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Bruins' Anton Khudobin placed on waivers |
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Ty Anderson
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It was fun while it lasted. Or until the puck dropped, anyways.
With just one win and an .885 save percentage in eight games this year, and after a 20-of-23 effort in which he blew a two-goal lead in his last start, a Dec. 23 overtime loss to the Hurricanes, the Boston Bruins have seen enough of Anton Khudobin and have placed the veteran netminder on waivers.
"I don't think he's played to the level that we know he can and that we've seen him in the past," Bruins coach Claude Julien, whose team has just one win from a goalie other than Tuukka Rask this year, said of Khudobin. "Certainly very capable of being a better goaltender than what we've seen."
Signed by the Bruins to a two-year, $2.4 million contract on July 1 to help shore up a two-year black hole of bad backup goaltending, the 30-year-old was all smiles as he returned to what he considered home (the Bruins acquired Khudobin in 2011 and he emerged onto the big league scene with the Bruins as the backup to Rask in their lockout-delayed 2013 campaign). And although the extra year seemed to serve as expansion draft protection, a return to Boston -- where Khudobin was arguably at his best in his NHL career -- presented a chance for him to put himself back on the NHL map as a capable goaltender after an up-and-down year with the Ducks organization.
Instead, ‘Dobby’ failed to provide the B’s with much of anything in regards to the trust factor the team needs in their backup if they're to avoid burning the all-world Rask out for the third year in a row.
It’s fair to expect Zane McIntyre, who is a perfect 10-0-0 with the AHL’s best goals against average (1.41) and save percentage (.951) to get the call back up to Boston. McIntyre was also named the AHL’s goalie of the month for December, with two goals or fewer in eight of his nine starts. McIntyre has appeared in three games for the B’s this year, with two losses and an .859 save percentage.
Ty Anderson is the Boston Bruins beat writer for WEEI.com, and has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010. He can be heard on the Saturday Skate program on 93.7 WEEI (Boston), can also be found in the New England Hockey Journal magazine, and has been part of the Boston Chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
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