Flames Face Kraken Again After 6-1 Opening Loss

Calgary gets an immediate rematch with Seattle after a 6-1 loss as the Flames try to solve an offense that has produced only two goals.

Calgary gets another shot at Seattle only three days after the Kraken spoiled the Flames’ season opener with a 6-1 win at the Saddledome. The rematch comes with both teams playing on the second half of a back-to-back, and Calgary still searching for its first win.

The Flames followed Thursday’s blowout with a much better performance for 40 minutes in Vancouver. Matt Coronato gave Calgary a 1-0 lead, the Flames carried it through the second period, and then everything changed in the third. Vancouver scored four unanswered goals and won 4-1.

Seattle arrives home at 1-1 after a 3-1 loss in Edmonton that remained tied until the final three minutes. The Kraken did not reproduce their six-goal opener, but they showed they could stay in a low-scoring game against a stronger opponent. Calgary has shown improvement defensively. Its larger problem is that the offense has produced only two goals through six periods.

Seattle Broke the Opener Open in Bursts

The first meeting became lopsided quickly. Jordan Eberle opened the scoring on the power play at 9:10 of the first period, and Vince Dunn made it 2-0 only 32 seconds later. Frederick Gaudreau added another before intermission, leaving Calgary down three before the game had settled.

Seattle created another burst early in the third. Chandler Stephenson and Matty Beniers scored 51 seconds apart, pushing the lead to 5-0 before Ryan Strome finally got Calgary on the board.

The final numbers reflected how complete Seattle’s night was. Dunn finished with a goal and two assists, Jared McCann had three assists, Beniers and Kaapo Kakko each recorded a goal and an assist, and Joey Daccord stopped 24 of 25 shots.

The most important lesson for Calgary is how quickly one goal became several. Seattle scored four times across two short bursts lasting a combined 83 seconds. Preventing that kind of collapse matters as much as generating more offense in the rematch.

Calgary Was Better for 40 Minutes in Vancouver

The Flames responded Saturday with a more controlled performance against Vancouver. Coronato scored on the power play, Devin Cooley held the Canucks scoreless through two periods, and Calgary entered the third protecting a 1-0 lead.

That improvement did not survive the final 20 minutes. Liam Öhgren tied the game 1:28 into the third, Elias Pettersson put Vancouver ahead, and the Canucks added two more before the period ended.

Calgary therefore has evidence that it can play a tighter game than it did Thursday without having solved the larger problem. The Flames still lost by three goals because one good defensive stretch was not accompanied by enough offense to create any cushion.

Two Goals in Two Games Is the Main Concern

Calgary finished last season at 2.54 goals per game, the lowest scoring rate in the NHL. Through two games this season, that problem has carried forward almost perfectly.

Strome scored against Seattle. Coronato scored against Vancouver. Those are Calgary’s only two goals.

Jonathan Huberdeau remains unavailable while recovering from hip resurfacing surgery, removing an experienced playmaker from a lineup already short on proven creation. Coronato has become one of the most important offensive pieces after leading Calgary with 45 points last season, but the Flames need support around him quickly.

Morgan Frost, Mikael Backlund, Strome and the rest of the forward group have to turn more possessions into dangerous chances. Calgary cannot keep asking its goaltending and defense to hold opponents to one goal while the offense searches for a second.

Seattle Showed Another Version in Edmonton

The Kraken looked nothing like the team that scored six in Calgary during the first period Saturday. They took three penalties, spent too much time defending and allowed Edmonton to control most of the early game.

Seattle settled after that. Bobby McMann tied the game on the power play in the second, and the Kraken outshot Edmonton 11-4 during the period. Jordan Eberle nearly gave Seattle the lead in the third before Devon Levi made a point-blank stop that survived video review.

Leon Draisaitl broke the 1-1 tie with 2:27 remaining, and Connor McDavid added the empty-net goal. The final score was 3-1, but Seattle stayed in the game until the closing minutes without requiring anything close to the offensive eruption it produced against Calgary.

