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I realized today that I actually remember where I was for several previous Olympic team announcements. In 1998, I was in West Edmonton Mall in a Jersey City or something similar. They were announcing the team alphabetically and a guy in the store was helpfully jotting down the names of players as they were announced. A angry murmur ran through the crowd as Joe Nieuwendyk’s name was announced - Mark Messier’s international career was at end. As the name Steve Yzerman was announced and it became apparent that that wasn’t enough players, confusion reigned for a brief period before crystalizing into one burning question: “Who the fuck is Rob Zamuner?” Glory was inevitable.

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Scoring Chances for NHL Game Number 20540

It seems that the Molson half price singles thing has been a bit more prevalent and aggressively marketed this year. 90 minutes until game time and 61 tickets remain.

Scoring Chances for NHL Game Number 20528

Robin Brownlee posted something at OilersNation a little while ago that caught my attention, although I didn’t get around to writing anything about it at the time. The offending passages:

I don’t know about you, but from where I sit Jeff Deslauriers has pretty much shoved it up the backsides of his critics once and for all as to his ability to be a competent NHL starter during the 10 straight games he’s played since Nik Khabibulin’s back gave out because of wallet strain.

…

I’m not saying JDD is the second-coming of Martin Brodeur or has even done enough, yet, to indicate he can be a top-tier NHL starter, but he’s damn sure better than people who were citing his lack of pedigree and so-so minor pro numbers were projecting him as.

…

Hindsight being what it is, I’m guessing GM Steve Tambellini wouldn’t have handed Khabibulin his fat four-year retirement package had Deslauriers put together this kind of impressive streak last season. He didn’t of course, in large part because Craig MacTavish left him to rot behind Dwayne Roloson and Mathieu Garon.

Again, clarity often only comes with time.

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“Long term, I’m not worried because the doctors have assured us he has a strong back, aside from the issue he has. Hopefully, this settles down.”

-Tambo, as quoted by Dan Barnes

There’s one other passage that caught my eye from Barnes’ story.

Tambellini had been assured of Khabibulin’s health and fitness prior to signing the deal and sees no reason to regret the decision. There were other choices at the time, including Dwayne Roloson, Craig Anderson and Martin Biron, but they liked Khabibulin enough to commit dollars and the future of their netminding to him.

Barnes doesn’t say who assured Tambo of Khabibulin’s health and fitness. Given that it took about two hours from the opening of free agency for the signing to occur and that we can be reasonably certain that the Oilers didn’t review any medical records, it seems to me that the only source of this information could have been Jay Grossman. Maybe it’s true, maybe not it’s not, but I don’t commit $15MM on the assurances of a guy who owes me no duties that everything is fine with his client’s back. Just because he’s an agent and you’re talking to him doesn’t mean that he represents you.

Scoring Chances for NHL Game Number 20509

I’ve apparently never posted this here, but with the news that Nikolai Khabibulin is having a “procedure” on his back to “kick-start his recovery” as well as the strong indications that they didn’t review any medical records before agreeing to pay him $15MM over four years, I thought that this was worth pointing out. Earlier this year, NHL.com did a story about Fernando Pisani and colitis. Pisani’s quotes cleared up some of the backstory here:

“I was diagnosed in 2005, but it wasn’t until a couple of years ago I basically felt the wrath of my illness…”

…

For the first two years after his diagnosis, Pisani had experienced minor symptoms, but he never took action. Because of the private nature of the symptoms (constant diarrhea mixed with blood) he chose not to divulge his diagnosis. Whenever the illness flared up, Pisani shrugged it off and battled through it until they went away. But just prior to the 2007-08 season, these symptoms were altering Pisani’s lifestyle and hockey career so drastically that he had no choice but to see a doctor and face the reality that his life as he knew it could change drastically.

“I kept telling the team trainers and everyone else it was just a flu or basically I was just sick, but sooner or later everyone could see this was serious and I finally told them what was wrong,” Pisani said.

If you take what Pisani is saying at face value, he didn’t disclose his illness to the Oilers, although they may have known that he was experiencing “…constant diarrhea mixed with blood.” Whatever doctor he was seeing, they either didn’t request his medical records prior to signing him to a contract worth $10MM or didn’t care that he’d been diagnosed with colitis.

The fact that Pisani knew about the diagnosis and didn’t disclose it to a team making a $10MM investment in him does change the colour of things a little bit as far as I’m concerned. The Oilers have been deservedly praised for not suspending Pisani without pay, as is their right under the SPC. It’s one thing to do that when you think a fellow’s had a hard break. It’s quite another when he knew something that he chose not to tell you when you were signing him to a $10MM contract.

In any event, it happened, and the Oilers apparently took on a risk that they probably didn’t want (or would have wanted a discount if they were taking) because they didn’t check his medical records. We have no way of knowing whether Khabibulin’s current problems are related to his past history of back problems. We can be reasonably certain that they didn’t look at anything before signing him to a deal. Given that they’d been burned before with Pisani, it is amazing to me that they went out and signed Khabby without making any investigations.

Incidentally, the Oilers weren’t the only team this summer that signed a player without doing a physical beforehand. Chicago signed Marian Hossa and, in a post-signing physical on July 10, found out that he needed shoulder surgery.

Dale Tallon’s firing was announced two business days later.

One of the less reputable commenters over at Lowetide’s site chimed in on the comments to point out that Horcoff is -4 in his last 4 games and -8 in his last 9. He went on to suggest that Horcoff is killing the Oilers at the moment. Here are the last ten EV goals against with Horcoff on the ice:

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Scoring Chances for NHL Game Number 20493