Nikolai Khabibulin on waivers!

jamvan wrote:

Acrobat wrote:One shot in each knee = two shots, thus plural?
And this leads to a rumored trade for an almost-washed-up goalie?

Has anyone really watched him move on the ice - is/was it any different than last year? This would be the telling sign. MCL/ACL would be the likely injury, and if he really needed surgery, I can't imagine they wouldn't have encouraged him to do it in the summer, so he could rehab properly - goalies put a ton of strain on both of those ligaments, as well as the hips. Even a minor strain and he won't have the ability to pop up from a butterfly properly and to power across the net.

I don't agree with that. Fisher and Alfie both should have gotten surgery for their injuries, but opted out. It happens everyday that athletes opt out of surgery. Just look at how long it took Tiger to go for it.

You are misunderstanding what I said - I was pointing out that the team would have encouraged him to have the surgery done in the summer, so as not to rush him back (he is a key player). This is always preferable to surgery in-season to a critical member of the team.

In your examples, the players didn't opt not to have surgery, but opted to delay surgery until a time when it was more appropriate. They waited until summer (Alfie, Fisher), or until after the US Open (Woods). In the case of Alfie & Fisher, they then had the time to recover, but in the meantime, I would guarantee that they were getting shots of cortisone at some point.

rooneypoo wrote:I agree there. Cortisone is nasty stuff, easing the pain and convincing your body that there's no problem, which in turn tricks you into going back to your usual routine and further injuring / straining the muscle / ligament in question.

Cortisone does nothing (directly) for pain. It is used purely for its anti-inflammatory activity, in these cases. It is the inflammation that is causing the pain, through the release of a bunch of different chemicals (I won't go into the entire pathway). The flip-side of this is that inflammation itself can also accelerate the destruction of the tissue, including the damaged tissue, so there is a fine balance between allowing the required healing to proceed (this can be slowed with cortisone), and stopping the inflammation. It's great for arthritic patients, who generally don't go out and play hockey once you've injected their shoulder. For the 30-yr old with a shoulder injury, the justification becomes harder, and the restrictions are stricter.

You are correct in implying that sometimes physicians use cortisone a little too quickly; however it definitely has its place. For the general public, the key is to do just what you did - physio/rehab. For elite athletes, their livelihood depends on getting back into the game, so often they will be willing to accept the long term risks for the shorter and medium term benefits.

C'est la vie.

(and that's all for Physiology 101. Stay tuned tomorrow for Physiology 201....)

504Heater wrote:Oh man...LOL, that was pretty much Chicago's only chance of out and out trading him. Ottawa's not touching him, LA I doubt and no one else can afford it/needs him. Re-entry it is - or a trade with LA that includes Seabrooke and a 1st to absorb the massive cap hit.

CHI will have to give up good assets and/or take on crappy assets in return for getting Khabby off their roster, but the price won't be that high. I could see something like Khabby and a 3rd to LA for Calder (who's been a disaster, and who they definitely want off their team). Something like that. No one's going to be giving up 1sts and Seabrookes in something like this. Think smaller.

DashRiprock wrote:Does Ottawa take a chance on him via re-entry? Trade to rid cap space? Or are they not interested, no way, no how?

No alternate destination in mind for Gerber, no way we acquire Khabby, even at half price.

In all honesty, I think Khabby to the Sens is a pipe dream, and a big of a misguided one given that it'd be a lateral move at best. We don't have the space, and we don't have an asset in Gerber that people are clamouring to get their hands on.

Phoenix30 wrote:

Unless Chicago is willing to let Bulin sit in the minors for a year I think they will need to throw in the 1st and a quality player to make a deal.

Should become very interesting once the season starts and teams see where they are at in about a month. The only thing I am worried about is the longer Chicago keeps Bulin in the minors and teams get a better feeling of their teams, the pendulum could start to swing in Chicago's favor if a team comes looking for the Bulin Wall.

If and when Khabby is assigned to the minors, he'd have to pass through re-entry waivers for him to play in the NHL again. Hence, if he's sent to the minors, no one will be trading for him at that time, because who wants to pick up a guy who will have to pass through re-entry waivers first (at which point they'd promptly lose him and get stuck with half of his enormous salary) to join the team?

No, if he gets sent to the minors, CHI brings him up and hopes someone claims him on re-entry, or they leave him there all year long. CHI is under the guy clock-wise with Khabby. They need to get something done very soon, and that something is either trade him, bring him through re-entry waivers and hope to lose him, or bury him in the minors for the year and eat up that entire salary.

wprager wrote:

Break it off!

I mean the talk about Bulin, not the wedding. She knows what she's talking about. A keeper.

Khabibulin has not been the "Bulin Wall" since he got his big contract. For whatever reason, he's not the goalie he once was. This isn't just a fluke, a blip or playing on a bad team. He just plain lost it. Pierre said it, and Pierre knows everything.

Sure, he might get it back. Same for Bertuzzi, except in that situation you are risking one of your 6 winger spots, and less than $2M.

Thank you. I'm so sick of hearing about this. We can't afford him, and no one is taking Gerber off our hands at a price we'd want to pay.