CALGARY — The Calgary Flames historic offensive woes continued Wednesday night.
Despite peppering rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes with a season-high 37 shots, they beat him only once in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
While it ends the skid of six-straight losses in regulation, that’s seven games without a win for Calgary since opening the season with a shootout victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
“I know it’s the same old, same old. It feels like there’s a dark cloud over us, but we gotta somehow keep it positive here. Keep the energy up,” said Flames defenceman MacKenzie Weegar.
“It’s October. It’s too early to start giving it to everybody — the sad story and the sad songs.”
Three points through eight games equals the worst start in Flames franchise history.
In 1995-96 under Pierre Page, Calgary began 0-5-3. They would go on to finish 34-37-11 that season and make the playoffs, but were swept 4-0 in the first round by the Chicago Blackhawks — a series in which Hockey Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla made his NHL debut.
Back then, the league only had 26 teams. In a 32-team league, Calgary faces a steeper climb and they know it.
“We feel like we’re not getting bounces, but we’ve just got to stick with it,” said Weegar. “We have a great room in here that can get it done and we still have that belief.”
In the crosshairs of the Flames’ struggles has been their inability to score. Their 12 goals through eight games is the lowest in the NHL.
The Flames’ shooting percentage on the season is 5.6 per cent. Next worst is the New York Rangers (7.0).
For context, since the NHL started tracking shots on goal in 1959-60, the record for worst team shooting percentage in a season is 6.9 per cent by the Arizona Coyotes in 2014-15.
Calgary’s lone goal scorer on Wednesday was Adam Klapka, whose first of the season on a Noah Dobson tied it at 5:56 of the third period.
“We can’t rely on our fourth line to score goals,” said coach Ryan Huska.
“At the end of the day, we have to have players step up to score. So you can go to the net all you want, but you have to find a way to put it in the net, and that’s the job of a lot of people on this team and they have to come to the rink knowing they’re capable of doing that consistently, which they are. They just have to demand a little bit more in that area.”
Most notable of the six regulars up front who are still looking for their first goal of the season was Nazem Kadri, who was second on the team in shots (20), but has yet to find the back of the net.
An indication of how it’s been going so far for the 35-year-old veteran, on a late second-period power play, Kadri was set up for a grade A chance in the slot, but rang a shot squarely off the post.
Kadri led the team with a career-best 35 goals last season.
“With the shot volume that we’re seeing over the last little bit, we’re doing a better job getting more pucks to the net, now it’s about being hungrier in front so a goaltender doesn’t get a chance to make a clean save,” Huska said.
The power play is hurting the Flames, who went 0-for-5 against the Canadiens to rank 29th in the league with a man-advantage.
“I thought it was much better leading up to this game than it was tonight,” said Huska. “They are getting chances to score. I’d like to see them shoot the puck more than they do and I’d like to see the puck pace on it move quite a bit quicker than what it is.”
Weegar, who quarterbacks the club’s top power-play unit, says the team has to find a way to relax and the goals will come.
“There’s a lot of guys in here who want to contribute offensively,” said the defenceman, who also had yet to score this season.
“We have guys in here that have scored lots of goals in this league, and have made huge plays, and had career high years, and had elite numbers. We’ve just got to not get so tense. Let the game come to us. Just bear down when you get a chance.”
It doesn’t get any easier for the Flames travelling to Winnipeg to visit the Jets on Friday. Huska says looking forward to the next game is a way to prevent frustration from setting in.
“There’s always things you take from a game, good and bad. We’ll go over both with the players tomorrow and then it’s make sure we’re getting ready for the Winnipeg game and that’s what it’s about,” said Huska. “You move on fairly quickly and we get ready for the next one. That’s how you avoid it.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2025.
Darren Haynes, The Canadian Press
