San Jose Sharks at Calgary Flames [Game 44]

Fresh off of a two to nil loss to the Winnipeg Jets, the Calgary Flames return home to take on the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks are in first place and should obviously prove to be a tougher task than Winnipeg did, but that’s why they play the games. The Flames are two points ahead of the Low Angeles Kings for seventh place with the Kings having two games in hand.

The Flames didn’t play poorly last game. Possession was close, but but it was still a very mediocre and uninspiring performance and the Jets simply had the better performance in net. They’ll give it another go tonight with Chad Johnson back in net and the lineup exactly the same.

San Jose played last night and the Flames are coming in rested, so they do have a slight edge there. That said, the Flames biggest problem all season has been their inconsistency across three of four lines and straight-up bad performance from the bottom two defensive pairings when T.J. Brodie is on the left side and Jyrki Jokipakka is in the lineup. One would expect the 3M line to be better than last game, but unless they improve upon the inconsistencies then they could ultimately wind up on the outside looking in.

by Les Mavus