NHL Hockey Betting: San Jose Sharks at Calgary Flames

It’s hard to figure out what is going on with the Calgary Flames this year. They’ve looked very good at times and downright awful at times. There’s been little in the way of consistency, partially due to injuries but much being the nature of the team. They’ll face a tough task tonight at the Scotiabank Saddledome as they host the Pacific Division co-leaders the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks, who hold the division lead along with the Anaheim Ducks, have become much more consistent than last year. Last season they had the best road record in the NHL but had a home record befitting an expansion team. On the road, San Jose was 28-10-3, at home they were 18-20-3. This year they’re playing much better at home with a 14-5-1 record and a still reasonable 11-9-1 record on the road. They’re more of a ‘grind it out’ team like the Pacific Division co-leaders, the Anaheim Ducks.

With the exception of hapless Arizona, the Pacific Division race remains wide open. It also remains very important and very tight. The Central Division is capable of nabbing both wildcard spots (as they did last year) so the necessity of finishing third or better is obvious. Right now Calgary has the top wild card spot with 46 points and Los Angeles the second spot with 44 points. Vancouver also has 44 points but would lose the tiebreaker. The problem is that behind the Canucks are three Central Division teams–Winnipeg, Dallas and Arizona. All told there are six teams battling for two wildcard spots with a total of 4 points separating them.

San Jose played (and won) at Edmonton last night but they’re 4-2 in back to back spots this year. They haven’t confirmed their starting goalie and with three days off until their next game (home against St. Louis) they could give Martin Jones the start once again. Otherwise it’ll be backup Aaron Dell who has been very sharp in limited action with a 1.78 goals against average and a .936 save percentage plus he’s 4-1 in his 5 starts. This might be a good spot to get him some work. Chad Johnson has been confirmed for Calgary.

Don’t trust the Flames as favorites here so we’ll take the price with San Jose.

BET SAN JOSE SHARKS +100 OVER CALGARY FLAMES