Calgary Flames Fall to 0-5, the Worst Start in Franchise History, in the Saddledome’s Final Season

Five games. Five losses. Zero points.

The Calgary Flames have never started a season like this.

Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks at the Scotiabank Saddledome dropped Calgary to 0-5-0. It’s the first time in franchise history the Flames have gone five games without earning a single point.

They’ve been outscored 27-8. They’re the only team in the NHL with zero points. The Los Angeles Kings and Philadelphia Flyers are also still looking for their first win, but both have picked up points in overtime losses.

And it’s happening in the Saddledome’s farewell season, the year the team planned to celebrate.

The Flames get another shot at Anaheim tonight at 7:45 p.m. MT in California.

Every loss so far

Calgary has allowed at least four goals in every game. It has scored one goal or fewer in three of them.

That works out to 1.6 goals for and 5.4 goals against per game.

Saturday’s two-goal loss was the closest they’ve come.

How bad is this, historically?

Until this month, the longest losing streak to open a Flames season was four games. It belonged to the 1975-76 Atlanta Flames, back before the team moved to Calgary. They lost their first four, then beat the Kansas City Scouts 5-3 in game five.

That Atlanta team still made the playoffs.

The closest Calgary-era comparison is more recent than you’d think: last season. The 2025-26 Flames also started 1-4-0. They won opening night in Edmonton in a shootout, then didn’t win again until their 10th game.

That slump helped push general manager Craig Conroy toward the roster teardown that followed.

The longest the franchise has ever waited for a first win is 11 games, in 1995-96. That team went 0-7-3 before finally winning. It still made the playoffs, where it was swept by Chicago in Jarome Iginla’s first playoff action.

So there’s precedent for recovering. There’s also no precedent for this.

Saturday was the closest call yet

For two periods against Anaheim, the Flames looked like a team that could win.

Jackson LaCombe opened the scoring on a Ducks power play at 10:02 of the first. Morgan Frost tied it at 15:03, alone in front on a feed from Matt Coronato. Frank Vatrano put Anaheim back ahead with 45 seconds left in the period.

Calgary thought it tied the game in the second. Yan Kuznetsov scored, but Anaheim challenged and video review ruled Joel Farabee offside. The goal came off the board.

Then, with 2:06 left in the second, rookie Aydar Suniev tied it 2-2.

The game turned early in the third. Calgary was on the power play when Ryan Poehling scored a short-handed goal at 5:35 to put Anaheim up for good. Poehling crashed into the post and Flames goalie Dustin Wolf on the play and didn’t return.

Nikita Nesterenko added an insurance goal at 17:03.

Calgary went 0-for-3 on the power play and gave up a short-handed goal. In a one-goal game going into the final minutes, that was the difference.

Wolf made 24 saves. Ville Husso stopped 27 for Anaheim in his first start of the season.

Head coach Ryan Huska called it the team’s best game of the season so far. It’s hard to argue. It’s also hard to celebrate.

Suniev’s first NHL goal

The night’s best moment belonged to Suniev.

Coronato drove wide down the right side, circled behind the net and found Suniev at the bottom of the left circle. Suniev picked a tiny gap between Husso and the near post.

The crowd cheered the goal. When the arena announced it was his first in the NHL, it cheered louder.

It came in his ninth career game. Calgary drafted him in the third round in 2023, and he played college hockey at UMass before turning pro.

Coronato, who led the Flames in scoring last season, assisted on both Calgary goals for his first multi-point night of the year. Newly acquired defenceman Simon Nemec picked up his first point as a Flame.

Why the Flames are struggling

This start didn’t come out of nowhere.

Calgary finished last season 34-39-9, 29th of 32 teams. No team in the league scored fewer goals. The Flames have missed the playoffs four straight seasons.

Conroy’s answer was to go young, fast.

Over the past year, the Flames traded Rasmus Andersson to Vegas, Nazem Kadri to Colorado and MacKenzie Weegar to Utah. This summer, Blake Coleman went to Minnesota in the deal that brought back defenceman Jake Middleton. Calgary also traded for Nemec, 22, and signed him to a five-year, $36.25-million contract.

The Flames opened the season with one of the youngest rosters in the NHL. Jonathan Huberdeau, recovering from hip surgery in March, hasn’t played yet.

The idea was to build something before the move to a new arena. Five games in, the scoring problem looks the same as last year.

A farewell season that’s gone sideways

This is the Flames’ last season in the Saddledome. The building opened as the Olympic Saddledome in 1983, hosted events at the 1988 Winter Olympics, and was home to the 1989 Stanley Cup champions.

The team has leaned hard into the goodbye: a farewell logo at centre ice, a commemorative patch on the home jerseys, and red T-shirts on every seat on opening night.

Fans got a 6-1 loss that night. Two more home losses followed.

Next season, the Flames move a block and a half north to the $1.2-billion Scotia Place. The last scheduled regular-season game at the Saddledome is Saturday, April 10, 2027, against Vancouver. A playoff run would push that date back. Right now, that feels a long way off.

Is the season already over?

No. But the hole is real.

The NHL expanded to an 84-game schedule this season, so Calgary has played about six per cent of it. There are 79 games left.

But five regulation losses means 10 points are already gone. Every team chasing a playoff spot in the Pacific Division is ahead of them.

For a rebuilding team, the season may end up being judged as much by how Suniev, Coronato, Nemec and the other young players develop as by the standings.

For fans hoping for one last playoff run at the Saddledome, the math just got harder.

What’s next for the Flames

October 28 is the first Battle of Alberta of the season.

Sources

NHL.com game recap: Ducks at Flames, Oct. 10, 2026
Calgary Flames: Flames doubled by Ducks
Calgary Flames 2026-27 schedule