3 Takeaways from Flames’ Season Opening Loss to the Kraken

The Calgary Flames may not have a whole lot of eyeballs on them this season, but that wasn’t the case on Thursday night. The Saddledome was right full with a passionate bunch in attendance to watch what was the final home opener in Calgary’s iconic building.

Unfortunately, the Flames weren’t able to give their home crowd the show they wanted, as they fell to the Seattle Kraken by a 6-1 final. This game was a harsh reminder that there could be plenty more difficult evenings ahead for this team this season as they carry on through their rebuild. With that said, here are the three main takeaways from Thursday’s outing.

Nothing Going at Even Strength

While there are many flaws with this current Flames roster, the biggest concern heading into the season was how they would generate offence. After all, they failed to have a single 50-point scorer in 2025-26, and made zero impactful additions up front to help in that area.

To no surprise, the offensive struggles have continued into the 2026-27 campaign, as the Flames were able to put just one past Joey Daccord on a late goal from Ryan Strome. They finished this game with just 25 shots on net and made life way too easy for the Kraken goaltender. It wasn’t as much of a rough evening as it was a microcosm of what this team is right now.

Power Play Generated Nothing

As mentioned, offence will be tough for this team to come by this season. That said, there has been some optimism surrounding the power play units, specifically the top one due to the fact that it’s being quarterbacked by Zayne Parekh.

While there will be better nights ahead for Parekh and company when it comes to the man advantage, this game was ugly. Granted, they only had one full two-minute power play to work on Thursday night, but weren’t able to come through. What made it worse was that on their lone power play, the Flames weren’t able to generate any type of scoring opportunities as they struggled to even get possession of the puck in the offensive zone. Safe to say, it will be a point of emphasis moving forward.

Too Many Trips to the Sin Bin

One positive for the Flames last season was their penalty kill. They finished the season 12th amongst all NHL teams. That may not sound overly impressive, but it was notable how much their penalty killing group improved over the second half of the season. One positive from Thursday’s game was that it was solid once again.

The negative, however, is that they were forced to kill far too often against the Kraken. The Flames were shorthanded five times total, which made it difficult for several players to get any sort of rhythm going. While killing off four of the Kraken’s five opportunities was a good sign, this team is going to need to be way more disciplined going forward.

“The NHL, especially early in the year, they call the games tight. You can’t hold, you can’t slash, you can’t grab,” Strome told reporters postgame. “I didn’t get a great look at the penalties, but at the end of the day, the referees are good referees. They’re in the best league in the world. I’m sure they’re penalties. We didn’t move our feet to create any chances, either.”

Looking Ahead for the Flames

The Flames will now head out on the road for their first away outing of the season on Saturday night against the Vancouver Canucks. They’ll then be right back in action against the Kraken on Sunday to end off their week before returning home for outings on Thursday against the Colorado Avalanche and Saturday against the Anaheim Ducks.