Sunday, February 26, 2017

Jeff Zatkoff Stadium Series Jersey Card

Starting with the rebirth of Peter Budaj and continuing with the acquisition of Ben Bishop, the Los Angeles Kings may very well have sentenced intended backup goalie Jeff Zatkoff to a couple of years in the AHL instead of the two-year run as Jonathan Quick's backup, as had previously been intended.

It's been a pretty bad season for the former Pittsburgh Penguins prospect, and not just because of his 2-7-1 record, 2.94 GAA and awful .879 save percentage, but also because he has had to deal with injury after injury.

Zatkoff thus becomes the only goalie since the Darryl Sutter and Bill Ranford era began to not have a career season with the club, after Jonathan Bernier, Erik Ersberg, Ben Scrivens, Martin Jones and Jhonas Enroth had all posted terrific statistics behind the reinforced steel wall that is the Kings' defense.

Zatkoff possesses athletic genes, his father (Jeff Sr.) having been an NBA draftee and his great uncle Roger Zatkoff having played in the NFL with the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers.

Here's a really cool card showing Jeff wearing the Pens' 2014 Stadium Series white uniform, in a snowstorm, featuring a big white game-worn jersey swatch (that may or may not have been used in that game):
It's card #SS-JZ from SP Authentic's 2014-15 SP Game-Used Edition, by Upper Deck.

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