The Calgary Flames are turning things around after a disastrous start to the 2026-27 season.
The Flames dropped their first five games, getting outscored 27-8 in the process.
Calgary has since won four of their past five games, including three straight, as they get set to host the red-hot Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night at Scotiabank Saddledome.
American goalie Devin Cooley has been in net for each of Calgary’s three straight wins, beating the defending Stanley Cup-champion Carolina Hurricanes, who are currently leading the NHL with 20 points, as well as the third-ranked Minnesota Wild and the Detroit Red Wings.
“It’s honestly pretty depressing when you’re losing hockey games. These guys take a lot of pride in the way we play, and we want to win games,” said 20-year-old defenceman Zayne Parekh following Saturday’s 4-1 win over the Red Wings. “Everyone in this room is going to die for each other and work their tail off for each other. So we’re having a lot of fun winning games right now.”
Expectations were low for the Flames entering this season after finishing third last in 2025-26 with 34 wins and 77 points. They finished last in the NHL in goals per game with just 2.54.
Former NHLer Matt Stajan, who played for both Toronto and Calgary during his 15-year career, is currently working for the Flames organization as a skills consultant.
During an appearance on TSN 1050’s First Up on Monday morning, the 42-year-old Stajan said they’ve had “buy-in” from their entire team over this recent hot stretch.
“It was a tough start. We know where we’re at. Like, I think it’s tough where you look at our roster and you don’t have an Austin Matthews or a Connor McDavid and you know, we trade away some older guys in the summer and last season,” explained Stajan.
“So, you need buy-in from everybody and every guy playing has to have a good game every night to get a chance to win. We’ve been playing the right way. I know that’s cliche-ish, but we haven’t the been turning pucks over. We’re playing the way we need to play to give ourselves a chance and we’ve got some great goaltending from Devin Cooley the last three games and we’ve been able to beat some good teams. So, you know how close the NHL is. It’s a tight league; there’s no easy games. And coming into our rink, we want to make sure that that’s the thing. And right now we got to give the guys credit. They’re really, you know, they’re playing well and our special teams have been really good the last three games.”
As Stajan mentions, a key aspect of Calgary’s recent turnaround has been their power play.
The Flames are 6-for-12 over their past four games on the man advantage after going 2-for-2 in Saturday’s win over the Wings.
“I’ve never really felt like this in my career, having a power play like this,” Flames left winger Joel Farabee told The Canadian Press on Saturday. “We don’t really have our set spots. We just play like a five-man rover almost, and we’re just finding little areas and little plays.”
Calgary ranks fourth in the NHL (32 per cent) in power play percentage. They finished second last in 2025-26 with a 16.2 percentage.
Parekh and fellow defenceman Simon Nemec, acquired from the New Jersey Devils this past summer for a package highlighted by two first-round picks, have been important contributors to the Flames’ improved power-play this season, says head coach Ryan Huska.
“We talked about it at the beginning of the year that our power play was going to be better because we have two legitimate guys in the back end that are power-play quarterbacks, and they help it a massive amount,” said Huska. “They’re the guys that really run a power play up top. So I think both of them have done a really good job.”
Farabee leads the Flames with nine points, including seven assists, while right winger Matt Coronato and left winger Aydar Suniev are tied for the team lead with three goals apiece.
Captain Mikael Backlund has missed the past two games with an upper-body injury while veteran forward Jonathan Huberdeau has not played this season as he works his way back from undergoing hip surgery last February.
The Leafs have won four straight, highlighted by a 7-2 thrashing of McDavid and the high-octane Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night.
The Flames have missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of the last four seasons.