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Craig Anderson activated by Avalanche, John Grahame sent back to AHL

Colorado Avalanche v Philadelphia Flyers

John Smith #00 of the Philadelphia Flyers shoots the puck towards Joe Jones #00 of the Colorado Avalanche in the first period of a hockey game at the Wells Fargo Center on October 11, 2010 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Paul Bereswill

The Avalanche will be getting a boost soon by welcoming starting goalie Craig Anderson back to the lineup. Anderson has missed the last few weeks after suffering a knee injury during warm-ups back on October 26th. Usually when a team loses their starting goalie, success can be tougher to come by but Peter Budaj was nothing short of great in filling in for Anderson.

Budaj went 6-3-1 .931 save percentage and a 2.60 goals against average in those 10 games since Anderson went down. Instead of just hanging on waiting for Anderson to get back, the Avs were able to kick it into another gear and rally around Budaj. Meanwhile Budaj helped silence his critics for a little while and helped show that Craig Anderson doesn’t necessarily need to play 70 games in a season for the Avs to be able to make the playoffs. That said, expect coach Joe Sacco to return to riding Anderson for the season as he seems to thrive on constant action during the games and consistent play.