a super well spoken guy as I think a lot of people saw in his uh first media interview with the Sabres which I found to be super refreshing. I think a lot of guys especially athletes kind of get bogged down by questions in the media sometimes and they’re not always extremely forthcoming. That is not the case with Alex Lion. I think every single time he talks to the media this season, we’re going to get his authentic, genuine self. and he is letting us in to a culture in a position in a way that I personally haven’t seen before. So, I think it’s going to be really really cool and hopefully he plays a good amount. So, we’ll have the opportunity to uh to hear from him and I I think as you said, I think he’s got a really good chance uh to play a lot of games this season uh depending on how everything goes with UPL and even Devin. Uh the Sabres have a very good competition goalie uh going in in in net and I think it’s more than anything gonna benefit all of them. It’s going to push them all even harder to be great and that in turn is going to beneficial it’s going to be beneficial to the entire team 100%. And even Alex said like we asked him are you the type of goalie that thrives when you’re like kind of backed into a corner right and he said oh absolutely you know and I feel like Devin’s the same way. So, I think, you know, come training camp, I don’t think anybody is just going to sit, you know what I mean? I wouldn’t expect Deon to be that guy, even though it’s a two-way deal, going to like just sit by and accept Rochester, you know what I mean? He’s going to battle. He’s going to he’s going to want the position with Buffalo. And but I also think that if it doesn’t work out like that, he’s going to go ball out in Rochester and, you know, go chase a Calder a Calder Cup. Absolutely. And I think he’s probably more accepting of that possibility than he probably previously was two years ago, being pushed into the NHL as quick as he was. But I think a lot of goalies realize that the development path, especially the to the NHL, is nonlinear. And guys like Connor Hellbuk that we’ve mentioned before, Ryan Miller played a lot of games. It was partially because of the lockout, but he probably would have played 100 plus games in the AHL anyway. It’s kind of how it goes. And for a guy who’s only played 63 games, I think it is in the AHL thus this far, 68 games, and he doesn’t turn 24 until this December. Uh he’s right along the path he needs to be. And I think he’ll speak to that because uh having that momentum coming off the end of his uh I guess it was his second or third season at Nor Eastern uh winning the winning the Bean Pot being forced not forced into but being thrusted into the Sabres playoff race and the playoff push at the time that he was. It made sense, right? And we’ve said it many times before on the show that if he had joined the team a week earlier, the Sabres probably would have made the playoffs. Uh% and that speaks to how hott he was at the time, but it’s not necessarily indicative of long-term NHL success. Like it’s a completely different league. It is the hardest league in the world. And it takes some time to adjust. And as his and as his AHL numbers have shown, he’s right along the path that he needs to be on. And I think if he continues along that path, continues to work hard to continues to push himself, then I think we all know where his career is going to go. So, really looking forward to seeing that. Um, you gonna watch Hard Knocks tonight? You’re going to watch I am I now live uh less than a two-minute walk away from the Bills Bar in Santa Monica. Uh, kind of planned that on purpose. I basically zoomed into that location and then started clicking apartments uh in the area. Uh, so thankfully I’m super close and we are hosting a little watch party there tonight at 8:00 p.m. Pacific. So, after this, I’m gonna mosy on over there and we’re gonna we’re gonna watch it on tape. But, yeah, I’m really excited. I’m going to stay off social media until then because I don’t want any spoilers. But, I’m really really excited. Uh, I I worked on Hard Knocks when I was at NFL Films actually. Uh, my first job out of college and it was one of the coolest experiences of my professional life. It was the Falcons Hard Knocks in the summer of 2014 when they had Julio Jones and Matt Ryan and uh they were that was the season or two seasons before the horrible super loss to the uh Patriots unfortunately. But uh the turnaround for that show and the amount of hours of footage and manpower that they have to get the best possible content and put it into an episode and get the best moments and everything related to it. Anything NFL Films does is incredible, but I believe that Hard Knocks is one of the longest running best productions that that they do. So, I think this is specifically going to be great. Have you like So, like when they first announced that the Bills were going to be on Hard Knocks, how did you feel about that? Just like from outside because I mean I I don’t know what the record is of teams and how well they performed this season they’re on Hard Knocks. If you’re like if you’re like as just as like a conspiracy theorist as in life as you are as a goalie, like did you feel like oh no, I don’t want this? cuz I heard rumors that the Bills themselves didn’t want this, but they were kind of forced into it. So, the NFL changed the rules this off season so that previously teams that had made the playoffs a season before or had a new head coach or a couple different rules were able to refuse it, right? And I and I would say that the Brandon Bean, Sean McDermott era of the Bills is pretty tight-knit with how they protect information inside that building. So, I think having cameras in every single meeting room, having players miked up when they previously wouldn’t be miked up, having that information go outside of a house is inherently a little bit nerve-wracking. But when it comes to NFL films specifically, I think every organization in the league trusts what they’re doing, right? Like obviously the Joe Shane thing with Saquon Barkley was a bit of a disaster, but that was their own fault aditting that. Exactly. That was their own fault. like you don’t say things that could potentially come back to bite you in that specific way. But yeah, I think it’s inherently nerve-wracking, but at the end of the day, like the culture is so good and the success is there. Obviously, they haven’t made it to the mountain top yet, but they’re as prominent of an NFL organization as there is right now. And for them to be selected when effectively any team could be selected, I believe it’s an honor. I believe that they’re going to work with the directors and producers on the ground and also with the league to show themselves in the best way possible. Obviously, there has been a little bit of drama. There have been a few fights at camp. There’s the Maxwell Haristen thing. There’s obviously the James Cook contract negotiation, but at the end of the day, like we all know this stuff already, so now we’re just going to get an inside lens in the day-to-day operations with how the team is talking about it, how people are handling it, how people are all these injuries. I think it’s going to be extremely compelling, not only as a Bills fan, but as a football fan, as a fan of storytelling and documentaries. These guys and girls that at NFL films, they are the best at what they do. And I truly truly believe it’s going to be extremely compelling. I’m not sure how big like of a football guy Devin Levi is. I know we know he’s been to games. Actually, I remember the picture of him, the group picture of them at at a Bills game. I think it was like last season or the year season before and he was wearing like dad New Balance shoes and like these just like very like dad blue jeans. It was like he looked just so out of place in that whole group picture and I’m like are those New Balance Air Monarchs you’re wearing? I mean it’s that hockey player style off the ice. Yeah, if you’ve ever seen a hockey player do an off ice workout, they look so unbelievably out of place for the most part and they don’t like look like they would be an athlete in any sense of the word. Talk about hockey player styles. I mean, I think that’s like the last couple years that’s been a big like content like something that’s highlighted in terms of content with the NHL like you know what are they wearing? What are the players wearing before they come into games and then you know you see Devin Levi out in the wild at a Bills game and he’s just like wearing Air Monarchs and just dad jeans. Gotta be comfortable at the end of the day. That’s that’s