The 6K discussion thread: Can he lead us to the playoffs? Keeping the crease warm for Levi?

[Thorner]

41 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Someone needs to talk to Kevyn about a bird in the hand being worth two in the bush.  UPL is here now... in the hand.

Exactly. Fool me once..shame on..shame on..you? Point is, can’t get fooled again with the goalie approach 

[Doohicksie]

2 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Exactly. Fool me once..shame on..shame on..you? Point is, can’t get fooled again with the goalie approach 

Right.  I think he put all his eggs in the Levi basket and arrogantly thought losing Ullmark would be no big deal.

[Big Guava]

UPL has a 2.39 GAA and save percentage of .914 with 3 SOs in his last 20 games. That's tied for 9th best save percentage over those many games with Bobrovsky and 7th best GAA. Tied for 2nd in SO's with Tristan Jarry and Thatcher Demko.  We wanted to see a consistent stretch of good hockey and we have gotten it.

Sadly he is only 9-10-1 over that time since the Sabres can't score except sporadically.

In comparison, Thatcher Demko has posted a .917 and 2.43 with 3 SOs as well and is 17-2-1.

Remember when we said all we needed was better goaltending? Well, we got it and the results haven't changed much.

He is turning into a real one tho...Levi might not be playing much anytime soon.

Edited February 14 by Big Guava

[LTS]

8 hours ago, Doohickie said:

But he was that stupid once... with Ullmark.

I understand that.  But don't Reinhart him by giving him a minimal bridge deal to free agency, sending the message he's not part of the long term.

There has been plenty posted about how Ullmark was looking to leave the Sabres for a fresh start elsewhere.  Are you dismissing that story?  I tend to believe it all. If he wasn't going to stay unless you paid him stupid money (assuming that would have done it) would it have made sense to do so?

[sweetlou]

UPL should get 2 year extension in the $2.75 million range. Give him another 2 years to see what he candors in the long run.  Have Levi in Rochelles the rest of this yearend all of next year. Bring in a guy like DeSmith to be the back up for one year.  Revaluate the goalies after the 24-25 season.

[French Collection]

Levi was the second star for the Amerks tonight, stopping 37 of 39 shots in a victory over Utica.

[Pimlach]

12 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Can’t wait for KA to give out another big contract for a player with one good year.

There is no doubt UPL is having a great year, but he isn’t anywhere close to an Ullmark comparison.  Ullmark was good in the AHL and was good for 3 years in the NHL before he walked.  UPL was bad in the minors and bad in the NHL for the last 3 years before this season.

This is a guy you give a 3 year bridge deal too.  Make sure that he is actually good before committing long-term especially with Levi in the organization.  Think Cal Petersen and his terrible contract.  The Sabres can’t afford anymore 1 year wonders like Cozens, Power, and Mule. 

Yup.  Three year bridge but if he turns out to be a real #1 then it will cost you more down the road.  Worth the risk with Levi developing in the AHL. 

They also need to look for a 1B/2 to replace Comrie.  

Edited February 15 by Pimlach

[Big Guava]

9 hours ago, French Collection said:

Levi was the second star for the Amerks tonight, stopping 37 of 39 shots in a victory over Utica.

Why do I get the feeling we are going to go from having no goalies for 12 years to having 2 goalies?

 

Ullmark was kinda good here but he also was also injured for 6 weeks at a time twice a year too

Edited February 15 by Big Guava

[Believer]

39 minutes ago, Big Guava said:

Why do I get the feeling we are going to go from having no goalies for 12 years to having 2 goalies?

Fine by me.

[mjd1001]

14 hours ago, sweetlou said:

UPL should get 2 year extension in the $2.75 million range. Give him another 2 years to see what he candors in the long run.  Have Levi in Rochelles the rest of this yearend all of next year. Bring in a guy like DeSmith to be the back up for one year.  Revaluate the goalies after the 24-25 season.

2 years for 2.75m would be great, but there is no way he is taking that (at least I strongly don't think so).  If he plays like he is, even finishes in the top 10-15 in most major stats, you are going to need to pay him more than that.

[GASabresIUFAN]

11 hours ago, Pimlach said:

They also need to look for a 1B/2 to replace Comrie.  

I think that will come down to how Levi plays in Rochester for the rest of the year and how much budget does TP give to KA to spend.  If he gives substantial contracts to Mitts and UPL, then his ability to spend in other areas may be limited by the team budget rather than the cap. If Levi plays well and if we have limited funds, KA will go for the cheaper Levi option as the backup. He may do that anyway to insure internal competition.
 

 

[mjd1001]

23 hours ago, Big Guava said:

UPL has a 2.39 GAA and save percentage of .914 with 3 SOs in his last 20 games. That's tied for 9th best save percentage over those many games with Bobrovsky and 7th best GAA. Tied for 2nd in SO's with Tristan Jarry and Thatcher Demko.  We wanted to see a consistent stretch of good hockey and we have gotten it.

Sadly he is only 9-10-1 over that time since the Sabres can't score except sporadically.

In comparison, Thatcher Demko has posted a .917 and 2.43 with 3 SOs as well and is 17-2-1.

Remember when we said all we needed was better goaltending? Well, we got it and the results haven't changed much.

He is turning into a real one tho...Levi might not be playing much anytime soon.

