The mystery continues. The Oilers have been a markedly better team without Nikolai Khabibulin in each of the last two seasons. How much better? Consider the Oilers' 2010-2011 scoring chance numbers against those of the Washington Capitals.
In the table below, I've grouped the 23 most common players from each lineup by their most common linemates (except for Gilbert Brule) or defensive partner. In Washington's case, I've used scoring chance data from the entire season, courtesy of Russian Machine Never Breaks. In Edmonton's case, I've used the without Khabibulin data mentioned in this article.
| Player | 5v5 SCF | 5v5 SCA | SC% | Player | 5v5 SCF | 5v5 SCA | SC% | |
| Mike Knuble | 333 | 276 | 0.547 | Dustin Penner | 116 | 102 | 0.532 | |
| Nicklas Backstrom | 366 | 279 | 0.567 | Sam Gagner | 120 | 128 | 0.484 | |
| Alex Ovechkin | 431 | 325 | 0.570 | Ales Hemsky | 108 | 77 | 0.584 | |
| Marcus Johansson | 228 | 231 | 0.497 | Taylor Hall | 171 | 121 | 0.586 | |
| Brooks Laich | 278 | 222 | 0.556 | Shawn Horcoff | 107 | 85 | 0.557 | |
| Alex Semin | 256 | 189 | 0.575 | Jordan Eberle | 145 | 130 | 0.527 | |
| Jason Chimera | 218 | 241 | 0.475 | Magnus Paajarvi | 129 | 140 | 0.480 | |
| David Steckel | 119 | 137 | 0.465 | Andrew Cogliano | 138 | 150 | 0.479 | |
| Eric Fehr | 133 | 111 | 0.545 | Linus Omark | 72 | 85 | 0.459 | |
| Matt Bradley | 132 | 140 | 0.485 | Ryan Jones | 82 | 105 | 0.439 | |
| Boyd Gordon | 116 | 139 | 0.455 | Colin Fraser | 41 | 48 | 0.461 | |
| Matt Hendricks | 174 | 170 | 0.506 | Gilbert Brule | 51 | 60 | 0.459 | |
| Karl Alzner | 349 | 326 | 0.517 | Ryan Whitney | 76 | 60 | 0.559 | |
| John Carlson | 393 | 332 | 0.542 | Kurtis Foster | 111 | 119 | 0.483 | |
| Scott Hannan | 285 | 224 | 0.560 | Theo Peckham | 126 | 146 | 0.463 | |
| Mike Green | 257 | 228 | 0.530 | Tom Gilbert | 187 | 176 | 0.515 | |
| Jeff Schultz | 302 | 282 | 0.517 | Jim Vandermeer | 133 | 153 | 0.465 | |
| John Erskine | 242 | 214 | 0.531 | Ladislav Smid | 151 | 152 | 0.498 | |
| Marco Sturm | 57 | 44 | 0.564 | J.F. Jacques | 33 | 47 | 0.413 | |
| Mathieu Perreault | 94 | 82 | 0.534 | Liam Reddox | 52 | 78 | 0.400 | |
| Jay Beagle | 52 | 60 | 0.464 | Zack Stortini | 18 | 17 | 0.514 | |
| Tom Poti | 83 | 86 | 0.491 | Jeff Petry | 79 | 65 | 0.549 | |
| Tyler Sloan | 78 | 94 | 0.453 | Jason Strudwick | 70 | 61 | 0.534 |
The Oilers lack of NHL depth shines through as the comparison falls apart a bit at the bottom of the roster, but the top line Edmonton talent matches up extraordinarily well with the top line talent from Washington. The Caps' scoring chance percentage from these players was .529. The Oilers' chance percentage from these players without Khabibulin was .501. With Khabibulin, these players posted a chance percentage of .440.
I still have no answers, but remain curious.