The Sharks will be back in the Bay Area for another extended homestand soon enough but a quick two-game run through Alberta with back-to-back games tonight in Calgary and tomorrow evening against the Oilers provides a brief intermission between their just-completed six-game home slate and their upcoming schedule of five straight at the Tank. They’ll face a Flames team that has won four in a row, beginning with their 2-0 shutout of the Sharks in San Jose last Wednesday.

Everything has gone right for Calgary this season, from their rather average goaltending tandem posting outstanding results to their underwhelming forward corps shooting 9.6% at even-strength to their elite top pairing of Mark Giordano and T.J. Brodie playing superhuman hockey. At some point one or more of those things will start to unravel and the Flames should be revealed for the paper tiger they very much are. Hopefully that begins with a loss tonight.

Tale Of The Tape

	@
13-10-4, 30 points	Record	17-8-2, 36 points
5th in Pacific	Rank	3rd in Pacific
51.8%	Score-Adj. Fenwick	45.6%
99.0	PDO	102.1
24.7	PP%	22.0
82.5	PK%	75.8

7PM PST | Scotiabank Saddledome | Calgary, Alberta
TV: CSNCA-HD | Radio: SJSharks.com, 98.5 KFOX
Know Your Enemy: Matchsticks and Gasoline, Flames Nation

Projected Sharks Lineup

Tomas Hertl – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
Patrick Marleau – Logan Couture – Tommy Wingels
Barclay Goodrow – James Sheppard – Tyler Kennedy
John Scott – Andrew Desjardins – Mike Brown

Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Brenden Dillon – Brent Burns
Matt Irwin – Scott Hannan

Antti Niemi
Alex Stalock

Projected Flames Lineup

Curtis Glencross – Sean Monahan – David Jones
Johnny Gaudreau – Josh Jooris – Jiri Hudler
Michael Ferland – Markus Granlund – Paul Byron
Brandon Bollig – Matt Stajan – Lance Bouma

Mark Giordano – T.J. Brodie
Kris Russell – Dennis Wideman
Ladislav Smid – Deryk Engelland

Karri Ramo
Jonas Hiller

Last Meeting

Last Wednesday, the Sharks suffered the lone regulation loss of their six-game homestand at the hands of the Calgary Flames. Jiri Hudler scored twice, one at four-on-four and another into an empty net, as San Jose lost 2-0 to Calgary at the Tank. Karri Ramo made 32 saves for the shutout.

Storylines

• Matt Nieto is out with an as-of-yet-undisclosed injury. Barclay Goodrow, who last played against these very Flames a little over a week ago, will draw in on the third line.
• Red-hot Karri Ramo is likely to get the start for the Flames tonight. He shut out the Sharks on Wednesday then did it again in Arizona on Saturday.
• Don’t look now but the Sharks are 2nd in the NHL in score-adjusted Corsi% since October 22nd, when their first long Eastern Conference road trip of the season ended. That hasn’t translated into an equivalent edge in shots on goal and their shooting percentage has been abysmal but this team is improving.