I want some hockey. Look at this poor dog, he wants some Oilers hockey too!!! So our Oilers have been quite busy in the off-season from drafting Taylor Hall first overall, signing third and fourth liners for the Oilers and bulking up their AHL team. Check out all the signings at the Oilers website here. Tambellini is not done yet as he still has several restricted free agents to sign with the two most important being Sam Gagner and Andrew Cogliano. I'm surprised they didn't sign Gagner right away but I'm not sure which side is dragging their heels on this. I'm sure it'll get done but would prefer this sooner rather than later.Next up is our goalie situation. Deslauriers has elected for arbitration but the Oilers rarely go this route and will likely resign him before his hearing as they did with Brule. I'm surprised JDD thinks arbitration is a good idea. Did you really have a good year? You went 16-28-4 with a save percentage of .901. Yeah sit the fuck down.
So with Deslauriers going to arbitration and Dubnyk signed, we're left with Nikolai Khabibulin or as I like to refer to him now as Boozy Bulin. After trying to worm his way out of the charge (my back hurts) and the jury trial postponed several times, Boozy is going to a judge trial at the end of August. So at least we'll know what is going on before training camp starts but what happens if he is convicted? The maximum penalty is 6 months in jail (minimum is 30 days). We are left with the unknown at this point. If convicted, when will he be sentenced? Will he have to do much time? Will he miss training camp? Can he even enter Canada? Can we void his contract? The only thing going for Boozy is this is his first offense so maybe he can wrangle a plea bargain for a lesser charge (Arizona is very tough on DUI's so that is unlikely).
I searched online and found this regarding conviction of extreme dui:
In Arizona there are specific laws and penalties for people who fall under the category of "Extreme DUI". A person is said to be an Extreme DUI if their blood alcohol concentration is 0.15 or higher within two hours of driving or being in actual control of a vehicle. A person convicted of Extreme DUI is convicted of a criminal misdemeanor.However this site says Canada views misdemeanor DUI convictions as felonies so he would have to apply for a waiver or something to enter Canada but that will take time and he will likely miss part of the season. So if you don't show up for training camp, does that void your contract or something? A few months back I thought a plea bargain was likely but that probably would have happened by now, non? It's possible. We'll have to wait and see.
So while we wait for news on Boozy, July is almost over and August will be here and closer to the hockey season. I need hockey sooooooooooooooo badly.