That matters for the rematch. Seattle has already shown it can beat Calgary in a high-scoring game and remain competitive in a much tighter one.

Calgary Has to Control the Next Shift

The first meeting was shaped by what happened immediately after Seattle scored. Calgary did not have enough time to reset before the Kraken struck again, twice allowing a single goal to become a multi-goal burst.

That is a manageable correction. The Flames can simplify the next possession, get the puck deep and avoid forcing plays through the middle while Seattle is pressing for another goal. The Vancouver game showed they can defend with more patience when they remain organized.

The difficulty comes from needing to make those corrections without becoming passive offensively. Calgary already struggles to generate goals. Protecting against mistakes cannot mean abandoning the pressure required to score more than once.

Coronato Has Become Calgary’s Best Early Threat

Coronato enters Sunday with Calgary’s only goal from the Vancouver game and one of the clearest paths to improving the offense. His shot gives the Flames a dangerous option on the power play, while Zayne Parekh can help create opportunities from the blue line.

The Flames need more once those first options are taken away. Seattle kept Calgary to one goal in the opener, and Vancouver did the same one night later. More secondary scoring has to come from the rest of the lineup if the Flames want to prevent every close game from becoming a goaltending test.

That becomes especially important if Seattle scores first again. Calgary spent Thursday chasing from behind and never recovered. A third consecutive game with only one goal would leave very little room for even a solid defensive performance to matter.

Dunn Gives Seattle Another Layer

Dunn’s three-point opener showed how much Seattle can create when its defensemen contribute offensively. He scored from the point, moved the puck cleanly through possessions and helped keep Calgary defending after initial chances failed to end the sequence.

Brandon Montour gives the Kraken another defenseman capable of advancing the puck, while Adam Larsson provides a more physical presence. That balance gives Seattle several ways to move the game forward without asking the same line or player to create every scoring chance.

Calgary needs to make Seattle’s defense spend more time retreating. Better entries, more controlled possession and more sustained offensive-zone time would keep players like Dunn from becoming additional attackers shift after shift.

The Goalie Decision Is Still Open

The back-to-back creates an obvious question in both creases. Calgary started Wolf in the first Seattle game, then used Cooley in Vancouver. Seattle used Daccord against Calgary and Grubauer against Edmonton.

That makes a Wolf-Daccord rematch possible, but the starters had not been officially confirmed early Sunday. Calgary therefore has the option of returning to Wolf after giving him Saturday off, while Seattle can do the same with Daccord after Grubauer handled Edmonton.

Wolf allowed six goals on 32 shots Thursday, although Calgary’s defensive breakdowns left him exposed repeatedly. Daccord stopped 24 of 25. A rematch in goal would give both players a very different set of circumstances if Calgary manages the game more effectively in front of Wolf.

Seattle Has More Sources of Offense

The Kraken have already received goals from Eberle, Dunn, Gaudreau, Stephenson, Beniers, Kakko and McMann across two games. That does not mean the offense will continue producing at the same rate, but it does show how many different places the next goal can come from.

Calgary has two goals from two players. Huberdeau remains out, and the rest of the lineup has yet to convert enough possession into production.

That difference is the clearest reason Seattle enters the rematch with the stronger early-season profile. Calgary can clean up the rapid defensive collapses from Thursday and make the game much closer. The Flames still have to find a way to score often enough for those corrections to matter.

The Rematch Should Be Closer

Another 6-1 game would require Calgary to repeat too many of the same mistakes. The Vancouver performance showed that the Flames can defend with more structure for long stretches, and an immediate rematch gives the coaching staff specific problems from Thursday to address.

Seattle still has the stronger offensive case through two games. The Kraken generated six against Calgary, stayed within one goal of Edmonton until the final minutes and have already received production from several lines and the blue line.

Prediction: Seattle Kraken 3, Calgary Flames 2. Calgary should make the rematch considerably more competitive by avoiding the rapid scoring bursts that destroyed the opener. Seattle still has the clearer route to three goals, while the Flames have yet to prove they can consistently reach that number themselves.

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