The Flames are off to an all-time bad start

Things are not going according to plan for the Calgary Flames.

A year ago, the Flames entered the 2024-25 season after a chaotic 2023-24 curious about their team and willing to do nothing and see what the team was capable of. The answer? Turns out they were capable of quite a lot, and rode hot goaltending and a really tenacious checking style to within the regulation wins tiebreaker of a playoff spot.

But a virtually identical Flames team is off to a horrid start to the 2025-26 season, posting just one win over their first six games, with their two standings points tied with 1997-98 and 2015-16 for their clunkiest start in franchise history. (And yeah, the schedule’s not ideal, but every NHL club hates their schedules and the good ones overcome it.)

So what’s not working so far?

First and foremost, the team’s in-zone defence has been an adventure in the worst way. The team often looks and feels disconnected in the defensive zone, leading to miscues, miscommunication, and opposition players finding quiet ice with which to create strong scoring chances.

Flames head coach Ryan Huska put it pretty succinctly post-game after the loss in Vegas (via Flames TV): “We made some poor individual mistakes in the first period that cost us three goals.”

Last season, the Flames occasionally had defensive gaffes, but Dustin Wolf was able to bail them out. This season, that hasn’t happened as much. In 2024-25, Wolf’s high-danger save percentage was .847. So far in 2025-26, it’s .690. Does it feel like Wolf is facing more frequent high-danger shots? He is: 8.13 per 60 minutes at five-on-five versus 6.91 last season. (Stick-taps to Natural Stat Trick for these figures.)

So early on, the team is defensively worse than they were last season. And their goaltending? Less able to bail them out, which creates a snowball effect in games, and explains how games have gotten away from them quickly.

And for a team that is infamous for its scoring challenges over the past few seasons, being bad defensively creates a mountain in games that’s simply too steep to climb. They simply don’t have the firepower right now to out-score their defensive mistakes.

So what’s the solution? It may seem strikingly simple, but they need to defend better. For better or worse, the Flames are a team whose roster, style and structure are best-suited for tight-checking, low-scoring games. So they need to get back to basics and play a smarter, more connected game in their own end if they want to have success in any other part of the rink. And if they make mistakes with the puck, try to make them in the offensive zone where there are chances to rush back and recover rather than in the 20-30 feet immediately around their net.

The Flames don’t need to play perfect hockey to win games. But they certainly need to be better. And ideally soon, before their dreams of playoff hockey in the spring of 2026 are replaced with the stark reality of a draft lottery pick.