what matters, right? I’m gonna I’m gonna wear Zubaz and and boots and probably a Bills crew neck to almost any Bills game I go to. So, doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what you do. As long as you’re comfortable and you’re able to focus and enjoy the game, I uh I respect it. But, um no, I’m not back your question real quick. I’m not concerned at all about any type of curse. I’m not concerned at all about any type of like conspiracy related to it. I think it’s more so just something really cool that us as Bills fans are going to be able to see probably for the last time in the Josh Allen era. like the the Bills aren’t going to be on Hard Knocks again while Josh Allen’s the quarterback and for us to get another inside look into an organization in such a pivotal time in their franchise given all of the playoff losses and all the heartbreak and the relative prominence I believe is super unique and I for one am just unbelievably excited about it. 100% agree. Like I’ll be completely transparent. I’ll be honest and you can judge me if you want. I have never watched a single episode of Hard Knocks. Yeah. And I think that like this would probably want to make you watch other seasons. Like if you there there are articles that rank the Hard Knock seasons and they’re all on HBO if you have HBO and you can go back and watch and like those are a good watch and almost like even better knowing what happened to these players down the line. Yeah. Right. Like Dez Bryant like some of the Ravens teams that won Super Bowls in the early 2000s, Rex Ryan with the Jets when they went to AFC Championship games. Uh there’s some really even the Falcon season that I worked on like there’s some really compelling storylines like really really cool moments and obviously there’s some drama here and there but at the end of the day like football is the most popular sport in the country for a reason and I do believe that this is just a sign that football is almost here. I think it’s a month to the day that we get that first uh Thursday night game or Friday night game in Brazil uh or whatever. So yeah, I’m excited. I’m as big of a NFL Bills fan as I am a Savers fan. So, it’s just a really really cool thing for me and even just as a fan of documentaries and sports uh storytelling, it’s going to be really cool. I watched Rex tell his team. Yeah. I mean, that’s an iconic moment in Hardox’s history. Well, you know, you’re talking right now about like, you know, we just, you know, Devin Levi signing his his deal like James Cook, some big news coming out of obviously with with Kyne Williams contract, very comparable numbers and, you know, it’s almost a disser did his agent do a disservice by doing what, you know, filling his head with you’re worth this much and you see a guy who has very identical numbers to him sign for 11 million. I would even argue that Kairen Williams deserves more than James Cook. Deserves more. Yeah, I think I agree. I think I think better than James I wouldn’t necess necessarily say even better he played 86% of snaps last year whereas James Cook played 46 you know he’s a true workhorse back and not to get too too deep into this I was doing a lot of fantasy football research today but for a guy to be deserving of that type of money of Saquon Barkley Christian McAffrey that type of money that is the standard right like he he said before that he wants to play on third downs but if you’re a liability in pass protection and you’re not going to be as good as a guy like Tai, you might not be worthy of the money that you think you are, even though you set a record for Bill’s rushing touchdowns last season. So, I’m going to I can’t can’t wait to see that discourse. He’s not a guy that talks a lot, but it is the biggest storyline at Bill’s camp at the moment. And especially given that the past they’re going to touch on it tonight the the past two days like he’s decided to hold in and not and not actually practice pract out in you know his sweatuit or whatever. Yeah. It’s a change of course of what he said he was going to do in mini camp and to begin camp. So it makes me think that I think that they think the the deal is closer to the finish line and the two sides are closer than than we believe they are. But uh yeah, we’ll uh we’ll see what happens. I can’t wait to see it. Yeah, me me too. Um, and again I say like bet at one’s better than the other. It’s like I just think that one quarterback has Josh Allen and the other one doesn’t, right? So it’s like that that also plays quite a bit into it, you know, when you know you have, you know, you’re a lot more dangerous in the past game in Buffalo than you are in, you know, no offense to was it Stafford? Still Stafford. Yeah, they were they were pretty good in that game out here in LA, I’ll tell you that. Yeah. Well, I mean to for me it’s just like I don’t know, man. I think the running back I don’t want to say is less important when you have a quarterback like Josh Allen, but I think Kyrie Williams is much more important to his team. Put it that way. I think Williams much more important to his team than than James Cook is, regardless of how many touchdowns he had last year. I’m not trying to take anything away from him, right? But I think that if we found out tomorrow that we were trading James Cook and I don’t want to trade James Cook. I don’t I would I would for Micah Parsons. I’ll tell you that. Oh, for sure. Yeah. But I don’t think fans would be because you know, you have Ray Davis and Ray Davis proved a lot last year and then Ty Johnson proved a lot, you know. I think But no, if they if they agreed to a similar deal that Kairen got, I’d be happy. Yeah. Um, so one thing I saw on before obviously we’re waiting on Devin Levi here. We obviously uh hopefully I’m here with at 900 PM uh is what he told me. Originally scheduled for 8:30, but he has to push to nine, but we obviously went on with the show at 8:30. Uh NHL or that I I forget what the page is. They came out with like their 10 Did you see this? Um, they rank the 10 best shootout players and like I saw the first two, but I didn’t see the whole list. So, like they bad Brad Boy was on that list and they just decided to ignore the fact that he was ever a Buffalo Saber and just use all Florida Panther highlights. Um, I don’t I I don’t think of Brad Boy as a Buffalo Saber. No, not at all. But he had some pretty nasty shootout goals as a Buffalo Saber. Um 50 attempts though. I saw like minimum 50 attempts. Like that is a lot of shootouts in your NHL career if you really think about it. How many shootouts did the Buffalo Sabres you know play in last year? Like not not many. Not many. So to think like holy crap man 50 shootout attempts like who’s next off was on there? Um Tyler Sean was on there. TJ Oshi obviously Alexander Barkov I think was ranked number two. And then I forget number one he was with the Rangers but like an insane list and some guys Sabres were were in six shootouts last season. Yeah. So like if you were to pick 10 shootout shootout players just your 10, you know, if you if you’re you’re a head coach and you’re like these are my guys like who are they for you? because a lot of those names I would have never thought of like of all time of all time current or all time, you know, or in the shootout era or if if I’m picking 10 NHL players in history to for like Yeah. Okay. Wow. All right. This is a good one. Uh I will start with let me see if I can write these down. 10. I will go fittingly with Thomas Vanic. Thomas Vanic, I think, revolutionized the around the world move and the slap shot from the top of the slot. I thought that was super creative as a player and it threw off the goalie in a way that I think we haven’t seen before. So, I’ll go with Vanic for number 10. Let’s go number nine. This might be too low, but I don’t think he had too many opportunities in his career. But Pavle Datsuk, I think that move, the flip move when he went to his backhand or his forehand and then flipped it over the goalie, I think that was unbelievably creative and really, really good and obviously super hard to stop. So, I’ll put him there. Uh, number eight, if we’re just talking like some of the most talented players in NHL history, just from a talent perspective, I don’t know you how you don’t put Gretzky on there. He didn’t have too many shootouts in his life and he wasn’t the best goal scorer, but at the end of the day, it’s Wayne Gretzky and if you’re going to pick 10 players in NHL history to be in a shootout lineup, I’m going to go Gretzky. Uh, similarly, the guy that just passed him, I’m gonna go Ovetchkin. I’m not necessarily sure what his numbers are, but I would want