The Calgary Flames were hoping to put an end to their five-game losing streak as they welcomed the Dallas Stars to town on Wednesday night, but for the eighth time in 10 games this season found themselves on the losing side. With the loss, they have now fallen to 2-8-1 on the year.
While yet another loss is extremely frustrating, the Flames actually played reasonably well in this one. They not only held two separate leads, but wound up outshooting the Stars 46-29. Unfortunately, no points are given for good efforts, and this team’s horrendous start to the season has become even worse. Here are the three main takeaways from this outing.
After an outstanding start to the season in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Calgary Wranglers, the Flames chose to call up Connor Zary on Monday (Oct. 30), meaning he made his NHL debut last night versus the Stars. It didn’t take the 2019 first-round pick long to make his mark, as he opened the scoring with his first NHL marker just five and a half minutes into the outing.
Zary was slotted on the Flames’ third line alongside Nazem Kadri and Yegor Sharangovich. Despite being in the bottom six, he was able to receive significant playing time, as he logged over 16 minutes. Given how well he played, he should continue to be given a similar opportunity moving forward and could be in line for even more minutes if he is able to keep up the productivity.
Huberdeau & Kadri’s Struggles Continue
Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau failed to show up in this one, which is becoming both a concerning and regular occurrence in their time as Flames. Kadri was able to notch a power play assist on an Andrew Mangiapane power play goal in the third, but other than that was largely unnoticeable. He now has a goal and three points through 10 games.
Huberdeau was held pointless once again in this one, and now has just two goals and five points on the year. He also had a plus/minus of minus-1 on the night, bringing his season total to minus-11. Kadri was also minus-1 in this affair, which brings his plus/minus to an even more troubling total of minus-12. It is hard to fathom how poorly each of their games has fallen off.
Oettinger At His Best
While Jake Oettinger is known for being a top-tier NHL goaltender, he seems to be even better when going up against the Flames. Fans will remember all too well how he almost singlehandedly eliminated the Flames from playoff contention in 2022, as it took an overtime-winning goal from Johnny Gaudreau in Game 7 to send the Stars netminder and his teammates packing.
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Oettinger was superb yet again in this one, stopping 43 of the shots he faced. That said, having a high number of shots on goal is not exactly a new thing for this Flames group, who often outshot their opponents a season ago but more often than not came out on the losing end.
Slow Start Becoming Costly
While it is only 10 games into the season, the Flames are quickly digging themselves into a hole. They have the second-worst record in the NHL, ahead of only the San Jose Sharks, and are already seven points shy of the LA Kings for third in the Pacific Division. A turnaround remains possible as they continue to adjust to Ryan Huska’s systems, but it’s hard to be overly optimistic at this time. Their next opportunity to turn things around will come this Saturday when they will take on a Seattle Kraken team that has also struggled out of the gates this season.