Battle of the Basement: Flames-Sharks Game Day Preview, Notes, How to Watch

The Calgary Flames cap off their season tonight with a faceoff against the last-place San Jose Sharks in what should be one of the more relaxed games of the 2023-2024 regular season. Fans will remember these two teams finishing out 2022-2023 with a loose affair featuring a Nikita Zadorov hat trick. Here are a few notes and storylines to keep in mind as we approach the season finale.  

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+ 

Double Rebound 

While the Flames suffered a discouraging 4-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday, it’s fair to say that the Sharks have had it worse this week. San Jose fell 9-2 to the Edmonton Oilers on Monday night. Some losses are easier to rebound off than others. A four-goal first period, a five-goal second, and a deadly silent third was one of the more crushing losses for David Quinn’s Sharks this season. The only loss with a higher goal differential was a Nov. 2, 10-1 win for the Vancouver Canucks. 

Equally Matched? 

It may be a tough pill to swallow, but the Flames haven’t been much better than the 32nd-place San Jose Sharks of late. San Jose has a 4-13-2 record since the March 8 NHL Trade Deadline. The Flames are 6-13-0 since then. Only two points separates the Flames (12) from the Sharks (10) over that span.  

Even Stevens 

With a 6-7-1 record, tonight will serve as an opportunity for Dustin Wolf to finish the season with a .500 points percentage over 15 games. Jacob Markstrom has a 23-23-2 record for a flush .500, and Daniel Vladar came up just short, going 8-9-2 before cutting his season short for hip surgery.

Calgary Flames Projected Lineup  

Update coming at warmups. 

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 

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