A point only offers so much relief.
For the first time since their season opener, the Calgary Flames at least managed to take a game to overtime. That’s something, right? Even if Mike Matheson ultimately ended the game with a nasty one-timer that left the Flames on the losing end of a 2-1 scoring line, maybe there’s some sort of positive to be taken from Wednesday night against the Montreal Canadiens at the Saddledome.
The negatives are all there for everyone to see.
The Flames are one point above the San Jose Sharks, sitting in second-last place in the NHL, but the Sharks have two games-in-hand.
They’ve scored the fewest goals in the league, with 12 – although they’re credited with a 13th because of their shootout winner against the Edmonton Oilers on opening night – and have the worst goal-differential, at minus-16.
This is also only the second time in franchise history where they’ve had three points after eight games. The last time was in 1995-96, when they started 0-5-3.
It’s bleak and hard to find many positives.
The Flames are trying, though.
“I know it’s the same old, same old, it feels like there’s a dark cloud over us,” MacKenzie Weegar said post-game. “We’ve got to somehow keep the positive here. We’ve got to keep the energy up. It’s October, it’s too early to start giving it to everybody and the sad story, the sad song and get the media attention to get the narrative here that it’s sad around here and what-not, but it’s not the case.
“We’ve got to keep the energy up.”
That rallying cry may fall on deaf ears for Flames fans. The reality is the team has won only one of their first eight games and just can’t seem to find ways to put pucks in the net.
On Wednesday, they couldn’t capitalize on a world-class performance from Dustin Wolf, who stopped 26-of-28 shots and was the Flames’ best player by a longshot. Zack Bolduc’s first-period goal put the Habs ahead, but Wolf was otherwise remarkable.
That Adam Klapka tied things up early in the third provided some hope, although it shouldn’t distract anyone from the scoring issues that are killing the Flames right now.
“We can’t rely on our fourth line to score goals,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “At the end of the day we have to have players step up to score. You can go to the net all you want. You have to find a way to put it in the net.
“That’s the job of a lot of people on this team and they have to come to the rink knowing they’re capable of doing that consistently, which they are.”
Here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s game:
1. RALLYING THE TROOPS
Weegar definitely isn’t throwing in the towel just yet.
He’s as aware as anyone of where the Flames’ terrible start to the season has put them. The reality is it might still only be late-October, but teams generally don’t rally back from 1-6-1 starts and make the playoffs.
Still, though, Weegar was insistent that the Flames can turn it around.
“The thing that bothers me a little bit is the ‘We can’t score goals’ and all that sort of stuff,” Weegar explained. “We’ve got guys in here who have scored lots of goals in this league and have made huge plays and had career-high numbers, elite numbers.
“We’ve just got to not get so tense, maybe, just let the game come to us, just bear down when we’ve got a chance. Obviously, there were some chances where the puck was laying in the crease. Obviously, we feel like we’re not getting bounces, but we’ve got to stick with it. I know we’ve got a great room in here that can get it done and the belief in here, we still have that belief.”
How long will that belief last in the management suite, though? There will come a point where making the playoffs no longer feels realistic and getting younger players into the lineup becomes the priority.
Given how the early days of the season have gone, how long off can that be?
Calgary Flames Jonathan Huberdeau is stopped by Montréal Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes in second period NHL action at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary on Wednesday, October 22, 2025. Darren Makowichuk/Postmedia
2. ANY OFFENCE INCOMING?
The Flames did manage to fire 37 shots at Habs goaltender Jakub Dobes.
And they did legitimately have chances to score. Posts were hit, pucks slid through the crease and narrowly missed.
It just wouldn’t go in.
“You make it go in, you have to go there harder,” Huska said. “At the end of the day when you get yourself in practice situations you bear down every chance you get and make it very competitive with your goaltender so when you come into the game the next day you’re not going to be denied.
“Sometimes that means you go to the net and one is going to go in off of you, but in order for it to go off you you have to be at the net consistently. It’s just a matter of getting there and staying.”
Wednesday’s effort tied the Flames’ season-high in shots-on-goal and Natural Stat Trick did credit the Flames with seven high-danger chances.
At some point, you have to believe pucks will start going in.
But they’re not right now, and it’s hurting them.
3. EXCEPTIONAL
Make no mistake, Wolf was the only reason the Flames were in this game after the first period.
He was as good as it gets, and sprawled across the crease multiple times to turn away golden opportunities for the Habs.
“Unbelievable, he’s as elite as they come,” Weegar said. “They’ve got a team that can make some good plays and Dusty, when he goes across the crease like that it’s impressive to watch … He’s a bright spot and a great kid. What a goalie.”
That only makes it more frustrating that the Flames couldn’t provide Wolf with a couple goals to earn him the win. If there were any concerns about his early-season performances, we should be past those now. He’s been excellent his last two games, giving the Flames a chance.
They just haven’t given him any run-support.
““It’s tough. I can’t generate offence,” Wolf said. “I do my job. I try to keep the puck out of our net and hope that our guys can generate a couple. I’m glad we got one there, we got a point, but we have to keep working to find more offence.”