After an unsuccessful road trip, the Calgary Flames (4-12-2, 10 points) return home having lost three in a row. They’ll try to get back into the win column when they host the upstart San Jose Sharks (8-6-3, 19 points), low-key one of the most fun groups of players to watch in the National Hockey League this season. Can the Flames find their mojo again? Or are they merely going to be fodder for the Sharks?

Today’s broadcast begins at 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet One and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Jonathan Huberdeau – Morgan Frost – Matt Coronato
Rory Kerins – Nazem Kadri – Joel Farabee
Sam Honzek – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman
Ryan Lomberg – Connor Zary – Adam Klapka

Yan Kuznetsov – MacKenzie Weegar
Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
Jake Bean – Brayden Pachal

We’re projecting Dustin Wolf to start in net, backed up by Devin Cooley. The projected extra skaters look to be Joel Hanley and Yegor Sharangovich.

It hasn’t been all rainbows and sunshine in Calgary this season. The Flames have generally out-shot and out-possessed their opponents this season, but they’ve struggled to convert puck possession into dangerous possession. Their shot maps generally look like donuts, with precious few high-danger chances in the middle of the ice. And unfortunately when the Flames have made defensive lapses, it’s those high-danger chances that their opponents have been given.

The margins were razor-thin for the Flames last season and they held it together. This season, the margins have not held, and so we’re discussing a team that’s won four games out of 18 to start the regular season.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Tyler Toffoli – Macklin Celebrini – Will Smith
William Eklund – Alexander Wennberg – Philipp Kurashev
Jeff Skinner – Ty Dellandrea – Collin Graf
Barclay Goodrow – Adam Gaudette – Ryan Reaves

Mario Ferraro – John Klingberg
Dmitry Orlov – Shakir Mukhamadullin
Sam Dickinson – Vincent Desharnais

We’re projecting Yaroslav Askarov to start in net, backed up by Jakub Skarek. The projected extras are Timothy Liljegren and Nick Leddy.

The Sharks are young, fun, and they can score a ton. They haven’t lost in regulation since Oct. 28, and they’re 6-0-1 since then. Prospect Macklin Celebrini has quickly morphed into the player that the Sharks hoped he could become. And his buddy Will Smith is no slouch either.

They had to go through some on-ice pain to get there, but the Sharks may be a strong argument for why it might not be horrible for the Flames to get a high draft pick this year.

The Flames are without Martin Pospisil and Zayne Parekh.

The Sharks are without Carey Price, Logan Couture, Ryan Ellis, Michael Misa, Vincent Iorio and Alex Nedeljkovic.

This is round one of four in this season series. They’ll meet again in San Jose on Dec. 16, in Calgary on Jan. 31, and in San Jose again on Feb. 26.

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