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Flames’ Playoff Fate Could Be Decided Before November

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Rupert McDonald | Last updated Aug 28, 2025 9:15 AM ET

The Calgary Flames are entering a season where, for the second-straight year, seemingly nobody knows what to expect from them. Some have pegged them to come back down to earth after an unexpectedly impressive 2024-25 season, while others believe they will continue to improve and think they will be a playoff team.

The one thing that is for sure when it comes to this Flames team is that they won’t make life easy on their opponents, as they proved to be a resilient and tough bunch to play against last season. That, at the very least, should help keep things entertaining for their fan base regardless of how often the wins pile up.

While it could end up being a positive, the Flames will need to ensure they are ready right from the get-go when the 2025-26 regular season gets underway, as they could wind up digging themselves into a massive hole should they start out slow.

Flames Have Ugly Schedule to Begin Season

The Flames were not one of the lucky teams when the 2025-26 regular-season schedule was revealed by the NHL. In fact, one could argue that they got the worst draw of all, as they face some elite contenders in the first few weeks of the season. Should they come out slow, almost all of their opponents are teams not just capable of beating them, but running them out of the building.

The Flames’ season opener comes against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place. This is obviously an extremely tough matchup, as the Oilers have proven themselves to be the best team in the Western Conference after two straight trips to the Stanley Cup Final. They figure to be every bit as dominant in 2025-26, though the silver lining for the Flames here is that Connor McDavid and company have gotten off to slow starts in each of the past two seasons.

The Flames’ second game will come the very next day against the Vancouver Canucks, before what should be an easier matchup against the St. Louis Blues later that same week. After that, they will play the Vegas Golden Knights twice in the same week, before taking on the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets. There is one other easier matchup in between in the Utah Mammoth, though they are by no means a bottom-feeder.

As if things couldn’t go worse, the Flames also play the Jets for a second time in their ninth game of the season. That means, for those keeping tabs at home, five of their first nine games will come against the Oilers, Golden Knights, and Jets. They’ll face a number of other strong opponents in October as well, including the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators.

Suffice to say, the Flames will need to ensure they are ready to go as soon as the 2025-26 season begins. They aren’t a good enough team to get by on talent, and if their attention to detail and/or work ethic isn’t where it needs to be in the early going, several of the mentioned rosters above will make them pay.

Hard Schedule Could Turn Into a Good Thing

While this is focusing mainly on the obvious negatives that come with a tough schedule to kick things off, it is possible the Flames are able to turn this into a positive. Should they come out of the gates flying and knock off several of the teams mentioned above in the early going, it will give them all the confidence in the world that they can beat any team on any given night. Factor both the positives and negatives together, and you can understand why the month of October may very well decide whether or not the Flames can get back into the playoffs for the first time since the 2021-22 season.