Calgary Flames (1) - San Jose Sharks (4)

Anyone else tired of the preseason yet? The Flames took a road trip to San Jose last night and all they got for their troubles was a 4-1 loss at the hands of the San Jose Sharks. With that said there’s good news and bad news from this game:

Good: Cam Talbot was very solid.

Bad: Talbot haters have nothing to complain about.

Outside of David Rittich the Flames goaltending hasn’t exactly been stellar this preseason and Talbot would readily admit he was part of the problem. The veteran goaltender had seen 37 shots prior to tonight and surrendered six goals. Tuesday night against San Jose, the one time Edmonton Oiler stopped all 24 shots he faced against San Jose’s regular season lineup.

Where things went off the rails was in the third period after a goaltending change. “Big Snag Zag” didn’t snag much against the Sharks top snipers as San Jose blew the doors off of this one very quickly. Eveyone’s least favorite San Jose Shark, Evander Kane, would open the scoring in the final frame just three minutes into the period and then the flood gates would open. Tomas Hertl would score at 10:59. Dylan Gambrell would score at 13:27. Gambrell, not content with making the score 3-0, would score AGAIN at 13:51. Calgary’s Justin Kirkland would score the only Flames goal at 15:58, barely making a dent in the Sharks 4-0 lead.

Poor Artyom Zagidulin. The 24 year old Russian goaltender got his first taste of a real NHL squad and it wasn’t pretty. The Sharks threw 12 shots at him and he only stopped eight. In his defense the Flames didn’t exactly have their strongest lineup in front of him, but that’s still a rough period in any league against any team.

The 4-1 loss dropped the Flames to 3-3-1 on the preseason with one game left on Saturday night. Calgary will travel home to the Dome to finish up the preseason with a tilt against the Edmonton Oilers. The good news (besides the end to the preseason)? Matthew Tkachuk will be in the lineup Saturday night.