We can pick the number of games we want to make things look as good or as bad as we want, but before reading this post I wanted to see how he was doing since the beginning of the year, Since Jan 1, 2004:

6w - 5L (11 starts)   .944 save percentage.  1.56 GAA, 3 shutouts.  Has not allowed more than 3 goals in any of those games.

In his 5 losses, he only allowed 11 total goals (2.2 per game).  If only the Sabres had a little more offense....

Edited February 15 by mjd1001

[Marvin]

1 hour ago, mjd1001 said:

We can pick the number of games we want to make things look as good or as bad as we want, but before reading this post I wanted to see how he was doing since the beginning of the year, Since Jan 1, 2004:

6w - 5L (11 starts)   .944 save percentage.  1.56 GAA, 3 shutouts.  Has not allowed more than 3 goals in any of those games.

In his 5 losses, he only allowed 11 total goals (2.2 per game).  If only the Sabres had a little more offense....

.944 SP with 1.56 GAA and he's 6-5 with only a 2.20 GAA in the losses.  I can't stop shaking my head.

[mjd1001]

So just as quite a few of us start singing his praises, saying how good he is playin in this very thread....and UPL comes down with an injury that will cost him a game (or games).

Maybe its not much..he COULD play but they want an excuse to give him a couple days off and NOT look bad to the fanbase like they aren't trying to win. (I'm reaching here, I know).

[Big Guava]

18 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

So just as quite a few of us start singing his praises, saying how good he is playin in this very thread....and UPL comes down with an injury that will cost him a game (or games).

Maybe its not much..he COULD play but they want an excuse to give him a couple days off and NOT look bad to the fanbase like they aren't trying to win. (I'm reaching here, I know).

SMH...if we didn't have bad luck this season with injuries we would have none at all. Just a constant rotating door...one comes back, two go out. Two come back, three go out.

It's ridiculous.

[mjd1001]

On 1/20/2024 at 9:50 PM, DKski said:

Why so cranky about a nickname?

6K may be challenging to those who struggle with counting or recognizing letters of the alphabet. But it's bespoke to him and unique in a way that reflects his unusual name. IMHO it's also far more clever and interesting than just his initials,  or the uninspired "Upie" that I hear his teammates sometimes use. 

Whichever one you prefer though, using words like "garbage" and "dumb"? About something as trivial as professional athlete's nickname? Makes it sound like you should consider switching to decaf. 

It sounds like someone is should 'switch to decaf' just by how upset you got by my original post.  You ended up with a longer response to my post saying my opinion that the length of my original post.

And by the way, I said giving someone a nickname who already has one is 'dumb', that is straight forward. but don't trip over yourself saying 'someone should switch to decaf' trying to be so clever. I find that more offensive to me and more worthy of a response back than me saying a nickname someone made up out of the blue (and is trying to PUSH) is 'dumb'.

[French Collection]

San Jose’s Kappo Kahkanen plays in front of a lousy team but has a .905 sv% for the season. He has put .926 in his last six starts.

He is a UFA this summer and turns 28 before the season starts. He has played 128 NHL games with a career .900 sv%.

A Finnish partner for UPL, with half as many K’s.

[Hank]

1 hour ago, French Collection said:

San Jose’s Kappo Kahkanen plays in front of a lousy team but has a .905 sv% for the season. He has put .926 in his last six starts.

He is a UFA this summer and turns 28 before the season starts. He has played 128 NHL games with a career .900 sv%.

A Finnish partner for UPL, with half as many K’s.

I think Levi is 6Ks backup next year. 

[Hank]

3 minutes ago, Hank said:

I think Levi is 6Ks backup next year. 

I'll go on record right now, Levi will start at least 25 games next year and have a winning record. 

[shrader]

2 hours ago, Hank said:

I'll go on record right now, Levi will start at least 25 games next year and have a winning record. 

In Rochester?

[Hank]

1 hour ago, shrader said:

In Rochester?

Okay, that was funny. 

[Claude Balls]

Did Levi get called up again? Is he hurt? The Amerks are going with Cooley and Tokarski today, and they've both played. That's how bad they are playing against the worst team (Utica) in the North division. Down 7-3 in the 3rd. Levi played Friday night and looked pretty good in the win. 

Edited February 18 by Claude Balls

[Buffalonill]

4 hours ago, Claude Balls said:

Did Levi get called up again? Is he hurt? The Amerks are going with Cooley and Tokarski today, and they've both played. That's how bad they are playing against the worst team (Utica) in the North division. Down 7-3 in the 3rd. Levi played Friday night and looked pretty good in the win. 

Hopefully not he needs to be away from the clown organization right now 

[Claude Balls]

1 hour ago, Buffalonill said:

Hopefully not he needs to be away from the clown organization right now 

I agree 100%. I saw him play Friday night. Just thought it was weird that he wasn't at the least the backup for Roch today. This entire organization is so ***** up. 

[Second Line Center]

7 hours ago, Claude Balls said:

Did Levi get called up again? Is he hurt? The Amerks are going with Cooley and Tokarski today, and they've both played. That's how bad they are playing against the worst team (Utica) in the North division. Down 7-3 in the 3rd. Levi played Friday night and looked pretty good in the win. 

They play today (Monday).  He probably starts.