Do or Die Night - Sharks and Flames Face Elimination

It's an intriguing night of hockey in the Western Conference as both the Calgary Flames and the regular season power house San Jose Sharks look to extend their post season with a win tonight against their respectful clubs. In what has been a frustrating playoff performance from both teams, they now must kick the team into high gear and force the Game 7.

The Calgary Flames have found out today that Dion Phaneuf, who has notched 3 assists and a +2 thus far in the series, will sit out tonight's game after bumping heads with Troy Brouwer in Game 5. This is a significant blow to the Flames blueline as they are already missing Robyn Regehr to a knee injury. Thankfully, the Flames will be playing at home tonight and will have to call upon their fan base to chime in some much needed energy to push this one to Game 7.

The Sharks were the leagues best team heading into the post-season, but for some reason (consider it a curse) the Sharks just can't seem to find a way to get it done in the playoffs. Down 3-2 in the opening round to the 8th seeded Ducks, the Sharks find themselves facing elimination for the second straight game and hope to avoid it once again with a win tonight on the road. That said, the Ducks are by no means a terrible team. In fact, the teams who placed 2nd to even as much as 4th have had an easier opening team to play against than the Sharks have landed in the Ducks.

Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau will be called upon once again to push this series and get a win, for anything less than a series victory is a failure on the season and on behalf of the leaders of this team. The Sharks have come and gone from the playoffs for far too long without making it to the Finals, and that is certainly not what this organization wishes to see again this time around. Simply being a difficult team to beat in the playoffs is not what this team has longed for. If they want the cup badly, they'll have to pay the price to get there, starting with a physical, grinding game tonight on the road.

I'll be covering the Flames/Blackhawks on TheScore tonight. Tune into TheScore's liveblogs for more details.

Micheal Aldred
michealaldred@hotmail.com