You have to laugh at this early stretch of the 2025-26 Calgary Flames season.
Five games in seven nights including two back-to-backs. Road games book-ending that sequence.
The Flames spiralled to a 1-4-0 record over that time. While it’s easy to blame the schedule, Florida, Chicago, and the New York Rangers fit five games into their schedule in that same general time slot (give or give a day) and put up better records.
Exhausting seven days to be sure. What do they cap it off with? A day off in Las Vegas. Rest well earned.
The rest (or lack thereof) is over tonight when the Flames face off against the Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena. They’re 2-9-2 historically and the schedule provided an opportunity to hit the strip. We’ll see about this one.
Calgary Flames Projected Lineup
Friday’s practice lines courtesy of Derek Wills. @Fan960Wills
Huberdeau-Kadri-Farabee
Sharangovich-Frost-Coronato
Honzek-Backlund-Coleman
Lomberg-Zary-Klapka
Gridin-Kirkland
Hanley-Weegar
Bahl-Andersson
Bean-Parekh
Pachal-Miromanov
Time to Cook
With Jonathan Huberdeau ready to play, Matvei Gridin has been assigned to the Calgary Wranglers; who also play tonight.
Gridin looked great before he was slotted onto Nazem Kadri’s line. The Flames veteran is always a bit of a whirlwind during the first month of the season. The 28th overall pick from the 2024 NHL Entry Draft looked excellent riding shotgun with Morgan Frost and Matthew Coronato.
Gridin recorded a goal in game one (with Frost and Coronato) and was held scoreless in his next four games.
The Wranglers were shutout 1-0 in their last game and are 0-2-0 on the season having only played the powerhouse Colorado Eagles twice. They play the Tuscon Roadrunners tonight, who they have a healthy rivarly with.
As for Jonathan Huberdeau, we’ll see how he looks. The 32 year old recorded a primary assist in almost two preseason games before he cascaded into the Vancouver net.
Looked like he bonked his ribs. Welcome back, Jonny!
Blue Line Bonanza
Whether the third pairing features Jake Bean and Zayne Parekh or Brayden Pachal and Daniil Miromanov will be clarified closer to game time.
The 19 year old Parekh looks adequate so far, but he can do so much more. Zero points and a -3 even strength goal differential through three games.
Tough goal differential, but it’s tough to make a case for the alternative pairing. Miromanov had about as chaotic of a season debut as a third pairing guy can have.
Best in the West
The Golden Kights are 3-0-2 this season after what they would call a rocky start. Most recently they held off a late game Bruins surge to beat Boston 6-5.
Their offence is running. They’ve scored at least four goals in four of their five games. They haven’t lost in regulation this year.
Maybe Vegas is due for a loss? They signed Carter Hart to a two-year contract earlier this week. He’s likely going to come out firing.
Maybe a duel between Dustin Wolf and Carter Hart is what the Flames need. They both dominated the crease with the Everett Silvertips of the WHL.
The chaotic nature of hockey means that happenstance may be Calgary’s greatest ally tonight. With that said, they are tired, struggling and had an extra night off in Vegas. Meanwhile, the Golden Knights are a great team on a hot streak playing at home.
Buckle up!
Vegas Golden Knights Projected Lineup
Ivan Barbashev — Jack Eichel — Mark Stone
Pavel Dorofeyev — Tomáš Hertl — Mitch Marner
Reilly Smith — William Karlsson — Brandon Saad
Cole Reinhardt — Colton Sissons — Keegan Kolesar
Brayden McNabb — Shea Theodore
Ben Hutton — Zach Whitecloud
Jeremy Lauzon — Kaedan Korczak
Akira Schmid / Carter Hart
Game time is set for 7:00 P.M. MST.
Stats courtesy of Cap Wages, Natural Stat Trick and the National Hockey League. Golden Knights lines from last game courtesy of Hannah Kirkell.
KEEP READING:
Calgary Flames Limp Through Early Season Slog
Neufeld: 7 Bold Predictions Heading into the New Season
9 Reasons the Calgary Flames Struggled Last Season
Five Former Flames Head Coaches: Where are they now?
Follow on X: @Trevor_Neufeld
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