The Flames don’t get much time to breathe after Saturday night’s disappointment in Vancouver. They touched down at Boeing Field in Seattle shortly after midnight Sunday, and by 6 p.m. MT they were back at it, facing the Kraken again in a rematch on a packed sports day around the Puget Sound.
That sets up a quick chance for Calgary to turn the page. Three days after dropping the home opener at the Scotiabank Saddledome, the Flames have another shot at Seattle and a chance to end a demanding West Coast weekend on a better note. If there’s a team they’d like to answer against, it’s probably this one - with only those provincial rivals from Edmonton drawing a stronger reaction.
The cleanest way to do that starts with discipline. Calgary has already handed out 10 powerplay chances through its first two games, and while the penalty kill has held up at 90%, the message from inside the room is clear: that kind of habit can’t stick around.
"We've just got to be smarter," captain Mikael Backlund said Saturday night after the loss to the Canucks. "Again, it's going to be hard to win games in the penalty box. It's not the (recipe) for success, but I like the way the guys responded."
In the second half of a back-to-back, Dustin Wolf is expected to get the start in goal as he and the Flames chase their first win of the season. Calgary has handled these situations fairly well lately, going 4-4-1 in the second game of back-to-backs a year ago. This matchup is also the first of eight such spots on the schedule in 2026-27.
In Other News...
Flames Loss In Vancouver Exposed A Familiar Problem Again
The Flames left Vancouver with another reminder of how thin the margin can be in a tight, physical game. The Canucks did not exactly light up the scoreboard, but they did enough in a patchy contest to keep Calgary chasing, with Vancouvers calm work in goal helping stabilize a game that never found much flow.
For Calgary, the frustration came from a familiar place: a game that was there to be grabbed, then slipped away as the tone turned heavier and the details got messier. Vancouver brought the kind of edge that can tilt a night like this, while the Canucks still had to survive through a power play that never really found its rhythm. [Read more 🡒]
Flames Send An Early Message With Lineup Changes After Ugly Opener
After a 6-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken to open the season, the Calgary Flames wasted little time making a point about accountability. On the road against the Vancouver Canucks, the club went with two lineup changes and handed season debuts to Brennan Othmann and Joel Hanley as part of an early response to a rough start.
Ryan Huska said the adjustment came down to puck management, a clear sign the staff is looking for cleaner decisions after the opener went sideways. The shuffle gives Calgary a chance to reset quickly, and it also sends an early message that the margins for error are going to be thin as the Flames try to get back on track. [Read more 🡒]
Canucks Suddenly Have A Goalie Decision They Did Not Expect
Leevi Merilinen has given Vancouver something it did not necessarily expect this early in the season: a goalie who has looked poised in limited action. Claimed off waivers from the Ottawa Senators, the 23-year-old has stepped into two games and handled the assignment with a 1.32 goals-against average and a .943 save percentage, numbers that suggest the Canucks may have found more than just a stopgap while Thatcher Demko was out.
The bigger question now is what happens when Demko is ready to return. Vancouver will have to sort through its goalie picture at a time when Merilinen has made a strong early case to stay in the mix, and that kind of unexpected depth can quickly turn into a roster puzzle. For a team that had been watching him since the summer, the timing has only made the conversation more complicated. [Read more 🡒]