Game Preview: Flames vs. Sharks

Tonight at 8 pm MT, the Calgary Flames (24-22-7) continue their road trip with a trip down to face the San Jose Sharks (29-15-6) at the HP Pavillion in San Jose. This is the third time these two teams have met this year, with the Sharks prevailing both times previously, 2-1 and 1-0.

This will be the first of a back-to-back set for the Flames, and the middle of a four game in six night stretch for the Flames. Goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff is sitting one win short of 300, but he’ll need to be his best against his former team- he’s riding a bit of a hot streak, having gone 6-3-2 in his last 11 games. Though it’s amusing to think that the Flames acquired Kipper from the Sharks because of their goaltending depth at the time. Kiprusoff was their third stringer behind Evgeni Nabakov (who’s still playing in the NHL) and Vesa Toskala (who isn’t, but backed up Kiprusoff later on with the Flames, ironically).

Despite being a middling 5-4-1 in their last ten, the Sharks sit in 3rd in the NHL’s Western Conference, with a comfortable hold on that seeding. Though they have only a two point lead on the Kings in the division, they have played four fewer games. They’re coming off a tough 5-3 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes, who also happen to be the Flames’ next stop on the trip.

We’ve seen some offense from both teams of late, so given the lack of scoring in earlier games (the law of averages, you see), we may actually see some goals in this one, despite injuries to Curtis Glencross, Lee Stempniak, and Martin Havlat. Though it’s not really a good sign for the Flames offense that an injury to Lee Stempniak is considered a blow to the offense.

I thought about linking this Toskala beauty when I mentioned him earlier, but then realized that he played for the Flames AFTER that, and made a sad face. Worst part of it is, he was probably the best caddy to Kipper we ever had.