Devon Levi’s Bounce-Back Changes the Oilers’ Goaltending Picture

The first thing I noticed about Devon Levi wasn't that he stopped 19 of 20 shots. It was that the Edmonton Oilers put him back in the net. That's worth noticing.

Levi's first start for Edmonton was, well, let's be kind and call it an adventure. He gave up seven goals on 22 shots in that wild 9-7 win over the Los Angeles Kings. For a young goalie, that's the sort of game that can get into your head pretty quickly.

Then Mike Babcock gave him the net again. And Levi responded. He stopped 19 of 20 shots in a 3-1 win over Seattle, including a terrific third-period save on Jordan Eberle. The game was tied 1-1 at the time, and Levi went cross-crease and somehow got across far enough to make the glove save. That's the kind of save people remember.

Leon Draisaitl certainly did. After the game, he called Levi fantastic and said he made some big-time stops at exactly the right time. One good game doesn’t suddenly tell us Levi is the answer to all of Edmonton's goaltending questions. It’s because he bounced back.

Sometimes the bounce-back tells you more than the bad game.

We talk an awful lot about what happens when a player fails. Especially a goalie. Give up seven goals, and suddenly everybody wants to know whether you can play. Stop 19 of 20 the next time out, and everybody wants to know whether you've figured it out. Maybe neither question is particularly useful yet.

Levi is 24. He's not a huge goalie. He's quick, he moves well laterally, and against Seattle he tracked the puck much better and didn't give up the kind of rebounds that hurt him in his first start. Now he's going back into the net Wednesday against Anaheim. And this is where it gets interesting for the Oilers.

Frederik Andersen is injured. Tristan Jarry is still in the picture. So this isn't necessarily Levi's job forever. But it may be his job to lose for the moment. And maybe that's exactly what Edmonton needs.

What do the Oilers need from Levi?

The Oilers need Levi to give them a chance to win when he’s in the crease. They need the occasional big save when the game is hanging in the balance. They need him to forget the last goal and stop the next one. That's goaltending.

And perhaps the most encouraging thing about Levi right now isn't that he won his first two starts. It's that after a terrible first night, they gave him another chance. He made the most of it.

Now we'll see what he does with the next one.