the number one goal scorer in NHL history to be in my shootout lineup. Number six, specifically good shootout guys. I have a vague memory of Paval Bur being really good at breakaways back in the day. I know Mike Richtor had a really good save on him in the Stanley Cup finals, but with his speed and his hands, I think Pavle Bur would be a very good one to have. Uh modernday guys, obviously we just mentioned on that list, you cannot include TJ Oshi uh given what he did in 2014 in Sochi, uh TJ Sochi as they called him. I think it was against Babski uh in that USA Russia game. Uh so it’s hard not to include him. Number four. Who would I include number four? Gosh, Datuk’s a good one. Let’s go Forsber. I think Forsber probably didn’t get too many opportunities. Oh, he did the the leave behind move on the backside, I think, a few times. I’m not sure if he made that famous, but I think you got to include Peter Forsber with how talented he was. Uh, number three, h I guess Mario Lemieux. Uh if anyone hasn’t gone back and watched Mario Lemieux highlights from back in the day, I think uh his talent level and his ability to do unbelievable things with the puck was kind of unheard of. So I’ll go with Lemieux for now. Um number two, have you heard this? Well, I’ll I’ll read you my list so far. We’ve got Vanic 10, Datsuk 9, Gretzky 8, Ovuchkin 7, Palville Bur 6, TJ Oshi five, Peter Forsber 4, Mario Lemieux three, and now I need a two and a one. And I’m not sure if Yeah, I guess we’ll go with Yagger. Joerger, I think he would be up there. I mean, given I’m not sure how much of his career was spent in the shootout era, like obviously, but dude, I remember him just having just filthy hands. And I think Bur is probably too low on your list personally. I just I remember like him just doing things during games at full speed with the puck that I think guys would probably struggle with like just in practice. He was just he was he was magic. There there was I forget I forget what not not to cut you off but there was Steve Bennett be disappointed at me for not remember this game but there was like a some type of showcase I think it was before he was drafted maybe or when he was drafted he was playing for team Russia and he had like five goals against like Canada maybe I forget who it was against you can look it up somebody in the chat can look it up but like he was just like just absolute domination and just that whole all those players that came you know came over from Russia, the original ones. Just like how good they were, how fantastic hands were. Who was the one player? He was with Montreal. Um, to look this up, but I want to say he was almost their cap, maybe their captain. He I remember watching a video with him and just him practicing breakaways and shooting and he was taking shots with one hand. One hand and just ripping them top corner. Ripping them top corner. And I’m like, dude, like none of my friends can shoot that hard with one. I mean, for the guys that have like the highest amount of attempts that have the highest percentage, the highest over if it’s minimum 50 attempts, I don’t know if he was on the list, but Eric Christensen apparently had I think he over 50%, right? Yeah. He was the only one with over 50 attempts to be 52.7%. Over 50%. Yep. He was number one. Number two was uh Barkoff. Yeah, I feel like you’re missing so many names, too. He’s up there as well. I I think a lot that discussion is mostly like theoretical, you know what I mean? Like a lot of guys haven’t had opportunities. I mean, McDavid’s only had 33, but he’s at 45.5%. I’ll just put McDavid at one because I do believe he’s the most talented hockey player that I’ve seen. Uh, and I think if he continues along this pace, he has an argument to potentially be the greatest hockey player of all time. So I I’m going to put McDavid at one, which would make my list be Vanic, Datsuk, Gretzky, Ovuchetkin, Buret, Oshi, Forsber, Lemieux, Yagger, and McDavid. I think that’s a pretty good 10. That’s a fant that’s a good 10. No doubt. I mean, it doesn’t h I mean, you tomorrow you might even change up that order. You know what I mean? Like um Oh, Alexi Kovalev, that’s who it was. Alexi Kovalev was an incredible player. And I think one of the knocks on him, if I’m not mistaken, was he was just lazy. But his hands were un It’s It’s crazy to me that that guy wasn’t like a 50 goal scorer every year. Just Yeah. I I mean, I would even I would even put a guy like Marin Gabri on there with how good his shot was. Like guys, you don’t think about being as good as they were, but him having specifically a really good shot. I one one name I don’t think I heard you say it. What about Pat Kane? Yeah. I mean, I’m I’ll put I’ll put Kane on there. I’ll tie him with Vanic. It’s him and Vanic at 10. At 10. You’re putting You’re putting Kane at 10. Well, I mean, this, like you said, this doesn’t have to necessarily be in order. Just 10 guys. You know what I mean? Cota leak, too. I remember Kota leak during those. Yeah, Kotak was great. I mean, I was even I was even gonna say Connelly just with how good his hands were. Uh I don’t know how many shootout attempts he had, but not a lot. I figure a guy like Tim Connelly would be really good at the shootout. Oh my god. Yeah, that’s actually a question I’d be curious to ask Devin when he gets on like who in who in Rochester like is just an incredible like shootout breakaway wise and you know in comparison to Buffalo shooters down there even within the organization right now like I think the best right now is Jack Quinn. Yeah, I have to say you know before that you’d say probably Casey Middlestat he had incredible hands. Yeah, and he still has. Um yeah, man. They that that that list though I was like 50 shootout attempts like I don’t know if you watched 50 shootouts that’s insanity like absolute insanity you think too uh Ilia Kovalechuk another one guy was incredible just didn’t play have a long career in the NHL yeah no there’s there’s a lot of guys that I think you could spot in there and then there wouldn’t be that much of an argument uh but I think Uh yeah, I mean it’s a very specific skill set, right? And like it doesn’t always translate to being the best NHL player, but a guy like Eric Christensen having the highest percentages, nobody would ever guess that name. I I didn’t know that. That’s a that’s a good fun fact, actually. Like I mean, when I was going down that list, I was just like there’s just no way like this this name isn’t like Dat Like because I wasn’t seeing Dat Souk’s name in there at all or like you know the name. like how like really no like I think the list is probably related to the percentage directly related to like how high the percentage was. So it’s guys you wouldn’t think of and I I think that’s pretty cool actually because guys in since the lockout have kind of specialized in it. Yep. So um yeah it’s not not a big obviously it’s just been such a slow time of the off seasonason. Um obviously we saw you know transition away from that as we wait for Devin to get on. He just mentioned he’ll be on in like five five like five minutes. So, um, one thing I saw, you know, who who is it out of, you know, Columbus traded to the Rangers? Who, uh, that’s still not signed? Rosik. Yeah. So, kind of surprising that he still hasn’t chosen a team. And should Buffalo be in that running or even expect them to be in that running given Yarmmo’s drafted this guy? And I was talking to a guy about this at the gym, too. Just, you know, how much say does a guy like Yarmmo actually have in the roster if like something that feels like it should be a layup with Roselovic hasn’t been done yet? I mean, you drafted the guy. He’s been a consistent player for you. He’s a top six guy. I mean, you’re kind of, you know, there’s a lot of question marks around your top six. He’s not he’s not a topline guy, but, you know, I think he’s easily a second line, third line guy. You know, at least, you know, a crazy good depth piece. You know, your thoughts on that and why he isn’t signed yet? And do you really think Buffalo is actually in the rank because their name’s not even being mentioned? Yeah. Well, I mean, I think fans have mentioned him, right? We’ve mentioned him a few times. I think he would I think he would slot into that top six middle six really well. I think it’s probably a matter of contract. I think he’s a guy right now that probably has some options. So, while the summer dies down and there is this kind of like dead period in the NHL calendar, he’s probably talking with his agent, his agent’s talking with teams, he’s trying to figure out what situation is best for him. From his perspective, Kee