The Calgary Flames offensive woes continued again as the Boston Bruins ran them over in a 4-1 loss at TD Garden.

It’s a Team Game – I’m going to start to sound like a broken record in these, but the Flames have just flat out been not good enough since hitting a .500 record. Tonight, their defensive coverage – specifically at their own blue line – led to multiple goals against. The Bruins found space to walk right in, pass enough times to confuse any goaltender through all the open seams in the mixed coverage, and tickle the twine. For the Flames, the second period continues to be their strongest, but the third period collapses in 2026 have been concerning. Boston had a 7-1 advantage in the final frame as they had a large enough lead to lock up the middle of the ice and keep the Flames attack to the outside. 4 straight regulation losses after that absolute grind to get back to relevancy just feels like a nail in the coffin for these guys who continue to struggle to score goals. Just 3 scored in their last 3 games – the attack tonight was not one that inspired thought this group is going to bust that slump anytime soon.

Corsi King – Morgan Frost (49.10 per cent) led the Flames who all finished below 50% (5v5 SVA) in this game. Nobody had a shot attempt advantage despite the shots being relatively equal. At the bottom was Justin Kirkland (13.98 per cent) with an 18-3 disadvantage in his minutes. William Stromgren got 8 minutes to showcase his stuff the night before and then went back to the press box for this performance. Coach is going to do what he thinks he needs to do to win, but how many times does that decision have to end up being wrong before he catches some more heat? This is a coach that has led his team to zero playoff appearances and this most recent run has the odds stacked against them in a big way. I said around Christmas that if Kadri (29.31 per cent) couldn’t pick his offence back up the losses would stack the minute Blake Coleman’s (44.44 per cent) offence dried up – which based on his career high in points was going to happen at some point – and sure enough that’s exactly where we are now. They are not going to lose the next 38 games, but it’s really hard to look at the offensive production and expect much more out of it. They’ve proved the crowd wrong before – they have to pick up their socks and do it again.

Taken By Chance – Positives – Yegor Sharangovich (55.62 SCF% // 100 HDCF%) and Morgan Frost (61.06 per cent // 100 per cent) both finished with a 1-0 goal advantage and no high danger chances against. Of course, that goal was a complete solo effort from Connor Zary (34.84 per cent // 35.29 per cent) that neither were involved with in any significant way. Frost got an apple on it, but Zary came around the corner, saw a hole in the coverage, drove the net and put it home. MacKenzie Weegar (37.19 per cent // 31.53 per cent) and Yan Kuznetsov (40.43 per cent // 37.69 per cent) got caved in with double digit high danger chances again for the second time in a week. That pairing’s reputation is riding very high on their early success together, but in recent weeks they’ve faltered quite a bit. I’m okay with it, because it’s giving a rookie valuable minutes to learn and grow in the future. However, It is still worth pointing out they’ve been struggling.

xGF% – Jonathan Huberdeau (14.75 per cent) is going to catch my complaints yet again. It’s just uninspiring what is happening out there with him right now. He’s never been his old Florida self, but he’s out there playing like a shell of what he was even last year. It’s not a shooting percentage lapse, it’s not entirely the system Calgary has to play, most of it is coming off as simply his own doing. Chemistry is present with absolutely nobody and he’s been more of a detriment to the squad than anything of late. The power play is the worst in the league and yet he’s on that top unit, doing nothing, every single game. He’s not creating space, he’s not finding passing lanes, he’s playing like a $10 million version of Beecher prior to him getting hurt. I’d rather see Ryan Lomberg (33.38 per cent) go over the boards in a must score situation right now and I wish I was exaggerating. There is no solution to this other than hoping he somehow bounces out of what looks like a massive career regression/drop off in impact. You can’t buy him out, benching him is not going to magically change this, and nobody is taking that contract on without Calgary paying multiple significant assets to make it happen.

It’s a nightmare right now. Period.

In The Crease – I was complaining online about the lack of backup and Wolf getting rode down the stretch last year repeating itself this year before a couple of people (thank you, Pike) informed me Devin Cooley’s still quite sick. Okay fine – but that brings me to this question: You want to be a competitive hockey team, but do not have the ability to have a third goalie come in and spot a game? Wolf is their best option, but I mentioned after the first game of the new year he looked like he needed a break and here we are, three games later, and he has not been the sharp goaltender they need him to be. These un-deflected goals from the high slot, albeit from a collapse in defensive coverage, can’t be surrendered multiple times for this team to have a shot to win. I hope Cooley gets healthy soon, he’s more than earned his minutes and new contract extension, but It’s hard to believe a team in the year of 2026 doesn’t employ another option to be relief in net. For me, it’s unacceptable if you keep citing “competitiveness.”

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