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The Flames will try to be less embarrassing tonight against San Jose

Joey MacDonald

In the wake of an 8-2 “rock bottom” loss to Edmonton, the Calgary Flames are hoping for a much better effort tonight in San Jose against a red-hot Sharks side.

“That’s not fun. As players in that room, that’s embarrassing,” Flames forward Matt Stajan said. “We wear that jersey every night in the NHL, we have to put in a better effort than that.”

Calgary has lost three straight and is clearly struggling to adjust to life without Jarome Iginla and Jay Bouwmeester. The Flames have the worst defense in the NHL, surrendering 3.51 goals per game.

San Jose, meanwhile, has won six straight.

Once the Flames are finished at the Shark Tank, they’ll fly straight to Vancouver for another tough game Saturday night. The Canucks are coming off one of their best efforts of the season; they shut out the Oilers last night, 4-0, thanks in part to a strong debut from center Derek Roy and another excellent performance from goalie Cory Schneider.

“I’ve said it before — I feel this is the biggest challenge of my career,” Flames coach Bob Hartley said Thursday. “We need to get back in gear. We need to play our hearts out — it’s as simple as this. Pride. Obviously with the moves that we made, it’s pretty clear that we’re looking at investing (in the future), but while investing you can’t quit. I’m challenging our guys every day. It’s all about pride.”

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