would probably have a power play one, power play two role uh on this team. He potentially would have the opportunity to play on a top line, maybe even with Paige, maybe even with with Tuck. Uh so I think the situation would be really good for him. I think it really comes down to contract. Obviously, he had 22 goals, 23 goals last season, so he’s got some leverage. But um yeah, I think they wouldn’t hire Yarmmo if he didn’t have influence over this type of thing, right? He’s a senior adviser. It’s not like they were going to pay him whatever they paid him and then not listen to him. So, I do believe he does have some influence and I hope that he’s stumping for him. Uh because I do think that would push some guys down the lineup a little bit and it would make the situation for the Sabres forward group a lot better than it currently is. I just think it makes it more difficult to get away from that narrative that there isn’t an internal cap that if you are again around $5 million away from the cap and you’re still not using it and there’s a guy out there that should as we just said should be a layup to be on this team given the relationship. I mean unless he just doesn’t want to sign here. I mean that could also be definitely be a possibility but hold my laptop in. It should just for me it should be just I just don’t think you could go into this season with this fan base and not spend the cap when that has been the narrative with Kevin Adams now literally since he’s taken the position. Yeah. No, I mean obviously it won’t help that narrative. Uh but I think at the end of the day like what we think about their cap situation is a little bit different than what Kevin Adams is thinking about and everything related to it. It seems like a slam dunk and maybe they’ve been trying uh like maybe they’ve been talking to his agent and it’s something we don’t know about. I will be pleasantly surprised if they sign him, but as it currently stands, it doesn’t seem like they’re going to make too many more additions to the roster. So, we’ll see. It just, you know, who on this team is keeping you from making that happen? Like, what? Again, the same guy and I’ll shout out to Casey here at my from my gym. I saw him in the chat earlier. Like who on who on this team is keeping you from making that happen? Payton Krebs, you know what I mean? Like who is it? You know, uh to to for me it should just if you’re not going to have a clear-cut number one top line, okay, let’s have three sec, you know what I mean? Three or four second line caliber players. You know what I mean? Like I just I don’t get it. like you know and Payton Krebs you know given his projections for his next contracts I don’t see him in Buffalo beyond this season unless he you know he really proves himself you know you know to be the guy that they wanted out of that trade I just don’t see him be here beyond this coming season. Yeah I mean hard to say because I think he could potentially grow into a bigger role this season on the penalty kill and on the fourth line maybe even the third line moving forward. He’s still very young himself, so I think there’s a chance. But, uh, yeah, who knows? Uh, I do think more than anything, we’ve talked about they need an addition to the forward group, and it could create competition just like the goalie room, just like the defense. And, uh, it would it would help more than it would hurt. So, we’ll see what happens. But, he’s probably not the only guy either. I He’s probably the biggest name. But, I do think there could be trades. There could be a late offer sheet. Who knows? I I think there’s a lot of ways to change what this opening night roster will be uh before October October 12th or whatever comes around. No doubt about it. Um and I saw your tweet, was it yesterday about Samuelson’s story? I got gave gave me a little bit of a chuckle. I don’t I don’t I don’t want to get into that. Yeah, it was a good one though. It was good. Yeah. Well, I mean, it is what it is. I uh I have my thoughts. everyone else has theirs and we can move forward and not hate each other about that. Yeah. I mean, but that third pairing defensively, like I really really hope Ryan Johnson comes in and has a really strong camp and just really pushes Samson out of that spot. I mean, if we’re talking about free money, not free money, but like money off the books, like Samuelson’s contract’s not looking too great at the moment. So, no, it’s not. And if you could trade him to a team like Philadelphia, obviously don’t want to play arm armchair GM too much, but there seems to be a lot of guys that could fill that six that six spot or fifth or six spot on on defense in that third pairing. So, who knows? I I mean, nothing against the guy personally. It seems like he’s pretty wellliked in the locker room. He obviously had an A, I think it was last season or the season before. So, um yeah, I mean, he can golf wherever he wants. It was more of a joke more than anything, but People got very upset. People got really really upset. I had to mute it because I didn’t want them to respond. I muted I I just didn’t want to respond to people. The mute function is great sometimes. Yeah, it’s a beautiful thing. Like I like and especially if you don’t want to be one of those guys, if you’re like muting an account, if you don’t want to be one of those guys that like blocks people because you don’t want to cross off, the mute button is such a beautiful beautiful thing. Yeah. So, uh, we can all move forward in love and happiness together as we sit here and wait for Devin Levi. Um, I mean, this is really like on brand for him. I’m not going to lie to you because like there are times where, you know, we’ll be like, I’ll be texting back and forth and the the like conversation seeming like abruptly ends and then he’ll answer like a week later. So, it’s the mind mind of a goalie. You never know. is like very on par for him. So, I apologize for those who’ve been waiting for Devin. Um he’s a busy guy in the offseason. I I know he just, you know, he was just at a wedding per social media. Not to get too deep into that, but um he did mention some three on three that he was playing tonight. So, we’re just waiting on him. Um love that. What is that jersey? It’s a It’s a Dodger themed jersey. Uh and it’s a course that I play at nearby. It’s called Penmar, but we had a RDER cup against another fellow golf club in the area and we all wore these jerseys. So, that was pretty cool. I got my uh my hockey number and my name on it. Oh, you do? 33. 34 actually. Was it 34? Oh, that’s right. You ought to be one better than Patrick W. I forgot about that. Never was, but you know, we’ll take it. He said, “Wifi is down beyond in one sec.” So, we are momentarily be joined here by Devin Levi. Um, thankfully, uh, always, what was it? Fashionably late, uh, with the beast. Nothing wrong with being fashionably late. I I was impressed by that gift you you responded to my my tweet with with the rock saying beast. I’m like, huh? Like, that is just perfect. Like, I’m a bit I’m a bit of a what do they say? I’m a bit of a mark now. Are you watching wrestling? No, not at all. But we’re covering it a lot for work. You call yourself a mark if you No, no, you you guys called me that once when I mentioned like uh AEW stuff. I we covered a lot for work and also with the Hulk Hogan stuff recently. I feel as though I’ve been consumed with as much wrestling content in the past two weeks as I have in my entire life. Even we we covered uh last night on Raw, Becky Lynch talking about uh John Cena and Nikki Bella’s relationship. I’m not going to lie, that was awesome. We uh we did we did a segment on that today and otherwise I never would have known that happened. You know what I mean? So yeah, I don’t love wrestling. If you get a chance, dude, even if you’re not a wrestling fan, you should watch it’s on Netflix, the Unreal, WWE Unreal, where they like pull back the curtain so you can see like how what I like. And this is like something that they would never have done like in the 90s because like there was so much, you know, the word kayfabe. Um, you know, wrestlers didn’t like to break kayfabe, like break their character even in public in front of kids. Remember Chris Jericho in his book once said that like he used to hate like being talked to by kids in public in front of their parents because he he wouldn’t break kayfabe and the kids when he was being a heel would want an autograph and he would just just uh who does that now? MJF. Yeah, MJF. Yeah, he doesn’t break kayfabe. He actually soon enough. No, he actually did. We asked him about being I don’t know if anyone saw Happy Gilmore 2. He was in