{"id":544198,"date":"2026-04-06T18:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T18:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/544198\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T18:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T18:52:13","slug":"what-to-expect-from-the-flames-final-six-games-of-2025-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/544198\/","title":{"rendered":"What to expect from the Flames\u2019 final six games of 2025-26"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, the Calgary Flames will visit the Dallas Stars in the 77th game of their 2025-26 regular season \u2013 and the fourth game of their lengthy six game road trip.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s game kicks off the final stretch of the season: six games in 10 days, with three home, three away, and a away\/home back-to-back set thrown in to keep things interesting.<\/p>\n

With playoffs well out of reach, here\u2019s what to expect over the last 10 days of the season.<\/p>\n

A sprinkling of younger faces<\/p>\n

It would be easy to throw up your hands and go, \u201cWell, just put the Wranglers in!\u201d That\u2019s both not possible because of the NHL\u2019s call-up rules down the stretch \u2013 teams are limited to five regular recalls overall and four players on their roster on regular recalls at a time \u2013 but it\u2019s also not really the Flames\u2019 style. Both management and the coaching staff want to get young faces into the mix, but they don\u2019t want to throw them to the wolves.<\/p>\n

So expect the approach we\u2019ve seen since the trade deadline to continue in terms of lineup mix: you\u2019ll see Aydar Suniev, and continue to see Matvei Gridin, Zayne Parekh and Hunter Brzustewicz, but they\u2019ll continue to be insulated by veterans like Olli Maatta, Victor Olofsson and Ryan Strome.<\/p>\n

A 50-50 goalie split<\/p>\n

In 20 games since the Olympic break, Dustin Wolf has made 12 starts and Devin Cooley has made eight.<\/p>\n

In 15 games since the trade deadline, Wolf has made nine starts and Cooley has made six.<\/p>\n

With six games left, including a back-to-back, it\u2019s pretty reasonable to assume that the goalie rotation will continue and that we\u2019ll see each guy three more times.<\/p>\n

Scrappy, honest efforts\u2026<\/p>\n

Under head coach Ryan Huska, there have been a few non-negotiables. One of them has been the pace the team has to play at. The other has been the team\u2019s defensive structure. The Flames know what they are and they know what they aren\u2019t. They are not the 1980s Flames that could run and gun with the best of them. Instead, they need to focus on playing with pace and structure and wearing the opposition down over the course of a game.<\/p>\n

\u2026but maybe not too many winsAll due respect to the Flames\u2019 current group, but the trade deadline period took a team that struggled to score and removed some bonafide offensive options in Nazem Kadri<\/a> and MacKenzie Weegar<\/a>. Even more than their prior composition, these Flames need to grind out goals and score by committee. That\u2019s worked on occasion, and the team should be commended for it. They have not rolled over and crawled into a hole after the big trades were made.<\/p>\n

But their remaining opponents include Dallas (playoff team), Colorado (playoff team), Seattle (six points out of a playoff spot), Utah (playoff team), Colorado again and Los Angeles (tied for the last playoff spot). There are no free spaces on this bingo card, and it could be tough sledding from here on out.<\/p>\n

This article is presented by Bon Ton Meat Market\"\"<\/p>\n

A Tradition of quality products and personalized service for 104 years.<\/p>\n

Proud to feature only the finest premium AAA Alberta Beef, Locally raised fresh pork, locally raised fresh free range chicken and turkey, fresh Alberta lamb and milk fed veal.<\/p>\n

Over 20 varieties of in store made salads, delicious desserts and of course our famous in store made meat pies. Proud to be Calgary, and Southern Alberta\u2019s Consumers Choice Award Winner for best Meat and Deli for 24 consecutive years! Bon Ton Meat Market, 28 Crowfoot Circle NW.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Tuesday, the Calgary Flames will visit the Dallas Stars in the 77th game of their 2025-26 regular…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,5294,896,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-544198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary-flames","8":"tag-calgary","9":"tag-calgary-flames","10":"tag-calgaryflames","11":"tag-flames","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116359276896237638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}