Two teams that have experienced similarly rough Novembers must be thankful that it’s a new month on the Calendar and will both be looking to start December off with a win. But when the Ottawa Senators meet the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night, things can only get better for one of them!

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Both teams have only won twice in the last seven games, so SHOULD be relishing the prospect of meeting a team as bad as they are the Ottawa Senators were taken down 4-1 by the Oilers and the San Jose Sharks lost their last to Detroit 5-3 but...

TALKING THE TALK

Sharks’ Centre Joe Thornton said he was looking forward to the Detroit game and said “When you play against the premier centres in the league, you get up for those games and you enjoy playing in those games.”

TALKING THE SAME TALK

Talking the same talk was Ryane Clowe, “I think sometimes mentally you think you need to bring it against Detroit a little more and you step up your game.”

NOT WALKING THE WALK AT ALL.

It seems that neither player was listening to the voices in their head on Tuesday night as the Wings took revenge for last season’s playoff elimination at the hands (fins) of the Sharks.

Because of a power outage at the HP Pavilion neither team could manage a morning skate, but it was the Sharks that seemed the more inconvenienced of the two as the Wings got goals from Henrik Zetterberg (two), Pavel Datsyuk, Danny Cleary and Patrick Eaves to beat San Jose in their first meeting since the May playoffs.

The Sharks might look to their sick beds for an excuse for the loss as defensemen Niclas Wallin, Kent Huskins and Jason Demers were all sidelined with injuries, not to mention forward Devin Setoguchi.

Ouch!

"They were the better team when it was all said and done," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. "They created more quality scoring chances than we did, they forced us to turn the puck over a little bit more, and their special teams were a little sharper than ours were."

That sort of performance won’t lift the Sharks off the bottom of the Pacific division.

More misery for the sharks is that they have not gotten a goal from a defenseman for six straight games.

And the Sharks are still stuck in the middle of the pack in the conference looking up at the Red Wings proudly atop the standings.

But the Senators match itself may have to take second seat to Dany Heatley's highly anticipated return to Ottawa, his former home. Last season Heatley scored 39 goals with the Sharks and is currently on route to a 40+ goal year, and picked up another goal against Detroit.

He may be missed by Ottawa, but he isn’t fondly regarded.

Don’t expect the fact that the trade was  a “mere” 447 days ago to stifle the boos of Ottawa I foresee the Senators fans (and players) happily getting stuck in to Heatley.

This time it really IS personal.

A slightly less impassioned level the stats tell us that in the last seven the senators have let in 22 goals with just 12 in reply.

Expect that the Senators will be fired up after their last game. Ottawa opened the scoring  taking advantage of a couple of breaks 6:30 in when Nick Foligno found the net, but  Tom Gilbert scored a power-play goal late in the second period to draw the Oilers level, and from then on there was only one team going to win the match.

Oilers keeper Martin Gerber had an excellent night between the pipes and managed 22 saves for the win (his second in two starts).

Andrew Cogliano put the Oilers ahead in the second before he and Gilbert Brule scored a goal and collected an assist each in the third period before Taylor Hall filled an empty net wit the puck to round out the scoring with 1:55 remaining.

The Oilers lost 4-3 to San Jose on Saturday, which would suggest….if the Sharks beat the Oilers…..The Oilers beat the Senators then surely……..The Sharks should beat the Senators.

Doesn’t it…?

Free NHL Pick: Sharks win – Comfortably 4-2