Peter Budaj to the rescue.
When Jonathan Quick suffered a significant injury in the season opener and Jeff Zatkoff went down 10 days later, the Los Angeles Kings' goaltending situation appeared dire, but it's been stabilized by an unlikely force.
On Thursday night, Jeff Carter's overtime winner gave the Kings their fourth straight victory, and Budaj earned his fourth consecutive win since taking over as the starter, after the Kings dropped their first three games to start the season.
Budaj hasn't needed to make more than 24 saves in any of the wins, and none of the victories have come in regulation, but he hasn't surrendered more than three goals in a game this season.
His .901 save percentage isn't impressive - and it's just below his career mark of .903 - but Budaj has done exactly what the team has asked him to do.
"He's played really well for us," Kings head coach Darryl Sutter told reporters postgame, according to Fox Sports West's Jon Rosen. "We don't give up much and (we) expect (him to) make - you've got to make some big saves, obviously, in the National Hockey League, but we don't give up a lot of shots."
Budaj started the season with the Kings' AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, before the injuries thrust him into the NHL spotlight again.
The 34-year-old played 60 games for the Reign last season, appearing in only one NHL game. He spent four years in the Montreal Canadiens' organization and six seasons with the Colorado Avalanche before signing with the Kings two years ago.
Los Angeles general manager Dean Lombardi expects Quick to miss about three months, and Zatkoff was placed on injured reserve after hurting his groin in practice last weekend, so the crease is likely Budaj's for the foreseeable future.
He's bound to lose eventually, and would be more convincing with at least one regulation win, but for now the veteran netminder is a welcome savior for a club that wasn't planning to depend on him to this degree.
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