The Calgary Flames have lost seven games in a row, dragging a 1-6-1 record in the 2025-26 NHL season. While most projections hinted Calgary would have a rough go-around, Dustin Wolf is urging Nazem Kadri and the rest of the team to pick up the pace.
Wolf wore his heart on his sleeve following the Flames’ 2-1 overtime defeat against the Montreal Canadiens. Home at Scotiabank Saddledome or away on the road, Calgary has put on disheartening outings so far in the NHL. Aside from the opening night comeback win over the Edmonton Oilers, nothing has gone Wolf, Kadri, and company’s way.
Still, one lone victory eight games into the campaign is far from a reason for jubilation in The Stampede City. Not even a 3-0 comeback against the rival Oilers is good enough for the fanbase in Calgary. Wolf has had enough, as he didn’t hold back in his postgame statement.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s the eighth game of the season, the 40th, or the last, they all hurt equally. [Getting one point] is something, but you don’t go into a game looking for one point, you go into it looking for two,” Wolf told media after the loss at home to the Habs. “I like my game so far. It’s tough. I can’t generate offense. I do my job; I try to keep the puck out of our net, and hope that our guys can generate a couple.“
Taking matters into their own hands
Everywhere Wolf, Kadri, and the Flames look around the room, there are signs of trouble. Calgary has yet to deliver a win in front of the ‘C of Red’. Moreover, it hasn’t won a game in regulation, and its lone victory came in a shootout—which is essentially a skills competition and hardly reflects what the Flames are capable of collectively. Needless to say, it looks like the room is catching fire in the worst way.
“We just can’t generate offense right now,” Wolf admitted. “We can’t rely on their mistakes to create offense. We’ve got to create them ourselves. But we just can’t find a way to hit the back of the twine.”
Before it’s too late, the star netminder is hoping to spark a chain reaction. After all, Wolf recently signed a seven-year, $52.5 million extension through the 2032–33 season. It’s only reasonable that the 24-year-old will do everything he can to avoid being stuck on a bottom-feeder for the foreseeable future.
One is not going to do it
Obviously, nothing good can come from a seven-game losing streak so early in an NHL season. Beyond the losses, the Flames have been flat-out outplayed in every outing. Calgary has scored only one goal in each of its last four games.
Through eight contests, the Flames have scored three goals just once and are averaging 1.5 goals per game—needless to say, the worst mark in the league. Up next, the Flames visit the Winnipeg Jets, who are averaging 3.83 goals per game, the fourth-best mark in the NHL.
Flaming cold
With their seventh consecutive loss of the NHL season, the Flames have tied their worst stretch in the past decade (achieved four separate times). If Calgary falls to the Jets, it would mark eight straight defeats for the first time since the 1998–99 campaign.
Moreover, Ryan Huska’s squad would be treading dangerously close to the worst mark in franchise history. Eleven is the number to beat—or rather, to avoid—as the Flames dropped that many in a row during the 1985–86 season.