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Forgettable season for Khabibulin
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There’s only one thing Nikolai Khabibulin would like to forget about this season: all of it.
With a 10-32-4 record, .890 save percentage and 3.40 goals against average, he put up numbers that would have anyone longing for a nice case of amnesia.
“It was a little disappointing,” understated the 38-year-old netminder, who has two years left on his $3.75-million contract. “For me, personally, I’ve never lost that many games.”
It wasn’t entirely his fault — the Oilers were not an easy team to backstop — but there’s no hiding from the stats.
“I think I played well at times and I could have played better some games,” he said. “I think a lot of this year was a combination: We would have decent goaltending but wouldn’t score a power-play goal, or we’d score a power-play goal but we wouldn’t kill penalties. There weren’t many games when everything came together. I think I can play better, I’ll try to play better next year.”
Being out of the playoffs by January is also tougher on a 38-year-old former Stanley Cup winner than it is on youngsters in their first NHL tour of duty.
“I don’t think I lost focus,” he said. “It is harder to play a little bit when you’re out of the playoff picture. I’m not going to lie about it. But at the same time I can look in the mirror and say that I tried hard. As much as it’s really disappointing the way that the season went I can still look in the mirror. Although I’m not happy with it, I’m OK with the effort.”
Khabibulin still has his DUI conviction in Scottsdale to deal with — it’s been hanging over him all season but he says it wasn’t a distraction.
“I asked my agent to handle everything because I didn’t want to think about it every day,” he said. “Now in the summer I’ll try to take care of it and move forward.
“It’s under the appeal process. I don’t believe a date has been set yet so I don’t know much of anything.”
robert.tychkowski@Sunmedia.ca
TWITTER.com/TYCHKOWSKI
