It was another big day for Andre Blake in the 2016 Regular Season opener on Sunday. The former No. 1 pick made eight saves – which would have tied a franchise record had he not broken it last year against New England – to keep the Union alive against the defending regular season Western Conference champions FC Dallas.

Amazingly, that brought Blake’s career number of saves to 41. That’s already fourth best in Union franchise history and only 27 behind Chris Seitz for second all-time, which is quite realistic that Blake will reach that by year’s end.

So that got us thinking, in eight career games, where does Blake stand? Here's the breakdown in Union franchise history:

Name Saves Shots GA Andre Blake (2014-16) 41 52 13* Chris Seitz (2010) 24 44 17 Brad Knighton (2010) 23 33 8 Brian Sylvestre (2015) 21 34 12 Zac MacMath (2011-14) 16 25 8 Rais Mbolhi (2014-15) 15 27 10 Faryd Mondragon (2011) 14 19 4 John McCarthy (2015) 13 29 15

Only Chris Seitz and Brad Knighton (both a part of the struggling expansion team) even had half of the saves Blake has made through their first eight games. Of course, Blake's also faced by far the most shots, but he also has the best save percentage -- and by a pretty wide distance. Only Mondragon (73.6 percent) and Knighton (69.6 percent) even come close to Blake (80). Worse yest, Blake has even had the unfortunate luck of having two own goals stand against his record (in his debut against Houston in 2014 and again last year against Toronto).

But considering the wide margin, that got us thinking about where Blake may stand all-time in MLS history. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, 103 goalkeepers have made eight career appearances and at least 40 saves in the league's history. Of those, only three players averaged better than 5.1 saves per game (as Blake has averaged so far): Thomas Ravelli, Mark Dodd and some guy named Tim Howard.

Further, not a single player had a better career save percentage than Blake's 78.8. The closest was another former U.S. Men's National Team standout Brad Friedel, who played two years for Columbus and posted a 75.6 save percentage. Admittedly, it will be hard for Blake to continue at the pace he's at, but impressive nonetheless.

Of course, none of these answer the question of where Blake stands in MLS history through eight games. Since it's not easily navigable through Elias, here is our best guess with going through a handful of the save per game leaders.

Name Svs/game Saves in first 8 Thomas Ravelli (1998) 5.7 42 Mark Dodd (1996-99) 5.4 36 Tim Howard (1998-03) 5.2 36 Andre Blake 5.1 41 Aidan Heaney (1996-97) 4.9 35 Adin Brown (2000-04; 2011) 4.7 50 Brad Friedel (1996-97) 4.7 35 Marcus Hahnemann (1997-99; 2012-14) 4.6 18 Juergen Sommer (1998-02) 4.6 40 Tony Meola (1996-06) 4.5 38 Matt Napoleon (1998-00) 4.5 43 Danny Cepero (2008-09) 4.5 32

Only Adin Brown, Matt Napoleon and Thomas Ravelli had more saves in their first eight games amongst the Top 15 in MLS saves/game. That, of course, does not automatically mean Blake is fourth all-time, but you have to think he's pretty close.

Finally, here's Blake stacked up against some of the bigger names in U.S. Soccer and MLS history, outside of the aforementioned Howard, Friedel and Meola. None of these players had more saves than Blake in their first games. Again, it is only eight games, but take a look:

Name Saves in 8 All-time Saves Kevin Hartman (1997-2012) 12 1,474 Nick Rimando (2000-16) 39 1,364 Joe Cannon (1999-2013) 32 1,331 Jon Busch (2002-15) 33 1,151 Matt Reis (1998-2013) 26 1,114 Scott Garlick (1997-06) 34 1,021 Zach Thornton (1996-2011) 26 987 Troy Perkins (2004-15) 25 724 Donovan Ricketts (2009-15) 22 544 Stefan Frei (2009-15) 29 524 Sean Johnson (2010-16) 32 480 Bill Hamid (2010-16) 20 476

So it will be interesting to watch this year as Blake progresses. Either way, it's a good start for the young Jamaican.

Notice something wrong? Email Chris Winkler at cwinkler@philadelphiaunion.com.