I don't understand how a legitimate Stanley Cup challenger like Tampa has Peter Budaj as its' backup goalie. Especially given how intelligent & solid of a GM Steve Yzerman is.
But in sticking with Budaj all year, it seems to me Yzerman has created a potential weakness as large as the Death Star's exhaust hole in his Lightning blueprint.
Yzerman's choice of goalies has been a huge weak spot of his.
He gave up too much for Lindback and that was even before Lindback had been as bad as he was. He still wasn't worth that after 2 years of average backup netminding to Rinne. He signed a 42 year Roloson (not a bad move for what he did the season before) who wound up blowing up the next year, but his backup was a shitty Mathieu Garon. Not a great safety net for a 42 year old starter. He got Bishop for pretty cheap, I'll give him that. Only after he overpaid for Lindback and it blew up on him.
I'm not gonna blame him for signing 39 year old Nabokov to be a backup. He looked like he could have been a decent backup for a year when they signed him, but he wound up detonating, getting waived, then getting traded to the Sharks for future considerations so that he could go there to announce his retirement.
Then last year he trades Bishop and takes back Budaj, which makes sense as Budaj was just to take back a goalie contract from the Kings for taking Bishop. Then he signs him to not a one year deal, but a TWO year deal? His play with LA last year was a bigger fluke than Clemmensen's run with us back in 2008-2009. He already washed out of the last 2 years before he ended up with the Kings NHL team after Quick was injured and Zatkoff stunk up the joint. Anyone remember when we played them with Budaj earlier this year? He allowed about 3 pathetic goals.