Flames’ Rough Opening Night Provides an Early Reality Check

The Calgary Flames had high expectations for their final home opener at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

They didn’t get the start they wanted.

The Flames dropped a 6-1 decision to the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night, spoiling what had been an emotional opening-night atmosphere in Calgary.

The energy inside the building was palpable. There was the usual excitement that comes with a new season, mixed with the added emotion surrounding the final season at the Saddledome and a stirring tribute to legendary Flames broadcaster Peter Maher, who passed away this summer.

It was a night that meant something to the city.

Unfortunately for the Flames, they weren’t able to match that emotion with their performance.

Calgary actually came out with some jump in the opening minutes and generated opportunities early, but two quick Seattle goals changed the complexion of the game.

From there, the Flames began to drift away from their structure. Pucks weren’t managed as well as they needed to be, penalties started to pile up and the Kraken continued to build its lead.

The frustration was evident, and it carried over into the postgame dressing room.

“It’s disappointing,” Ryan Strome said after the game. “We’re a team that can’t really make any mistakes. We’ve got to play hard, we’ve got to play simple, and obviously the end result of getting away from that was what you saw tonight. That one stings. If you’re a professional athlete (and) you go home feeling good about that one, something’s wrong with you.”

That pretty much summed up the mood.

There was no attempt to sugarcoat what happened, and there probably shouldn’t have been. This is a team that knows it has to be better, particularly at home and particularly on a night when the building was at its loudest in a long time.

The final season at the Saddledome adds another layer to the equation. Every home game carries a little more meaning this year, and there is an expectation that the Flames will leave the building giving their fans something to be proud of.

Zach Whitecloud was equally blunt.

“It’s embarrassing,” Whitecloud said. “That one in front of our home crowd opening night, last year of the ‘Dome; unacceptable.”

Head coach Ryan Huska didn’t shy away from the performance either.

He once again challenged his players to step outside of their comfort zone and bring more to the game across the board.

“It’s not the way you want to start the season,” Huska said. “I feel like you saw all of our warts in one night. You can see that from the management of the puck, that’s been an issue for us for a while, the penalties that we took, there’s a lot that showed up tonight.”

There is plenty there for the Flames to address. But there is also something worth taking from the way the players talked about the game afterward.

For a team that has played just one of 84 regular-season games, the tone almost felt more like a loss in Game 7 of a playoff series than opening night.

That might actually be the silver lining.

Nobody in that room seemed satisfied with the result. Nobody was looking for an excuse. The players clearly understood that they didn’t give their home crowd the performance they expected from themselves.

That matters.

It doesn’t make the 6-1 loss any less disappointing, and there is no reason to pretend otherwise. The Flames were beaten badly by a Kraken team that capitalized on their mistakes. But one bad night doesn’t define an entire season.

This is still a team going through a retooling process, and there will inevitably be nights where things don’t go according to plan. What matters now is how quickly they recognize what went wrong and respond.

There is plenty of runway left. The Flames have an opportunity to turn the page immediately, with a trip to Vancouver to face the Canucks coming Saturday night. The response will tell us much more than the opening-night score ever could.

For now, the Flames have a long list of things to clean up.

At least they seem to know it.