The Edmonton Oilers entered the HP Pavilion (known as the Shark Tank) for a Saturday Matinee game winless in 2010. Their last taste of victory was on December 30th against the almost as hapless Toronto Maple Leafs. 6 games, having been outscored 23-13 over that period and team had to face the top team in the league in order to break out of the winless streak. Not a positive outlook for this team. That with the fact it was an afternoon game which, throughout their history, the Oilers have not done a good job of showing up for.
The Oilers have shown over the first 46 games that their line-up and team make-up is filled with weaknesses. If only took the San Jose Sharks 3:51 to expose one of them. That dreaded weak goal. Patrick Marleau was given credit for the goal as his centering pass from the corner hit Oiler’s starting goaltender Devan Dubnyk’s stick and deflected through his legs and into the net. Definitely not the kind of gift that the league’s top line needs and not the way the Oilers need to start a game.
The Oilers did have a bit of life though and were able to tie the game briefly with 16 minutes gone in the period as some hard work down low by Andrew Cogliano and Sam Gagner lead to a great cross ice pass from Gagner that found the stick of a pinching Denis Grebeshkov who made no mistake beating Shark’s starter Thomas Greiss who was making his 7th start of the season.
That was as close as the Oilers would get though as another of their nemisis bit them less than 3 minutes later. Dustin Penner was nailed for a high sticking call out near center ice. It was one of those lazy, unnecessary penalties that ultimately seems to cost the Oilers and it took the Sharks only 54 seconds to find the twine as Devin Setoguchi gave them the lead for good. Outshot 16-6 in the period the Oilers were lucky to get out only down by 1but some good goaltending by the rookie Dubnyk kept the Sharks circling but not biting.
Saturday afternoon it was second place Manchester United taking on 15th place Burnley F.C. in this weeks English Premier League action. ManU came into the game needing a win in order to keep pace with front runners Chelsea while Burnley needed a result to help keep themselves above the relegation zone.
On paper this should have been a cake walk for United with 13 places and 24 points separating the 2 teams in the standings. Burnley had also not won a game at Old Trafford since 1962 so history was also behind United on this day.
The game was eventually won by the Red Devils by a score of 3-0 but the score flattered the home side. The Clarets had the 2 best chances to score before the goose eggs were finally broken. Both Steven Fletcher and David Nugent exposed the weak United back as each were sent in alone by ex-United player Chris Eagles but their finishes both missed the target. Disappointing for a club that had held their own.
Immediately following the Nugent miss, United came the length of the pitch and in the 64th minute it was Dimitar Berbatov who found the mark with a deflected shot off a defender. 5 minutes later it was Wayne Rooney who added some insurance. Mame Biram Diouf replaced Rooney in the 73rd minute and the new guy opened his United scoring account in extra time to close out the scoring for the game.
ManU have to feel lucky that this was their opponent today as another team of quality would most definitely have put the screws to the Red Devils on this day. If either of those glorious chances had been taken then it would have been a different game.