Buried at the bottom of the Northwest Division, the Edmonton Oilers have dropped three in a row including Monday’s 4-2 defeat at Anaheim. Edmonton owns the league’s best power play, but didn’t get a chance with the man advantage against the Ducks until late in the third period. Jordan Eberle converted his team-leading 29th goal.

“We’re a young team and inexperienced, and maybe we’re not getting the calls that maybe we should,” said Shawn Horcoff, who ended his own six-game goal drought with a second-period tally. “But listen, we’re in 29th place, so we’re not going to get a lot of breaks out there. The biggest thing for us is just to not complain, because it’s only going to make things worse. We just have to stick with it, because when we do get the power-play unit out there, we’ve proved to be successful.”

The Oilers look to avoid losing to the San Jose Sharks for the sixth time in seven meetings at HP Pavilion.

Catch the game live on Sportsnet Oilers with coverage starting at 8:30 p.m. MT, or on Sportsnet West following the Flames game.

Eberle continues to be a bright spot for Edmonton, with four goals and three assists in his last seven games. He has three goals and one assist in five career meetings with the Sharks, including a goal in each of his last two.

Second-year left wing Taylor Hall has scored twice while setting up three other tallies in three career visits to San Jose.

The Sharks are trying to reverse what’s becoming a free fall through the Western Conference standings.

Re-establishing their dominance over the last-place Oilers could be a good place to start.

With coach Todd McLellan hoping to return to the bench Tuesday night, the Sharks attempt to beat the Oilers for the sixth time in seven meetings at HP Pavilion.

Fantasy notes: Jordan Eberle has squared off against the Sharks twice this season and has two goals. Joe Thornton has 37 points in 35 GP against the Oilers in his career. | Follow Chris Nichols on Twitter

San Jose (33-24-7) has dropped 11 of 15 to fall from first place in the Pacific Division and into the eighth and final playoff spot in the West, only one point ahead of Los Angeles and Colorado.

“We’re in a funk and we need to get out of it and get it going,” defenseman Douglas Murray said. “It’s easy to talk. We have to get it done on the ice, get some wins, get the confidence level up as a team. We’re too good a team to let this go on any longer.”

They haven’t done themselves any favors by dropping two of the first three contests on their four-game homestand. Those struggles continued Saturday as San Jose, playing its third straight game without McLellan behind the bench, fell 3-1 to St. Louis.

The coach has been suffering from concussion symptoms after being hit in the head by a stick during a 4-3 loss at Minnesota on Feb. 26.

Possibly having McLellan back and a meeting with Edmonton (25-34-6) could be just what San Jose needs to reverse its slide.

The Sharks are 10-2-1 in their last 13 games against the Oilers. They won 3-2 in the most recent home meeting Dec. 17, but settled for a point in a 2-1 shootout loss on the road Jan. 23.

Logan Couture scored San Jose’s goal in the Jan. 23 contest before missing the decisive attempt in the tiebreaker. The center, who sat out two games with a lower-body injury before returning Saturday, has three goals and one assist in his last five games against Edmonton.

Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton have also enjoyed success versus the Oilers, with nine points apiece in the last six home matchups in San Jose.

Both forwards are currently struggling, though. Marleau hasn’t managed a point in his last three games, while Thornton has been kept off the scoresheet in his last two.

Gilbert Brule is not on the Edmonton Oilers two game trip that starts Saturday in San Jose. Brule remains out with the flu and will miss a third game. Shawn Horcoff, who was too ill to play Thursday versus Pittsburgh, is expected back in the lineup Saturday versus the Sharks. Ryan Stone, who like Horcoff didn’t practice on Friday, will be a game time decision with a sore knee. He missed 19 games with the injury and surgery earlier this year.

Edmonton and San Jose will meet for a third time this season and for a second time in 2010. The season series began with a 5-4 shootout win for the Sharks on Nov. 27. On January 2, the Sharks defeated Edmonton 4-1.

In the season series Patrick Marleau leads with four goals and two assists leads in points for the Sharks, including a hat trick in the Nov. 27 game, which is one point ahead of Joe Thornton’s five assists versus the Oilers so far this season. Dustin Penner (1-2:3) is the leading point getter for the Oilers and Ryan Potulny leads the way in goals with two points.

It’s been a dreadful stretch for the Oilers with just one win in its last 14 games and only three points during that span. The win came in a 3-1 win Dec. 30 against Toronto. The team picked up a single point in a 5-4 overtime loss to Phoenix on Jan. 5.

Streaking players:
Lubomir Visnovsky: Two game point streak (1-2:3)
Patrick O’Sullivan: Two game point streak (0-3:3)
Dany Heatley: Five game point streak (3-3:6)
Dan Boyle: Five game point streak (1-5:6)
Joe Thornton: Three game point streak (1-2:3)

There’s no doubt a large focus for Edmonton on Saturday will be the unit of Patrick Marleau (31-18:49), Joe Thornton(12-49:61) and Dany Heatley (27-25:52). If you add up their numbers they have a combined 70 goals, 92 assists for 162 points and are plus-47 as a trio.

Patrick Marleau is seventh among active players in most games played for the same organization. Marleau will play his 920th game for the Sharks against Edmonton. The leader is Mike Modano; who has been in 1,434 games with the Minnesota-Dallas organization.

In the first decade of the 21st century Thornton led all players in points with 817. Jarome Iginla is second with 737 and Daniel Alfredsson third with 726.

Sharks coach Todd Maclellan looks like he may have had enough of no second line scoring and will break up the trio of Devin Setoguchi, Ryan Clowe and Joe Pavelski. The threesome has gone eight games without a goal. Clowe may be dropped to the third line and replaced by Manny Malhotra.

San Jose and Anaheim have something in common as both teams had eight players named to Olympic teams; four of the Sharks will represent Canada (Dan Boyle, Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley). There is one player each for Russia (Evgeny Nabokov), U.S.A. (Joe Pavelski), Sweden (Doug Murray) and Germany (Thomas Greiss).

Amid the losses that have been piling up for the Oilers, the powerplay has found a spark. In each of its last two games the Oilers have potted a pair of man advantage goals against Pittsburgh and Nashville. By comparison they only had five powerplay goals in the previous 12 games.

While there is a 31 point gap between Edmonton and San Jose in the standings there isn’t nearly as big a spread between the teams 5-on-5 play. In fact, the Sharks have only scored seven more goals (94-87) than the Oilers in 5-on-5. Where the problems arises for Edmonton is what they’ve given up 5-on-5 compared to the Sharks (100-76).

The Oilers are still in search of that elusive first win of 2010. They are 0-4-1. Edmonton has suffered losses to the Sharks, Blue Jackets, Predators and Penguins in the New Year. The only point they picked up was in a OT defeat to Phoenix.

The Sharks start the day even in points but second in the standings in comparison to Chicago. Both the Sharks and ‘Hawks have 68 points, but the Sharks have played one more game than Chicago.