Happy Gilmore 2. We talk about that. Oh my god. And no, we and we asked him about it and he broke character to talk about like how much he appreciates Adam Sandler and how he wants to be like an actor in the future and the the clip like did super well because a lot of people were like this is the first time I’ve ever seen him break character. Yeah, dude. It was that movie was incredible. It was what it was supposed to be. You know what I mean? Like how about like the most random random cameo from Eminem at the end? No, I I think I had a good time watching it. Number one, I don’t think it is going to win an Oscar. I don’t think it was intended to win an Oscar. And the people that are upset about it can like kindly [ __ ] off. Like, who I don’t care. I thought it was really cool. All the call backs. I laughed a lot. In jail for Yeah, the the recurring Flask joke I thought was hilarious. Uh, everything about it I thought was really cool. Uh, obviously not I mean the the nothing beats the original, but I thought they did a pretty good job with the sequel. I think like the one thing that honestly irritated me probably the most about that movie and it’s so stupid, but like how long it took that those three people to realize they were golfing with Happy Gilmore. Like how like like you’re golfing with this guy for like 15 holes and then you realize it’s Happy Gilmore. Like they just not make eye contact with him with the sunglasses. you don’t rec that’s the only probably only thing that irritated me about that movie but it was it was great man um from start to finish and just the shooter McGavin’s part and then seeing then seeing Adam Sandler give shooter the jacket uh at you know you know behind the scenes that was pretty cool yeah no I was I loved it and uh I don’t think we’ll have another one so appreciate it for while we have it yeah so I mean we’re out of like stuff to talk I was sitting wait for I don’t know like I can’t [ __ ] anything else. There was really nothing to talk about. It’s it’s crazy though cuz like there is a time period from the end of free agency until the beginning of training camp in the NHL world where there’s literally no news. There’s nothing. Like every agent, every GM, every player is at a cottage in Canada or in Europe somewhere or on a lake in Minnesota. like these guys just and and they’re training obviously as as you said with Devin like playing threeon-ree and even Alex said he plays threeon-ree every day but it is just an absolute dead period and it probably should be because obviously an 82 game schedule like these guys don’t get to spend too much time with their families and and whatnot but yeah you one thing you know one last thing to talk before he gets on here like I said as he’s waiting for his Wi-Fi to turn back on uh FHL championships are this Thursday and um Lton Zacher, a goalie. Um, obviously a Buffalo kid. He actually just signed with Nor Eastern. Uh, kind of like following in the shadow of uh our guest here in a minute, Devin Levi. Um, kid is incredible to watch. Like every I I’ve gotten to watch this kid now for like two months and Nor Eastern is getting a really really good goalender. Um, and just some of the some of the talent we have we have two kids that are playing that play in FHL that are currently playing for team USA right now in the U7 Four Nations tournament. They beat Slovakia today 7 to five. um Sawyer Schmidt and uh Jerry uh Donzulo. I’m sorry if I’m uh you know butchering that name, but you know some of the talent we’ve seen like you know like Sawyer for instance a couple weeks ago um they were he’s on team Donkey Kong and they were playing Street Fighter. It’s all named after like my favorite video games. And it was just a really nice tic-tac-toe play in front and he was like maybe a two feet in front of the goal line and he just goes goalie’s in his RV but he’s not covering that spot like close enough over his shoulder and he just sneaks it in bar and in. Dude, it was one of the most beautiful beautiful uh goals I’ve seen so far this FHL season. And um you know Nick for there from Just Dition, he came and he filmed uh week four and he’s going to be there this Thursday to film the championships. Super super excited. He’s actually uh calling me. Deon’s calling me right now. So I’m going to let you talk. I’m gonna answer this real quick. So uh one second. It’s a necessary It’s a necessary phone call to answer. Well, here I am, ladies and gentlemen. Maybe some of you are watching Hard Knocks on the East Coast. Uh, we are here. I’m holding off myself until I watch it at 8:00 p.m. out on the West Coast. If you are, I hope you enjoy it. Uh, I think it’s going to be a really good episode. Um, and uh, yeah, it’s going to be fun. Yeah. I mean, gosh, I’ve run out of things to talk about myself. How’s everybody doing? Put it in the chat. See what you’re doing. How’s your summer been? Any plans? I’ll be back in Buffalo in a couple weeks. Let’s meet up somewhere. I’ll uh be down at uh few different bars, breweries downtown. Be out and about be a for a wedding. But uh yeah, it’ll be fun. It’ll be good to get back. I haven’t been back since the the Bills playoff game in in January. So, I think that’ll be a lot of fun. Uh hopefully we uh can have a few good weeks here before the the start of the Bills season. Uh it’s going to be it’s going to be a crazy one, I imagine. And uh I think we need to enjoy this time in the summer to to rest and recuperate a little bit. I feel like a a late night radio DJ host. I don’t know how else to to fill dead air. I’ll let us pause for a second. Quick uh quick uh 20 seconds for station identification. He’s having a wifi problem. Um, but he’s going to come on with us from his phone. Um, so I’m not sure how much time. Originally, we’re slated to get him for a half an hour. Um, sorry for the hold up here. Uh, but we’ll try and get as much in as we can in 15 to 20 minutes. Uh, as soon as he’s on here, he’s going to, you know, log in through his phone. So, um, what were you saying before, uh, I’d answer that phone call? I just paused 20 seconds for station identification. Yeah. Well, we’ll recognize our sponsor right now, Fatty Beer Company. Western New York’s premier market in tap room with There he is. We got Devin in the in the program. There we go. What’s up, guys? Where is he? How should I uh How should I display this like this? Hold on. I gotta I gotta get you. Boom. There we go. You’re perfect. What’s up, Dad? Oh, look at that hair. I love it. What’s up, guys? What’s up, guys? Nothing, dude. Obviously, you’re having some uh some issues with the Wi-Fi. We appreciate you getting in. Yeah, my pleasure. I’m glad I was able to uh figure it out. Um now joined by Devin Levi. Um fresh off his new contract. Uh super excited for you. Congratulations on getting that deal done. Um how is how has the offseason been for you so far? before we get to the questions we want to ask. And um you know, how’s everything, bud? Yeah, everything’s going well. Um body’s healthy, which is always a blessing. Um you know, going into an offseason healthy, being able to work on what you want to work on. So, um it’s been great having uh having a great time on the ice, off the ice, friends and family, um traveling around a little bit. So, it’s been great. Awesome. Awesome. I’ll let you get it started. What’s the offseason program look like? What’s your What’s your daily workout schedule? Uh, we had Alex on a couple weeks ago and he talks about playing threeon-ree every day and I think Dwayne mentioned that as well. Uh, what’s your daily workout schedule? How are you how are you staying fit on and off the ice? Yeah, I definitely don’t play three on three every day. That sounds awesome. I would love to do that. Um, I play three on three every week though. Once a week I try to sneak it in there just to be in game situations and stuff. Um, I work out uh Monday through Friday in the morning. Um, I’ve been skating uh twice a week for two hours uh right now. I’ll probably ramp it up to three um coming into this week and next week and then probably go to like four or fiveish by the end of the summer. Um so just trying to ramp that up slowly. But as of right now, like the majority of my time and energy has been spent like off the ice on uh working on my body, just getting stronger, healthy, um you know, goalie strong. um and apply trying to apply some of that some of that stuff on the ice um in my uh in my two sessions. So, um it’s been uh it’s been fun. It’s been uh it’s been a fun summer. That that’s awesome, bud. Actually, who are you? Anyone like notable that you’re playing uh you know, playing in the offseason with outside