Calgary Flames at San Jose Sharks Betting Preview
Opening Moneyline: Flames +170 / Sharks -200 O/U 5 goals
Time: 10 PM EST Monday January 18, 2010
Tonight in a Western Conference match up the San Jose Sharks host the Calgary Flames. San Jose is coming off a win, is 7-2-1 in their last 10 games, and they lead the Pacific Division with a 9 point lead over the Phoenix Coyotes. The Fames are struggling lately, as they have lost 4 in a row, are only 4-5-1 in their last 10 games, and are in 3rd place in the Northwest Division, but only 2 points back of the 1st place Colorado Avalanche.
This season the Sharks are 15-4-6 at home and the Flames are 14-7-3 on the road.
In their last games the Flames lost to the Anaheim Ducks 5-4 yesterday and the Sharks beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 on Saturday.
Tonight the Flames look to avoid their first 5-game losing streak since 2007.
Even though the Flames are struggling they have a better record on the road (14-7-3) than at home (12-10-3).
The Flames will be facing a Sharks' team that is solid on both ends of the ice, as they rank 4th in the league in scoring (3.10 goals per game) and rank 6th in goals allowed (2.44 goals per game).
San Jose G Evgeni Nabokov is playing well, as he is 10-2-1 with a 1.94 goals against average in his last 13 starts. However, he is only 1-4-2 with a 3.42 GAA in his last 7 starts against Calgary.
The Sharks will have to play solid defense against Jarome Iginla, who leads the Flames in goals (21), assists (22), and points (43).
Calgary has to win this game on defense, as they only rank 22nd in the league in scoring this season (2.56 goals per game).
Flames' G Miikka Kiprusoff (42-23 2.15 GAA save percentage 92.6%) has to have a good game tonight and in December's win over the Sharks he made 35 saves. In his last 8 starts against the Sharks he is 6-2-0 with a GAA of 2.69.
The Calgary defense has to contain Joe Thornton, who is 3rd in the league in points (63), and Patrick Marleau, who leads the league in goals (32).
Calgary is 1-5 in their last 6 games against teams in the Western Conference and their Under record in their last 28 games is 20-5-3. San Jose is 12-3 in their last 15 games, 11-2 in their last 13 games against teams in the Western Conference, and in 5 of their last 6 games the total has gone Under.
Our Selection : Calgary has now lost 4 in a row and 6 of their last 7. They blew a 1 goal lead after 2 to the Ducks last night and now take on the best team in the west the San Jose Sharks who beat Edmonton 4-2 at home on Saturday. The Sharks have won 3 of last 4 with their only loss was to Boston in a shootout. Take Sharks -.5 in 60 mins
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NHL Handicapping
Tampa Bay Lightning at Boston Bruins 5-17
The Boston Bruins need to play much better in game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Bruins lost the opener 5-2 at home and can ill-afford to fall behind 2-0 to Lightning. Tampa Bay are on quite a roll, winning their last eight in a row in the playoffs. The oddsmaker at Bodog have the Bruins as a -145 favorite to even-up the series.