It was just one season ago where Peter Budaj experienced the best year of his career. Most of that season was spent protecting the net for tonight's opponent, the Los Angeles Kings.
As the expected starter for the game tonight, Budaj will not only be going against the team that revitalized his career, he will also be looking to put forth a stronger effort than what he has shown to this point.
Budaj saw the most action of his career in 2016-17, playing 53 games for Los Angeles and seven for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Filling in for the injured Jonathan Quick, the veteran netminder recorded a .917 save-percentage, 2.12 goals against average, and seven shutouts. After he was sent to Tampa Bay as a part of the Ben Bishop trade, Budaj did not show the same level of amazement with the Bolts but did enough to be brought back as the team's backup netminder this season.
So far this season, the Lightning have been fully committed to making Andrei Vasilevskiy their workhorse, showing how confident they are in his ability to be Tampa's starting netminder for both the present and future. Unfortunately, that has left Budaj sidelined for all but two games where he has shown signs of rust and struggled. It is tough to fully blame Budaj for his poor outings thus far. There is a great amount of difficulty when it comes to playing a position where your in-game action is limited. It is quite challenging to develop any sort of groove, comfort, and momentum. However, there is no changing the fact that this is going to be Budaj's role this season, barring Vasilevskiy being sidelined due to injury (knock on wood that doesn't happen).
Peter Budaj has what it takes to be a reliable goaltender in the National Hockey League, he showed it a lot last season. Still, another poor outing or two and the Lightning could start to get concerned about their backup goalie situation.
That concern can be at least halted if Budaj can come out and have a strong game against his former team. It will definitely be something to keep an eye on if you have what it takes to stay up for the late game.