A long time ago – okay, last Tuesday – the Calgary Flames (28-22-6, 62 points) were caught off-guard by the visiting San Jose Sharks (24-27-4, 52 points). They lost the game and their captain. Now, just shy of a week later, the Flames are headed to the Shark Tank with one thing on their minds: revenge! (Also, they could really use two points in the standings.)
Put on some coffee, because this will be a late one! The puck drops just after 8:30 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

The Flames

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Mangiapane – Backlund – Tkachuk
Gaudreau – Monahan – Lindholm
Lucic – Ryan – Dube
Rieder – Jankowski – Bennett*
Hanifin – Andersson
Brodie – Stone
Kylington – Davidson
David Rittich starts for the Flames, backed up by Cam Talbot. Sam Bennett has the flu and is questionable, so Zac Rinaldo may play in his place. Travis Hamonic is on IR with an injury. The projected extras are Alexander Yelesin and Buddy Robinson.
The Flames were great against Vancouver, with all four lines chipping in and the team playing solid defense despite losing Hamonic midway through the game. Now, can they follow it up? Their pattern all season has been one step forward, one step backward. Can they seize this momentum and follow up on a big 6-2 win over the Canucks?

The Sharks

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Kane – Goodrow – Marleau
Meier – Thornton – Labanc
M.Karlsson – True – Noesen
Sorensen – Letunov – Gambrell
Dillon – Burns
Vlasic – E.Karlsson
Simek – Ferraro
Aaron Dell starts for San Jose, backed up by Martin Jones. Their projected extra is Tim Heed.
The Sharks are back home after a pretty strong western swing that included them beating both Alberta teams. They’ve been off since Thursday when they thumped the Edmonton Oilers. They’re hoping that their time off won’t halt their momentum.

The Numbers

Flames
Sharks
Wins
28
24
Points
62
52
Adjusted Corsi
49.8%
49.9%
Power Play
20.3%
16.2%
Penalty Kill
81.5%
86.9%

Injury Report

The Flames are without D Juuso Valimaki (ACL surgery), D Mark Giordano (hamstring) and D Travis Hamonic (upper body).
The Sharks are missing D Dalton Prout (upper body), F Logan Couture (ankle), F Tomas Hertl (knee) and F Joel Kellman (lower body).

When Last We Met

This is the third of four games between these teams this season. The Sharks beat Calgary 3-1 in each of the first two games. They’ll meet one more time in Calgary in March.

Know Thy Enemy

Here are some key Twitter peeps to follow for tonight’s opener: