Getting access to scoring chance data over multiple teams has allowed me to compare the early season performances of specific teams.  I thought I was out of luck when it came to comparing this year's version of the Oilers to last year's Pat Quinn version, but I was rescued by the work of an Oilogosphere regular.  I cannot thank Quain enough for this information, as the more I dug into it, the more I realized what I had.  I've been able to compare last season with the first third of this season.  I owe him a favor for tracking Dennis' work last season.

Even though I've written about it a number of times and tend to complain about it in the our game threads, I'm not obsessed with the Oilers' penalty kill.  Really, I'm not.  But I thought it might be interesting to compare the chances against while short-handed for Quinn's penalty kill and Renney's penalty kill.

This season has been something of a mess as Tom Renney has instituted his diamond penalty kill system and the Oilers have shown the learning curve to be extremely steep.

Last season, fans made fun of the of the 26th ranked penalty kill, yet last season's worst penalty killers would be among the best on Tom Renney's Oilers.

A quick check between last year's rates and this year's early season returns show that only Ladislav Smid and Andrew Cogliano have improved from last year's rates.

I never thought I'd say this, but I really miss that 26th-ranked penalty kill.