Seven Game Segments: Why it's better than it looks for the Calgary Flames

It wasn’t a pretty start to the season for the Calgary Flames.

With one win in their first seven games, Calgary fell to the bottom of the league standings. Perhaps more distressing for the coaching staff and players was the club’s minus-21 goal differential, better than only the hapless Philadelphia Flyers (-22) during the period in question.

In terms of silver linings, Calgary’s territorial play has steadily improved since the start of the month, with portions of the roster now sporting positive shot and chance differentials. It hasn’t led to a lot of wins, but it signals that the team’s fundamentals are getting stronger.

Calgary’s not going to be a competitor, but playing respectable, competitive hockey most nights is no doubt part of expectations this year.

Sharangovich – Backlund – Farabee

Suniev – Frost – Coronato

Gridin – Pospisil – Strome

Tsyplakov – Castagna – Klapka

The forward lines were consistently juggled by Ryan Huska in the face of Calgary’s persistent struggles.

With Connor Zary demoted to the AHL and Sam Honzek injured, it opened up space for rookies like Jonathan Castagna and Aydar Suniev to get some reps in. Both have acquitted themselves relatively well, with Suniev even moving up to join the Frost-Coronato on the Flames scoring line.

Matvei Gridin struggled to score at even strength, resulting in the bump down the rotation. His on-ice shot and chance numbers are actually the best on the team at even strength in the first seven games, but the puck just wouldn’t go in for him at 5-on-5, unfortunately (on-ice SH% of just 1.71%).

The player has looked understandably frustrated, but his recent snipe against the Hurricanes may portend more points in he near future.

Yegor Sharangovich replaced Honzek on the Backlund unit, and the combination has been a strong one in aggregate (aside from Sharangovich’s errors versus Vegas the other night). They continue to be the coaching staff’s top choice to take on the other team’s best players. It looks like Backlund will spend another season defying father time.

Prior to Sunday’s game, when Morgan Frost overtook him, Joel Farabee co-led the team in scoring with Matt Coronato with just four points.

Much of their scoring has come in special teams, though, which reflects the club’s total lack of offence at 5-on-5 to date. The team leader at even-strength scoring over this period was … Suniev with two goals and an assist.

Calgary’s shot volume went up over this seven-game stretch, but shot quality remained elusive.

Bahl – Nemec

Kuznetsov – Whitecloud

Middleton – Parekh

Unlike the forward units, the defence pairings have seemingly settled into something more consistent after an initial early season shake-up. The Kevin Bahl and Simon Nemec duo currently is the Flames’ top pairing, anchored by Bahl’s incredible start to the season.

With Bahl on the ice, Calgary controlled over 60% of the shot attempts and scoring chances at even strength during this segment. That’s a remarkable ratio on most NHL clubs, but especially for the rebuilding Flames, given the depth and difficulty of his workload so far.

If Bahl becomes a legitimate top-pairing, shutdown option, the club’s blueline will become even richer than it already is.

The Zayne Parekh, Jake Middleton pairing was the only combination that was consistent during the first seven games. Unfortunately, it didn’t really work out well for either player and was broken up for Sunday’s game against the Hurricanes.

Both defenders had the worst shot and chance numbers on the Flames blueline despite being relatively sheltered. Parekh frequently flashed his offensive creativity, but with little to show for it on the scoresheet (just one assist in seven contests).

It’s no surprise that the coaching staff recently broke them up, with positive results versus Carolina recently.

Dustin Wolf (1-4-0, .835 SV%)

Devin Cooley (0-2-0, .818 SV%)

Perhaps the biggest surprise out of the gate is how poorly Calgary’s goaltenders fared.

It’s not a great surprise that the lowest-scoring team in the NHL last year is having trouble putting the puck in the net again, but few pundits would have picked puckstopping as Calgary’s Achilles heel heading into 2026-27.

Dustin Wolf had the Flames’ lone quality start during this segment, a 4-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks. Otherwise, he looked nothing like the guy who put together a Calder-calibre season two years ago.

Wolf faced a lot of breakdowns and bad bounces, to be sure, but his starts have featured far too many stoppable pucks getting through him.

One of the defining qualities of the team through the first seven games has been its tendency to follow up a good shift with a goal against. Almost every time Calgary has tried to shift momentum through this portion of the calendar, it led to the next mistake, no matter how minor, ending up in the back of the net.

Getting sub-penalty-kill-level puckstopping at even strength is primarily why the Flames were run out of the rink to start the year. Better work from Wolf and Cooley will mean things will look a lot more respectable moving forward.

Ethan Wyttenbach has come out of the gate red hot for Quinnipiac University. After he led the NCAA in scoring last year, the Flames’ fifth-round pick entered the season having to prove it wasn’t a fluke.

With four goals and 11 points in five games, he’s on pace to do just that.