The Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers both concluded their exhibition schedules for the 2026-27 campaign on Saturday night in Rogers Place. Both teams dressed effectively their Game 1 regular season line-ups.

The Flames battled hard but they were ultimately out-gunned in a 4-1 road loss to the Oilers.

Edmonton carried the balance of play in the first period, with the Flames really struggling with the speed of both their skating and puck movement. The Flames defended reasonably well at five-on-five, but special teams sunk them.

After Kevin Bahl took a minor penalty in the first period, he barely had time to get cozy in the penalty box before Zach Hyman tapped a Connor McDavid feed past Dustin Wolf to go up 1-0. The goal was just 23 seconds into Edmonton’s man advantage.

In the second period, the Flames’ fourth line got caught up ice… and on the ice against McDavid’s line. Whoops. Off a nice rush passing sequence, McDavid scored on a great one-timer to give the home side a 2-0 lead.

Later in the period, Mikael Backlund’s line got caught in their own end and the Oilers cycled the puck very nicely back to the point. With more than a few bodies between Wolf and the shooter, Ryan Shea blasted a slapper past Wolf to make it a 3-0 Edmonton lead.

The Flames got on the board in the third period, spoiling Devon Levi’s shutout bid. Back to back Edmonton minors gave the Flames a short stretch of five-on-three hockey. They didn’t score on the two-man advantage, but Matt Coronato fired a pass from Matvei Gridin past Levi on the second half of the PP to cut Edmonton’s edge to 3-1.

But later on, during a spell of four-on-four, the Flames turned the puck over in the offensive zone. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins flipped the puck to Kasperi Kapanen in the neutral zone. He rushed in, beating a Flames defender, and guided the puck past a sprawling Wolf to give the Oilers a 4-1 lead.

The home side held on for a 4-1 victory.

Well, what’s the old saying? They are who we thought they were.

On paper, the Flames don’t have the offensive weapons that the Oilers have. The Flames can beat them if they play a really tight-checking, structured defensive game and avoid special teams craziness. On this occasion, they battled hard, but they made enough mistakes that the Oilers made them pay for.

Give the Flames credit, though. They got their legs under them after the first period and played pretty well. They didn’t get their show run, they managed to generate some chances, but they couldn’t finish enough of them to make the game close on the scoreboard.

Zayne Parekh was the best Flame, especially with the puck. The fourth line had some nice looks, too, but got caught out a bit too often against McDavid’s line. And it’s hard to fault Dustin Wolf in net: aside from perhaps Shea’s point shot, he didn’t have a great chance at any of the goals he gave up.

The Oilers are a team that has championships on their minds. The Flames are a team that has the future on theirs. Nothing we saw in the pre-season finale probably dispelled either team’s notions for how their season might go.

Calgary’s lines:

Matvei Gridin – Morgan Frost – Matt Coronato
Sam Honzek – Mikael Backlund – Joel Farabee
Connor Zary – Ryan Strome – Yegor Sharangovich
Maxim Tsyplakov – Martin Pospisil – Adam Klapka

Kevin Bahl – Simon Nemec
Jake Middleton – Zayne Parekh
Yan Kuznetsov – Zach Whitecloud

Dustin Wolf started in net and went the distance, backed up by Kirill Zarubin.

Edmonton’s lines:

Vasili Podkolzin – Connor McDavid – Leon Draisaitl
Isaac Howard – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Zach Hyman
Owen Michaels – Trent Frederic – Kasperi Kapanen
Alex Formenton – Colton Dach – Mathieu Joseph

Mattias Ekholm – Evan Bouchard
Connor Murphy – Jake Walman
Ryan Shea – Shakir Mukhamadullin

Devon Levi started in net and went the distance, backed up by Matt Tomkins.

The roster deadline is 3 p.m. MT on Monday. The Flames open their regular season at home on Thursday night against the Seattle Kraken.

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