The Edmonton Journal notes that after two weeks of remedial work, veteran goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin is ready to make his way back into the Edmonton Oilers lineup.
The veteran goaltender, who had surgery on his left hip last spring, flew with the team to Phoenix on Tuesday with the intent on not only backing up Devan Dubnyk, but maybe even getting into an NHL contest during the three-game swing that will see the Oilers play the Coyotes, San Jose Sharks and Colorado Avalanche.
"The ideal situation would be to get in a game and, in the first period, get lots of shots from the blue-line, no screens. But you cannot control that, so whatever happens, happens. I'm just going to have to deal with what comes my way," said Khabibulin, who shared the work at Tuesday's practice with Dubnyk and will be moved to the 23-man roster prior to Wednesday's game.
The 40-year-old goalie, who is in the last year of his contract, last played on March 30, 2012. During the lockout, he worked out with the Edmonton Oil Kings to get used to seeing more pucks again, but realized after a few days at the Oilers' abbreviated training camp that he needed to see even more rubber before playing a game.
"I do feel way better than I did (when camp opened). It's night and day," he said. "I have way better range of motion, from pushing side to side to my recovery, all that stuff is better.
"It's great to be able to do everything at practices and I can do pretty much everything now, but you just can't duplicate the games," he continued. "The biggest difference is going to be the speed and traffic and rebound control when you're under pressure.
"Unfortunately, we didn't have the exhibition games this year, so there was no trial and error period. I'll just treat it as if I had an injury and that I missed a couple of months."
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