of your normal what we already know about like your your I forget the goal the goalie coach your goalie coach’s name up there, but um who are you playing threeon-ree with? Anyone notable or just, you know? Yeah. Um I was in uh Colona for for a uh for probably a month. I played three on three there with uh Ken Johnson. Um Cole um Cylinger. Um who else was there? Cabbrini was there. Um Andrew Crystal and his brother. Um there were uh Yeah, it was I mean it was a good game. It was fun. Lots of lots of guys that just love playing hockey. It’s a great uh great hockey culture out west there. Um I know that they have their game in Vancouver. They play uh threeon three on the weekends. I think Bard’s there also. I didn’t get to go to that one. Oh, we might have lost him. Yeah, it’s uh There he is. It’s been uh it’s been great just, you know, hopping on bunch of great players. Awesome. So, a little bit off the ice. Uh we wanted to ask a little bit about your background. I don’t know if you’ve mentioned this before, but I know you majored in computer science at Nor Eastern. Uh it’s funny because I took a computer science class in college at Syracuse and it was one of the worst things I’ve ever done. I had to I had to drop out of the class with three weeks ago because I had like a 27 average and it would have ruined my GPA. Uh, I want to know a little bit about like your background in coding and analytically, how you think about that and if that process of doing that type of thing academically and professionally has translated at all to how you think about the position of goalending and how on your like day-to-day basis or game-to-ame basis, thinking about coding and thinking about the position of goalie, how those two translate. Yeah, I mean there’s definitely I could tell you right now there’s definitely no direct translation from coding to goending. But it’s all like the concepts like just being able to problem solve, you know, being able to find mistakes and correct them, find bugs. Um, you know, you also have to have like a really deep understanding of what you’re doing to be able to like, you know, be able to pivot at any point. Um, same thing in goalending, like just be able like being able to have a plan. you know, your plan gets punched in the face and then you know how to adapt and you know, overcome. So, you know, those problem solving skills that are super important in coding um are obviously just as important in goalending. Um and I only started coding when I was in in college like I had no background in it. Um my dad is very into AI and um he always said how, you know, software and that kind of stuff is the future. So, he told me to, you know, get dabble your feet in it a little bit. So, I just went full steam and had computer science major. It was hard, man. It was really hard. You’re telling me? Yeah. Yeah. Is it something that like when hockeyy’s over with, you might even like, you know, express interest in at Yeah. Um I’m I’m I’m continuing my classes right now. I’m in a summer class right now. So, just trying to get my degree. I got seven classes left. So, um I definitely want that degree to have the, you know, opportunity to be able to continue um in, you know, computer science and it’s a it’s a combined major. So, I’m in computer science and business. So, in either of those fields in the future, but um you know, my mind is pretty far off of that right now. All my time and energy, other than this one, you know, side class that I’m in, all my time and energy is going going onto the ice and becoming the best goalie that I could be. Absolutely. You mentioned in in uh a recent I don’t know how recent it was but you know one of your hobbies I think it was Dan Fates right the the you like to paint in your downtime you found painting like it like what other hobbies do you are you doing in your downtime like me specifically I’m a big documentary guy especially with the lag right now I think I’ve watched everything Netflix that Netflix and every streaming service has to offer um because I can’t physically do the things I want to do like golf but like you know like what else are you doing in your downtime or you know to piggyback off the painting thing. What types of things do you enjoy painting? Yeah. Um I, uh got into painting last year. Um you know, I was just shopping and I saw, you know, canvas paintbrush. I was like, “Huh, let me give it let me give a give that a shot. Let’s see if I can do that.” And I was it was at first it was tough, but I don’t show the first paintings that I made. But but I I learned a little bit. I figured out and it was really fun honestly. Like super peaceful, you know, just being in your own world. It definitely, you know, time flies when you’re painting. Um, it’s just like kind of like in a meditative state almost, like just super zen, just get to focus on what you’re doing and be like 100% present with uh um the painting. So, I I enjoyed that. I like a lot of other activities that kind of involve that. Like, I enjoy playing piano. Just like easy to get lost in in playing a song and learning a song. Um, I enjoy reading too. I’ve been watching uh a couple documentaries actually this summer too. Um I wonder which ones you’ve seen. I just watched uh Free Solo. Holy cow. What a That’s an unbelievable Oh my god. Yeah. Yeah. You ain’t watch the one the the submers the submersible. What’s the one that about the Titanic? Oh gosh. I don’t want to I don’t want to see that. the the you remember that story about that like little submarine that went down to see the Titanic and they Oh, that was like a couple years ago, right? Crazy, dude. Crazy. Like I don’t want any part of that. Yeah. Listen, the the one thing that irked me the most about it is like this guy who, you know, he was in charge of all this. He had every single person who was in charge of making decisions like this telling him this is a bad idea. But he was just so full of his own ego that he refused it. And like the carbon fibers that surround the tube, you could literally hear them snapping during the documentary as they got deeper and deeper. It was just like, “Oh, yeah.” But it was an incredible documentary, man. Netflix. It’s on I think it’s on Netflix. Yeah, dude. And I’m a big murder mystery guy, true crime guy, too. So, I’ll watch all that stuff. But I’ve really gotten gone deep into That’s pretty cool. I’ll check that out because I don’t know much about that. I’d like to I remember hearing about it. I was like, “Oh my god, this is insane.” Like people spent a lot of money to get to to die basically, right? That’s why I Yeah. I mean, drowning is one of my biggest fears, but like being in a submarine specifically feels very strange, and I don’t know how people actually do that or feel comfortable doing that. Way to die. That’s awesome. Yeah. Not for me. Um quickly back to the uh actual position. Um, when we had Alex on, I don’t know if you heard any of his initial uh, media interview with the Sabres, he was talking about the position of goalending, he described it as a fragile baby bird and he would hold on to things within his uh, he would hold on to things within his goalending process like a tube of toothpaste. I don’t know if you’re a golfer. I think Dwayne told me that sometimes it’s described as I’m not great, but here and there, but you you’ve you’ve held a golf club, right? Yeah. So, when you hold the golf club, it’s been said that you don’t want to hold it too tight so that you squeeze the toothpaste out of the bottle, but you want to hold it firm enough that you still hold the bottle of toothpaste. It’s an amazing oneliner. and he was eventually getting to a point about how fleeting the position of goalending can be and sticking to things that you’ve known uh since you were young, since you’ve learned and every single level. Like what aspects about your game do you hold on to still to this day on a consistent basis that help you on a daily basis within practice or in a game that you always think about going into any game? Yeah, that’s pretty cool. Actually, I didn’t hear that. I’ve been off social media recently, but I’ve I’ve heard some of his uh I I saw a few clips of him on your podcast actually that were pretty cool. Um did you hear what he said about you? No. What did he say? Can I bring it up real quick? I’m gonna bring it up real quick. Yeah, sure. Well, you know, like when you’re coming out of school and you got a little bit momentum behind you like he had at the time, you know, he was he was popping off for a little while there and he was playing really well. Um, and he’s still going to I think going to be a stud. Um, so yeah, just it was awesome. It was