Calgary Flames at San Jose Sharks game preview

Road trip! The Calgary Flames are visiting the San Jose Sharks in game two of their three-game Pacific Division swing. It’s a late one, with puck drop occurring at 8:30 p.m. MT, which means a finish around or past 11 p.m., so… get ready to stay up. Especially considering this team and its tendency to claw its way back from a deficit, which may or may not require overtime. Tune in and set your DVRs accordingly for Sportsnet West.

The Flames were last seen in the black hole that is Anaheim, where they are winless in 19 straight over 10 years because shut up, that’s why. Weak goals from Jonas Hiller, bad bounces, and overall poor defensive efforts sunk the Flames in a 3-2 loss, but TJ Brodie and Jiri Hudler, via Sean Monahan and Mark Giordano, got Calgary on the board to at least make it interesting. Who doesn’t love a goal with fewer than 30 seconds to go? | Recap | Boxscore | Well, they made a game of it:

Brodie, post-game:

The Sharks, meanwhile, have had three days off following a 4-3 shootout loss to the Coyotes. That’s following a 3-2 shootout loss to the Panthers, following a 4-1 loss to the Sabres, following a 2-0 win against the Hurricanes in a game they seriously shouldn’t have won, following a 2-1 loss to the Blue Jackets… These do not appear to be the Sharks we once knew, as they’ve only won four of 11 games in November thus far, and seem to be, well, pretty beatable.

The Flames are currently riding a two-game win streak against San Jose, but lost the three contests prior to that.

Recently, the Sharks traded defenceman Jason Demers to the Dallas Stars for Brenden Dillon. Dillon is younger and was once a teammate of Brodie’s for Team Canada at the World Championships back in 2013.

The Sharks, like the Flames, are a team that has more tough guys than necessary. While John Scott is still around, they recently sent Adam Burish down to the AHL. We could see something similar happening in the Flames, as a number of prospects have earned their spots over certain Burish-like players…

For much more substantial information on the Sharks, visit Fear The Fin.

Game time: 8:30 p.m. MT

Channel: SNW

All-time record: The Flames are 62-48-8-4 against the Sharks, with a +31 goal differential. That's pretty good. Think Calgary will add to it tonight?

Common thread: Miikka Kiprusoff– no, wait. Umm. Well, there’s Devin Setoguchi, who once had a 31-goal season with the Sharks. Those days are long gone, though. Nowadays Setoguchi is a pointless and frequent healthy scratch who isn’t likely to retain a place on the roster as players start coming off injured reserve. The 27-year-old has been outplayed by several Flames rookies and call ups.

Approaching milestones: It's game number 97 for Karri Ramo, and game number 99 for Monahan…

Current records and leaders

Possible starting lineups

Now, these lines aren’t necessarily accurate. Especially the Flames lineup, since it’s expected David Jones will be back in for this game. Jones’ return to the roster means someone has to be sent down, and it could be someone who played last night – this exact same lineup – or one of the most frequent healthy scratches, Brian McGrattan or Setoguchi. All three players are right wingers, so it’s certainly possible one of them is moved out of the way to make room for the default first line right winger.

by Ari Yanover