Flames Game Day 63: Back home to face the Sharks (7pm MT, SN One)

The trade deadline has come and gone, and now the NHL’s 32 clubs begin their spring to the finish. The Calgary Flames (38-16-8, 84 points) are beginning a stretch of 20 games over 39 days, starting with a game against the San Jose Sharks (27-27-8, 62 points). Can the Flames maintain their momentum after a great performance on Saturday night?

The puck drops just after 7 p.m. MT. Catch all the action on Sportsnet One, or Sportsnet 960 The Fan!

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

@Johnny Gaudreau – @Elias Lindholm – @Tyler Toffoli
@Dillon Dube – @Mikael Backlund – @Matthew Tkachuk
@Andrew Mangiapane – @Calle Jarnkrok – @Blake Coleman
@Milan Lucic – @Sean Monahan – @Trevor Lewis

@Noah Hanifin – @Rasmus Andersson
@Oliver Kylington – @Chris Tanev
@Nikita Zadorov – @Erik Gudbranson

@Jacob Markstrom is expected to start, backed up by @Daniel Vladar. The projected extras tonight look to be @Michael Stone, @Ryan Carpenter and @Nick Ritchie.

The Flames shuffled up their lines on Saturday night and it worked out well, with a fairly flat offensive performance in Buffalo was followed with the Flames scoring three times against a desperate Vancouver team that seemed overwhelmed by Calgary’s attack. The Flames would really like to overwhelm San Jose and cash in more points in their quest to secure a playoff berth.

Keep an eye on @Johnny Gaudreau, @Tyler Toffoli and @Elias Lindholm, who were quite good against Vancouver.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

@Timo Meier – @Tomas Hertl – @Alexander Barabanov
@Logan Couture – @John Leonard – @Rudolfs Balcers
@Scott Reedy – @Nick Bonino – @Noah Gregor
@Jonah Gadjovich – @Sasha Chmelevski – @Jeffrey Viel

@Jaycob Megna – @Brent Burns
@Marc-Edouard Vlasic – @Erik Karlsson
@Nicolas Meloche – @Ryan Merkley

@James Reimer is expected to start, backed up by the newly-acquired @Kakko Kahkonen. Their projected extras is @Jonathan Dahlen, at least based on this morning’s line rushes.

The Sharks are 10 points out of the playoffs and experiencing the growing pains of the NHL’s mushy middle: they’re not Arizona and Seattle bad, but they’re also not quite good enough to make the playoffs yet. They’re an honest, hard-working team, though, who always seem to play the Flames tough. Expect them to come into the Saddledome with something to prove.

The Flames are healthy.

The Sharks are without Radim Simek, Kevin LaBanc, Mario Ferraro, Nikolai Knyzhov, Matthew Nieto and Adin Hill.

The Flames have lost twice to the Sharks this season: 4-1 in early November and 5-3 in early December.

Your recommended Twitter follows for tonight’s contest:

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