Calgary Flames vs. San Jose Sharks Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 4/7/2022

Time: 10:30 p.m. ET

Venue: SAP Center, San Jose, CA

Where to watch: NBC Sports California, SNW

DraftKings: Flames -215, Sharks +175

BetMGM: Flames -250, Sharks +195

Caesars: Flames -233, Sharks +190

Flames: 42-19-9

Sharks: 29-31-9

OK, I told myself I wouldn’t do this. I really wanted to wait until the time was right to do this, which for this team, the right time was to see them get past the first round of the playoffs. But I’m thinking if I jump the gun they’re going to fall off the face of the map and things just rest to normal times.

But here it goes: The Calgary Flames are legit and they might be the biggest challenge to the Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Yes, we still have to consider the likes of the Minnesota Wild, the Dallas Stars, or even a fully healthy Vegas Golden Knights team should they get there. But the Flames continue to go at a great pace and are quickly approaching 100 points on the season.

The Flames currently sit at 93 and are closing in on a Pacific Division title led by Johnny Gaudreau and Jacob Markstrom. Calgary will try to win its third straight on Thursday, playing the second night of a back-to-back, against the San Jose Sharks who come in on a four-game losing streak of their own.

Calgary is trying to put an end to the California road trip on a positive note. After defeating the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 on Monday, the Flames followed that with a 4-2 road victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night.

Markstrom continued his Vezina Trophy campaign with a 26-save performance and shutting the door in the third period. Elias Lindholm scored his 36th goal of the season, and Tyler Toffoli and Matthew Tkachuk also scored for a productive day in the office of Darryl Sutter.

“We stuck with it,” Flames defenseman Michael Stone said, who also scored the game-winning goal. “We were on our heels a little bit early, gave up a bunch of chances, but we stuck with it. Those are the kind of games we're going to have to play now.”

This winning stretch the Flames are on really starts to give people hope. Sure, they had the rough patch in losing at home to Colorado, Los Angeles and St. Louis last week, but with no one else seemingly ready to take the push of the division and letting it sit in Calgary’s grasp, you have to think this is the year they’ll make things very fun in the Saddledome.

And that kind of game comes up again on Thursday when the Flames make the short trek to Northern California and take on a Sharks team that has played the spoiler role as bad as anyone possibly could. Not only did they nearly rally from 4-1 down to defeat the Dallas Stars, they blew a 1-0 lead in the third period and lost to the Edmonton Oilers in overtime on Tuesday.

The Vegas Golden Knights will not be sending any fruit baskets their way, that’s for sure.

Tomas Hertl scored the lone goal for the Sharks, and James Reimer finished with 22 saves despite giving up the goals in the third period.

“We did everything we needed to do five on five,” coach Bob Boughner said. “That was one of our best, most solid games in a long time. A little bit of the story of our year. Outchanced a team, had so many chances. Smith played great and you can't get that second goal that you need.”

The San Jose offense has gone cold and will likely catching fire when playing Calgary. The Sharks have scored a grand total of seven goals during this losing streak.

That number alone is why you should take the Flames. Forget the fact the Flames are just better and have shown no signs of slowing down despite Dan Vladar likely going in net. The Sharks just can’t score right now, and expecting them to do so against this Calgary netminder tandem is not the greatest combo. Give me Calgary in what should be a SEGABABA domination. Flames win 4-1

The Flames are 11-9 this season against division opponents.

The Sharks are 14-25 this season coming off an under.

The under is 8-2 after losing four of their last five.

Flames:

Johnny Gaudreau -- Elias Lindholm -- Matthew Tkachuk

Andrew Mangiapane -- Mikael Backlund -- Tyler Toffoli

Dillon Dube -- Adam Ruzicka -- Blake Coleman

Milan Lucic -- Ryan Carpenter -- Trevor Lewis

Noah Hanifin -- Rasmus Andersson

Michael Stone -- Christopher Tanev

Nikita Zadorov -- Erik Gudbranson

Dan Vladar

Sharks:

Timo Meier -- Tomas Hertl -- Alexander Barabanov

Matt Nieto -- Logan Couture -- Sasha Chmelevski

John Leonard -- Nick Bonino -- Noah Gregor

Rudolfs Balcers -- Scott Reedy -- Jonah Gadjovich

Jaycob Megna -- Brent Burns

Mario Ferraro -- Erik Karlsson

Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Ryan Merkley

Kaapo Kahkonen

Points: Johnny Gaudreau -- 97

Goals: Elias Lindholm -- 36

Assists: Johnny Gaudreau -- 63

Goalie: Jacob Markstrom -- 33-14-9, 2.18 GAA, .924 SV%

Points: Timo Meier -- 68

Goals: Timo Meier -- 31

Assists: Timo Meier -- 37

Goalie: James Reimer -- 18-15-2, 2.75 GAA, .915 SV%