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San Jose Born Goalie Showdown — High Notes — Flames-Sharks Game Day |
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We’re going to get more into it this week, but how strange has this Flames season been?
Rookie head coach Ryan Huska is a staunch promoter of strong starts and strong finishes to each game. That concept didn’t quite translate on a macro level to the season as a whole.
October 10-31: 2-6-1 (31st)
November 1-March 7: 29-20-4 (14th)
Post-trade deadline March 8-April 18: 6-13-0 (27th)
Again, lots of analysis to come on it, but there has been so many twists and turns this season. Each month has had a distinct theme. Stay tuned for a compelling post mortem. Let’s do tonight’s game first.
Calgary Flames (37-39-5, 73 pts) vs San Jose Sharks (19-53-9, 47 pts)
Last Ten: Calgary (4-6-0) San Jose (3-6-1)
Time: 7:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.
TV: Sportsnet West, NBC Sports California, ESPN+
High Notes
It’s a bit of a silly stat, but the Sharks are 3-7-0 in games immediately following a loss by five or more goals. That’s not five goals total, but a differential of five or more. The fact that they’ve lost ten games by at least five goals likely says more than the stat itself.
The Sharks happen to be coming off one of the aforementioned dire losses. Edmonton shellacked San Jose 9-2 on Monday night. It’s likely that the Sharks will be sticking to system hockey tonight.
Likewise, the Flames are coming off a bad one. A 4-1 loss to the Canucks on Tuesday in a game where Calgary was simply beat by the better team. Vancouver looks ready to go on a deep run. Good for them and their fans.
A Fair Fight
Unfortunately for Flames fans, they’re simply not the team that got within arms reach of a playoff position this season. As mentioned above, they’re 6-13-0 since the trade deadline. 12 points out a possible 38 spells “rebuilding”.
The Sharks are clearly a worse team both on paper and in reality, but their record isn’t far off over the same span. 4-13-2 gives them ten points.
You know what’s great about 6-13-0? That final digit. After 17 spirit-breaking overtime losses — each worse than the last — in 2022-2023, it’s just nice to not have that to deal with.
Editor’s note: Im 34, so I’ll refer to the commenters. Can you remember a season more miserable to watch than last year? I imagine seeing Nieuwendyk sit out is up there.
California Showdown
A great find by former HockeyBuzz writer Sheng Peng. Los Gatos (San Jose greater area) native Logan Cooley will take on Gilroy native Dustin Wolf tonight. Gilroy just 40 minutes south of San Jose.
Sheng’s work at SJHN is unrivalled. Definitely worth a look.
Calgary Flames Projected Lineup
Update coming at warmups. Coleman is back in, so there will likely be Klapka or Coronato eating popcorn tonight.
Pospisil-Kadri-Kuzmenko
Sharangovich-Backlund-Coleman
Huberdeau-Zary-Hunt
Mangiapane-Rooney-Coronato
Weegar-Miromanov
Kylington-Andersson
Solovyov-Pachal
Wolf
Markstrom
San Jose Sharks Projected Lineup
Eklund-Granlund-Zetterlund
Kostin-Kunin-Graf
Bordeleau-Sturm-Gushchin
Smith-Studnicka-Carpenter
Ferraro-Burroughs
Vlasic-Thompson
Thrun-Addison
Cooley
Romanov
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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