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Notes from last game: Flames play an all-around good game in 4-1 victory over Red Wings

Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images

By Cynthia Ryley Delaney

Oct 26, 2026, 17:30 EDTUpdated: Oct 26, 2026, 17:17 EDT

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Early into the 2026-27 season, the Calgary Flames’ rebuild isn’t going all that well.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing if you want the team to win, as they picked up their third consecutive victory this past Saturday. Taking on the Detroit Red Wings in the penultimate game of this four-game home stand, the Flames defeated the Original Six team by a score of 4-1, making them victories in four of their last five games.

Let’s take at the positives and negatives from that game, as well as other notes.

The positives

It was all around a great game for the Flames. Netminder Devin Cooley once again shined, stopping 29 of 30 shots for a .967 save percentage and 1.66 Goals Saved Above Expected (GSAx) according to Hockeystats.

He wasn’t as busy as his last two starts against the Minnesota Wild and Carolina Hurricanes, but he made stops when called upon. Over his last three games, Cooley has a .962 save percentage and even won the National Hockey League’s second star this past week, though only two of those games were last week.

It’s getting to the point where you can argue that Cooley should be starting the majority of the games over Dustin Wolf until the hot streak ends. Heading into the season, that was unthinkable, but Cooley has been fantastic the last two seasons and has been playing out of his mind these last three games.

Overall, it was a much better team effort than their win against the Wild mid-week. On Thursday, the Wild dominated the third period and Cooley single-handedly won them the game, but they didn’t take their foot off the gas pedal in the final frame this time around.

Also, the Flames’ special teams have been insane a month into the season. Through 11 games, the Flames’ man advantage has gone 8 for 25, good for a 32% power play success rate. They’ve also allowed just five goals on the penalty kill, with their 84.8% penalty killing rate sitting seventh in the league. In this game, they were 2 for 2 on the power play and 2 for 2 on the kill.

Joel Farabee was the team’s best player, scoring a goal and picking up two assists. He did a good job of finding open space for his goal, assisted by Adam Klapka and Kevin Bahl.

Matt Coronato picked up a pair of assists as well, setting up Zayne Parekh for his first goal of the season, and picking up the secondary assist on Matvei Gridin’s goal, both of which were on the power play. Both 2024 draftees have terrific releases on their wrist shot and will be key members of the power play moving forward.

Ryan Strome picked up the other goal for the Flames, coming late in the second period. Morgan Frost showed nice patience to out-wait the defence and find Strome all alone in front of the net. Gridin picked up the assist after carrying the puck on the rush, another good sign.

Jonathan Castanga is still hunting for his first career goal. He came pretty darn close in the second period, firing towards a wide open cage, but Ben Chiarot dove and deflected the puck over the glass. Castanga has been impressive since joining the team.

The negatives

There weren’t really that many negatives from this game. The Red Wings’ lone goal showed why defensive zone faceoffs are important, as the Flames failed to corral the puck and Andrew Copp beat Cooley for his second of the season.

On the expected goals side of things, only the Strome/Gridin/Martin Pospíšil line finished with an expected goal percentage above 50. The first line of Frost, Aydar Suniev, and Yegor Sharangovich finished with 0 percent of the expected goal share, while the second line of Farabee, Ben Jones, and Coronato finished with 26.80 percent of the expected goal share. Their five on five play has to be a bit better.

I think the main negative from this game is that winning isn’t great for the rebuild. Yes, it shows young players like Parekh, Gridin, and others how to win, but the Flames need some high picks here. The 2026-27 season can’t be another “mushy middle” season.

Other notes

For the first time this season, the Flames wore their 2004 jerseys to honour the team that made it to the Stanley Cup Final. Safe to say that they’re still some of the best in the business.

In the first period, the two teams went without a whistle for nearly eight minutes. This has definitely happened before, but you don’t see it very often and the breakneck pace is good for the sport.

The Flames look to close out this four-game home stand on a four-game winning streak. On Monday evening, they’ll host the Toronto Maple Leafs and look to move to within a game of the .500 mark.

Cynthia Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for DFO Calgary, DFO Edmonton, and Blue Jays Nation. She can be followed on Twitter @CynthiaRDelaney.

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