Last week, I looked at a bunch of former Avalanche players at the midway point of the 2008-2009. This week, I'll be giving a grade to the current Avs starting, today, with the goalies.
2008-2009 1st Half Stats: 33 GP, 13-18-1, 2.82 GAA, .901 Save%, 1 SO
2007-2008 1st Half Stats: 26 GP, 14-8-2, 2.63 GAA, .901 Save%, 0 SO
On one hand, Budaj has won a bunch of games for us almost single-handedly. In 13 of his starts, he's allowed two goals or less (and with a punchless offense in front of him, he's just 8-4-1 in those games). He also was named one of the three stars 11 times. On the other hand, he's had some stinkers: 7 games allowing 5 goals or more (not surprisingly, the Avs won just one of them). While I think he's played better than his record and his stats indicate AND his defense has left him hanging in the wind too often, Adrian Dater is right - a .901 save percentage (33rd out of 47 qualifying goalies) just isn't going to get it done. (He's still better than Theo, though).
Grade: C+
2008-2009 1st Half Stats: 10 GP, 8-1-0, 2.53 GAA, .908 Save%, 0 SO
2007-2008 1st Half Stats: 13 GP, 2-5-4, 3.85 GAA, .876 Save% 1 SO
It hasn't always been pretty, but he's gotten the job done. Razor has been the better goalie of late, and deserves to be getting the starting nod. Was he more lucky than good in the first half? Did the Avs play better in front of him than Budaj? Do people REALLY need to add that "y" to his nickname? None of that really matters as long as he keeps winning.
Grade: B