crazy. Honestly, like I still actually can’t believe it. I don’t know if you guys want to go into this right now, but like talking or like him coming out of college and just going on a crazy little run there for what was it 10 games or something like that. Yeah. Um, that’s crazy like to me and I’m sure you guys know too, like just as goalies, but that’s a big jump from college to the pro. So that was impressive to see for sure. Yeah, he he and it went further on beyond that. Obviously, we only play like 30 second clips, but he had a lot of great things to say about you because he played college hockey at Yale. Um, and he know like he, you know, he knows how difficult playing at that level at such a young age can be as it was for you. Um, you know, he has nothing but glowing things to say about you. That’s pretty cool. Yeah, he uh he’s an unbelievable goalie. I mean, that game that I played against him in uh we played in in Florida, um that 2-1 game, that was probably one of my favorite games I played. That was an that was an awesome goalie battle. He played unbelievable. Um basically, he single-handedly kept us out of the playoffs, which was uh pretty crazy. He’s uh he’s definitely talented goalie, really smart guy from from what I know. Excited to meet him, just talk goalie about it. Uh just talk goalie with him, you know, pick his brain, learn from him. Um, fun fact, he rode a boat to school. He used to row a boat to school. Oh, yeah. Yeah. From a a town in Minnesota that has apparently like thousand people and he went to school in like a schoolhouse. He’s got a really really interesting background. That sounds like a goalie thing to do. I feel like Absolutely. No doubt about it. I know we only got you here for a couple more minutes, Devon. I know I I appreciate your time. Um, get given all the circumstances surrounding it. Um, what what did you have next for him, Connor, before we kind of wrap things up here? Real quick, back to that, kind of related to Alex, just back to like your beginnings. Um, I read that your only experience playing goalie up until you were age 11 was in street hockey with your dad and your friends. And then you picked up ice hockey, goalie specifically at age 11. And even from my perspective, like I started skating when I was three and then I started playing goalie when I was six. And especially for someone in your position, it feels like that’s something that you would have started at a younger age. U I don’t know if you could speak to that at all and what your development process was like, probably starting a little bit later than other people have started in your same position. Yeah. Um you know, I started off playing hockey probably when I was like five or six. I was skating when I was like four or five. Um but I only became a goalie later on. I think it might have been 10 10 or 11. Um, but I, uh, I think it was great for me just to learn how to play the game of hockey, just like the sport in general, be able to skate. Um, you know, I was, uh, wasn’t the best player. That’s ultimately why I became a goalie, but just to understand the, you know, foundations of the game, playing up front, you know, skating and playing with some buddies. Um, and then I just fell in love with the position of goalending. I used to beg my dad to come or he actually used to, you know, dress me up in uh in the goalie gear in the basement. He I think he wanted somebody to shoot on. He he’s been waiting for for a kid probably for a while to play hockey with. Um so he dressed me and then he would also go on and I like he was so good when I was a little kid. Um and I was like, “Whoa, like that’s so cool. I want my own set of goalie gear.” And so he ended up buying me like my own set of street hockey pads and um you know going outside playing with some friends. I was always a street hockey goalie. It was just so fun keeping keeping that little uh keeping that little orange thing out of the net. Um it was just like as childish as innocent as it gets. Um and you know that evolved that love evolved too on ice and a a deep love for the position um and for the game. So, it’s I mean probably untraditional. I know a lot of the goalies started a little bit younger, but could have been good for my hips, too, not to get those extra few years going down. 100%. Did you Did you wear the MySocks at all? What’s that? They’re like street hockey pads specifically or did you just go like just use old ice gear? Oh, no. I I use like I I could I could send you guys a picture of like my first street hockey pads. They were like uh like foam. I forget what brand they were, but they were like they looked like real like on ice pads, but they were like just like light foam. They were just like like just for like ball hockey or street hockey. I’m thinking of like I’m thinking of when you when that would have been for you. There was like Bower had their own street hockey line. Franklin did. Oh, it might have been Franklin actually. Yeah. Um I still have my goalie my street hockey Franklin goalie in the basement and my blocker. The Yeah, the grips are all gone. Like if I were to put my hand in the blocker, like it’s just your fing your actual fingers, your bare hand pretty much, right? Oh yeah. Um awesome. You want to do the lightning round here or do you you want to do one more? Well, before before that, just I do have a couple questions. Well, one question specifically from the chat. Um speaking of gear, like obviously you’re a big guy when it comes to your gear, your helmets, stuff like that. Um any plans on changing things this coming season? Um I haven’t actually decided yet. Um, I love that helmet. Which one? The the Gladiator helmet. That was sick. Did you like Gladiator 2? Uh, I actually haven’t seen Gladiator 2 yet. Honestly embarrassed to admit that with Gladiator on my helmet, but I love the first one so much. I’ve probably seen it like seven to 10 times. Um, like that movie, if I ever need to get fired up for something, like that’s the that’s the movie that I’m throwing on my TV. Um, so I also heard that the second one wasn’t as good, so I’ve been a little It wasn’t. No. Watch it. Yeah. Heard it was still good, though. So I It was good, but you’re never gonna beat the first one. No sh. Yeah. Yeah. But I’m a huge fan for the first one. But honestly, this year I’ve been thinking um thinking about some other movies, you know, from my childhood that I love. Um I haven’t come up with like a like a a full idea yet, but I’m kind of dabbling around Surfs Up right now. Um, maybe getting Kobe Ma Cody Maverick on my helmet. Some of those penguins. Um, that’s sick. Yeah, I love that show, that movie growing up. So, um, I, uh, I haven’t fully committed to it, but um, that’s an idea for the helmet. For the gear, honestly, I don’t know if I’m going tan again. It’s going to be I’m going to decide that in the next week or so. Tan was sick. I love I love tan so much because it went with anything really. Like, yeah, I love the old school look. Um, we can hit the lightning round real quick before we get out of here. All right, we’ve got six super quick questions for you. Uh, first pregame and postgame meal. Um, it depended if I was in Buffalo or Rochester, but it would mostly be like uh pasta with chicken and a little bit Alfredo sauce. And then I’d probably go I would have a little bit before my nap and after my nap. So that was like pre-NAP and then postnap I’d go like a little bit chicken and rice. Solid. Get some broccoli in there. Before we continue, Steph, I just I just realized the time. Do you got to get out of here right now? Uh, I got two minutes if uh Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Um, next question. Um, favorite athlete, past and present. Uh, Carrie Price was my guy growing up. Um, you know, he’s one of the reasons why I’m a goalie. um just being in Montreal, being able to watch him. So, he’s he’s definitely my role model growing up. Um there’s a lot of other athletes that I’ve been like super interested in in like other sports. I uh I’ve been watching a lot of tennis lately and you know some some Breakpoint on Netflix watching like Nadal and you know Jookovic I’ve been able to see in person. Just their mental toughness is like through the roof. Um and uh like those are those are two guys that you know I’ve watched a lot of Tom Brady too. He’s got a couple documentaries. Um, I love the quarterback series on on Netflix like Momes and Burrow and, you know, Goth and those guys. Even the receivers show is unbelievable. Just seeing how some of these guys like the most elite talent in the world, you know, how, you know, their approach to the game and seeing how dialed in and