"At the start of Momentum Wednesday's game against the Canadiens, the lights at the Saddledome were halfway out when they decided to drop the puck anyway, and that's a fine metaphor for how the Flames are doing. Several years ago, they had a wonderline that they couldn't keep together, and even though they haven't sunk to "truly embarrassing" in the past three years, they haven't reached the playoffs, either."
"Last season, they overachieved significantly-though still just missed out on the wild card-thanks not to their gasless forwards but to their goalie, Dustin Wolf, who despite being an undersized rookie took on a huge workload and proved to be solid bedrock. For a franchise very much in transition, one that's bringing along its younger skaters fairly slowly, Calgary was undeniably going to be Wolf's team going forward. A new contract that'll run through 2033 formalized it."
"As cool as the "Wolf Flames" sounds in theory, it's looked like Chihuahua Ashes to start the season. An inspiring shootout win in the opener over Edmonton gave way to six straight regulation losses. Wolf currently leads the NHL in goals allowed, which is not good, but also, even a SuperWolf wouldn't have been able to steal many games, because in four out of the six Calgary has only scored one goal. In the other two games, they scored two."
Three NHL games centered on the Devils' momentum, the Red Wings' run, and the Flames' ability to stop losing. The Devils continued winning and looked great; the Red Wings were outplayed by the Sabres; the Flames kept losing. Calgary earned an inspiring shootout win to open the season but followed with six straight regulation losses. Dustin Wolf anchored last season as an undersized rookie and signed a contract through 2033, yet he currently leads the NHL in goals allowed. Calgary's offense has been scarce: four of six losses featured one goal and the other two featured two goals.
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