SAN JOSE -- Playing the part of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals yesterday were the San Jose Sharks.
And playing the part of the Edmonton Oilers, unfortunately, were the Edmonton Oilers.
The end result in what's become a never-ending Groundhog Day of frustration was one we've all seen before: San Jose teased the struggling underdogs by giving them a sniff of a chance, then, when the time came to show who's boss, the Sharks took the Oilers out behind the barn and put them out of their misery.
Two goals from Devin Setoguchi and one each from Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton were all the shots San Jose needed.
Bang, bang, bang, bang.
Did anyone remember the shovel?
"About the same as our last 15 games," captain Ethan Moreau sighed after the 4-2 mercy kill. "We played well, they just scored more goals than us."
Stop us if you've heard it before.
"They have some great players and when they get chances they execute," said Sam Gagner. "They score on their chances. That seems to be the difference right now betweeen us winning and losing."
As if the Oilers weren't depleated enough ability-wise, they had to play this one two forwards short after Fernando Pisani joined Gilbert Brule in sick bay with the flu and Ryan Stone's knee became too painful to skate on.
Straight up it wouldn't have been a fair fight, first against 15th in the West, but tilt the table a little further in San Jose's favour and it could have, probably should have, been a lot worse.
"I thought they played hard, it was a good team we played against tonight," said coach Pat Quinn. "Early on we weren't really good, but as the game progressed we picked it up. Our guys rallied and they played hard. We fell a little short. So, we lost to a good team, again."
The Oilers have one win in their last 15 games and have now lost seven in a row.
Before this drought started they were 15-13-4. Now they're 16-27-5.
"The effort's been there the whole time in the majority of our losses," said Patrick O'Sullivan.
"I don't think anybody can fault that. I don't think anybody will say there's a lack of effort. Again, it's the little mistakes, and the way things are going for our team there's no room for the slightest error."
The first two errors came on the first two San Jose goals. Marleau's centering pass went in off Dubnyk at 3:51 and Devin Setoguchi scored with a not-great wrist shot at at 18:44.
Dubnyk should have had both, but on the balance of play (16-6 in shots at the first intermission), the Sharks deserved to be in the lead.
"Their first two goals weren't beautiful, but the fact is, it's suddenly 2-1," said Quinn.
Still close enough that Edmonton could detect the faint scent of an upset, but San Jose put an end to that in the second with Setoguchi's second of the night at 22 seconds and Thornton's goal off a tic-tac-toe play at 15:36.
O'Sullivan scored the Oilers first shorthanded goal of the season midway through the third on San Jose backup Thomas Greiss, but 4-2 was as close as it got.
"These close losses are starting to add up," understated Sam Gagner. "It can't happen; we can't be satisfied with just playing good games."
ROBERT.TYCHKOWSKI@SUNMEDIA.CA