detail specific they are. Super super cool to see. So, I try to take a little bit of everyone, you know, try to take something from everyone, like something I could learn, um, something that I could apply without losing myself, obviously, sticking to, you know, my foundation, but just being motivated and influenced by like the greats around you are it’s it’s great nowadays that we have access to watching these guys and seeing their day-to-day on TV. So, you know, taking advantage of that. Like, I I love it. Yeah. I mean, Josh Allen tonight and Hard Knocks, I think, would be a would be a great place to start. I don’t if you ever seen Hard Knocks, but premieres tonight on HBO, so you can go back and watch that. No way. Cool. Yeah. Go Bills. Uh, last one for me. I’ll skip a couple. Uh, favorite restaurant in both Buffalo and Rochester. Good question. Um, Rochester. I um I really like this place called Crave. It’s like a ramen spot. Um, really really good. They have a sister restaurant right next to it also that uh that has sushi. It’s uh it’s great combo of food. Like I probably probably eaten there like over 20 times each. Um and then in Buffalo I uh I really like Gian Carlos. It’s uh you know Yeah. Great restaurant. Can’t go wrong with that. Um I really like Rachel’s also for just like a quick bite like Mediterranean place. Yeah. Another good spot to go is Malberry if you’ve ever been there. Malberry. No, I’ve never heard. Oh, it’s super it’s it’s it’s great. Especially if you’re like on a date night. Gian Carlos, too. But um my last question, I’m actually going to go off. I don’t remember if I asked you this question. If I did, I I won’t. But if you could have f if you could have dinner with five people, uh past or present, doesn’t matter. you know, an athlete, a musician, uh fictional character, um and uh athlete, musician, family member, and again, past or present. Uh who would it be? Four people. Um luckily, I think almost all my all my family members are alive, thankfully. So, um I mean, I could go to dinner with them whenever I want, so I’m not going to shoot them. Um, I’d probably have to go with those like those those guys that I just mentioned, like the great athletes of all time, like guys that I’ve I’ve looked up to my whole life. Um, just being at dinner just surrounded by greatness. Um, just, you know, obviously those guys have accomplished amazing things and just they say that you’re, you know, the product of the five people you surround yourself by um or that you you talk to the most. So, you know, being around guys like that is something that, you know, would be obviously a dream. Yeah. Any musicians in general? I said musician and fictional character. Yeah. I mean, John Mayer, like probably throw him in that category also of like one of the greatest of all times. Um, I just got into him recently. I have two buddies that play the guitar that um really like him and play some of the songs and they just were able to explain to me or show me how talented he actually is. Um, and just like understanding that like no one else could do what he does, um, is pretty crazy. And, you know, I love his music. Obviously, a very talented singer also, so he’s, uh, he’s definitely on that list, too. All right. Um, I mean, that’s really just about it uh, for us. I mean, sounds good. You know, the Ovetkin can actually. Uh, what was your reaction when you got that in the mail? Yeah, that was super cool. That was uh one of the one of It was really funny. Um for like I was laughing. I was like I didn’t even remember him taking a shot. They’re probably all dumpins. Um but yeah, that I went back and look. You had some You had some legitimate saves. I have to go back and watch. There were at least three legitimate saves there, so give yourself some credit. Cool. Yeah, I mean it’s super cool just um being on that that short list and just I want to keep that can for me or with me my whole life. And then when I’m 80 years old, I’ll probably crack it open with my goalie coach at school, Mike Condan, who was also on that list, and we’ll chug up. Hashuk only allowed one. So, you were better against Obes than Dominic. One by. So, uh, Deb, thanks for your time. Uh, maybe we can have you on again sometime soon. Uh, but absolutely, dude. Thank you for hopping on and, uh, you know, good luck in next season. and you know, excited to have you back on a new contract and uh you know, we’ll talk to you soon. Thanks, man. Thanks, guys. Thanks. Appreciate Appreciate you, bud. That was Devin Levi. Obviously, we didn’t get him for the uh full half hour, but we got a decent amount in there, Earl. That was great. And uh you can tell how nice of a kid he is, how smart he is. I think uh a few of his answers really really go into his thought process and how he approaches the position. and combined with Alex Lion in that room and I don’t know too much about UPL’s personality, but that seems like a good goalie room and a good goalie organization to be in. I uh I’m super excited about the future of the position in Buffalo. And uh yeah, I mean obviously a great kid and super super nice of him to join us for as long as he did. Yep. I again I think the goalie room is a lot you know I think has definitely grown just obviously in skill and maturity with Alex coming you know coming into the fold and you know I think I I I really feel like Dev and and Alex have very similar personalities like you said. So I think there’s a there’s a good good opportunity for possibly them to learn learn quite a bit from each other. Um any final thoughts from you? Yeah, I mean that’s kind of what I’m I’m left with at the moment. uh kind of what Alex spoke to about how crazy it was the run he came on when he did after college and the adversity that he’s faced since going to Rochester performing as well as he has and going along the development path that he is. I think that’s a really good sign for his future. Uh I spoke about uh Dustin Dustin Wolf’s AHL journey and what he eventually needed to do to get into the NHL himself. Dev would need to play a hundred more AHL games to to meet what Dustin Wolf did. and they’re similar profiles of goalies. So, I think he’s definitely on the right path and he’s got the right approach to it. I think he is like as he said, he’s working as hard as he possibly can to be the best goalie he can be and he’s motivated by greatness. He’s motivated by those that came before him. And I think attitude, especially with how mental the position of goalie is, is is half the battle or probably more than half the battle uh when it comes to that position specifically. So, I’m super encouraged, really excited to see what he does this year, especially in training camp, see if he can push those guys a little bit. And either way, in Buffalo or Rochester, I think we uh we got a really good one. And uh excited to see what see what transpires here. Yeah. And like I’m pretty pretty pumped we got to play that clip from Lion uh for cool that I’m pretty it’s pretty cool that they watched part of the episode. That’s pretty sick. 100%. And I think uh I think it’ll give him a little bit of an idea if he hasn’t already what type of personality he’s uh he’s walking into, which is like one of the most and and Alex Hine one of the most like thoughtful authentic thought authentic guys we’ve ever been around and in the same way that Devin is honestly like two really really good guys and I know from what I’ve hear that uh that UPL is as well. So u yeah I’m stoked. I think the the Sabres defense and goalending is in as good as pos of a position as we’ve had for a long time and we’ll see what happens with the forward group. I don’t necessarily think what everybody is mocking is what is going to be the opening night lineup. So, got a couple months here and uh we’ll see how it goes. Yeah, I’m just I’m I’m glad we did got them on for the amount of time that we did. I think we got you obviously we had our bullet list of questions we wanted to ask. I think we got through most of them, but you know, whatever is there remaining, if we have them on again before the season starts, you know, we will, uh, we’ll we’ll have some more questions to ask them. So, uh, that’s about it for me. Uh, just want to remind everybody, this has been brought to you by Fatty Beer Company, Western New York’s premier market with over 300 beers to choose from at six different Western New York locations. Uh, if you need a beer, make sure you make it a fatty beer. Let them know two goalies when Mike sent you. Uh, until next time, as always, go savers.

Duane and Hurls are joined by Sabres goaltender Devon Levi!

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