Peter Budaj Jersey Card

Peter Budaj played an awesome game on the Montréal Canadiens' last road trip, stopping 27 of 28 shots (.964 save percentage), but not a word of it in Montréal media because Carey Price has been doing just as well, looking like Stéphane Fiset and winning games.

But Budaj's been pretty good for the Habs in two-plus seasons here, though he has faltered at times like anyone else. His GAA has been remarkable: 2.55 in 2011-12, 2.29 in 2012-13 and, well, 1.00 this season. His overall record is 14-8-6, but counting only this year and the last (so, essentially, the 2013 calendar year), he's 9-1-1. He also has three assists with the Canadiens so far.

This card, however, shows him wearing the Colorado Avalanche's (then-third, burgundy) uniform:

It's from Upper Deck's 2006-07 Be A Player Portraits series (card #FE-PB, the First Exposures sub-set). As much as I was never a fan of burgundy, these jerseys were okay in my book, with the COLORADO lettering going down on the chest, New York Rangers-style (but in the Avs' font). It contains a swatch of said uniform, taken from a photo shoot.

I'll be sending some TTMs this weekend, and I think Budaj will be one of the recipients of my compliments and requests. He's been a good, honest team player in all his time here and deserves to be featured again. Also, I made my first batch of custom cards, and he's in it.

Peter Budaj: 3 Autographed Cards

I sent Peter Budaj 4 cards and a fan letter care of the Montréal Canadiens on December 21st, 2011 and got these three back signed in black sharpie on February 9th, 2012 - a very quick turnaround. No idea what happened to the other card, and don't remember what it was, either. But three is more than alright.

Budaj started his career with the Colorado Avalanche, backing David Aebischer, then José Théodore during the 2005-06 season. He eventually became the starter (backed by Andrew Raycroft) before taking a backseat to Craig Anderson. On the left, from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Rookie Class set (card #35), you can see the Avs' original away jersey, while on the right, from UD's 2008-09 Victory set (card #143) is the Reebok version of that jersey, pretty similar but absolutely ugly, where the black and white from the sleeves is replaced with piping on the chest, and an additional blue stripe appears for no reason under the arms.

On the first day of free agency last summer, when many were hoping the Habs would sign Théodore, Mathieu Garon or Jean-Sébastien Giguère to back up Carey Price,  the Montréal Canadiens instead turned to Budaj - for two seasons. So far this year, despite going 2-5-1 (with a 2.73 GAA and .906 save %), Budaj has played as well as Price, he just hasn't been very lucky. This card showing him in training camp (before he got his current Ned Flanders-clad helmet) is from Panini's 2011-12 Score set (card #260).

I like that Budaj also added his respective jersey numbers on the card - 31 for the Avalanche, and 30 for the Canadiens, a number previously worn by star enforcer Chris Nilan.