Via John Kreiser – NHL.com
Nikolai Khabibulin has been reminding NHL shooters that he used to be one of the League’s premier goaltenders.
Khabibulin and the rest of the Edmonton Oilers had a miserable season in 2010-11 — they finished last overall for the second straight season, and he went 10-32-4 with a 3.40 goals-against average and a save percentage of just .890.
But the Oilers, one of the NHL’s youngest teams, have won six of their first 10 games, and their 38-year-old goaltender is a big reason for the early success.
Khabibulin allowed just three goals this past week in beating Vancouver (3-2) and Washington (2-1). Through six starts, he’s 4-0-2 with a GAA of just 0.97 and a save percentage of .964 — six goals allowed on 175 shots. He looks like the goaltender who earned the nickname “The Bulin Wall” while leading the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup in 2004, rather than the one who was 17-41-6 in his first two seasons with the Oilers.