The Calgary Flames have played three games to begin the 2024-25 season. The Flames have won all three games. The three games were not picture perfect. They have room for improvement.

But you cannot argue with the results.

As we ruminate on three impressive outings to start the season, let’s check in with our pals in the mailbag!

It’s worth noting that Matt Coronato slotted into Sunday’s game in Edmonton and was plus-2 (and had a pretty good game) on the fourth line alongside Ryan Lomberg and Justin Kirkland. Heck, Coronato had a couple good looks and probably could’ve had a goal or two.

That said, here’s the problem the Flames have right now: Coronato’s a talented offensive player who probably needs to play in the Flames’ top three forward lines to be as effective as he can be. (He’s decent in fourth line spot duty, but that’s not really his skillset.) Right now, the top nine spots are taken by Sam Honzek, Andrei Kuzmenko, Jonathan Huberdeau, Anthony Mantha, Connor Zary and Blake Coleman. Unless somebody is traded, injured or wildly under-performs, Coronato doesn’t really have a spot available in that rotation.

If you had told me that Jonathan Huberdeau, Martin Pospisil and Anthony Mantha would be this effective early on, I wouldn’t have believed you. It usually takes awhile for guys to figure out their roles on a line, especially guys that haven’t play together a ton. They’ve been very good.

And Kevin Bahl and Rasmus Andersson were flat-out excellent against Edmonton. They did their jobs well in all three zones, and were key reasons why the Flames remain unbeaten.

There are two reasons I think the Flames are doing well early on.

First, they had a good pre-season. And yeah, the pre-season does not count and is too damn long. But I think the Flames did a great job of using it productively, in terms of working on systems and tactics and combinations that could work well together. As a result, they look more cohesive than I think we see teams often look early on.

But in a big-picture sense, think about this: what’s at stake for the Flames this season? They traded away their big pieces. They have oodles of young players in their system and on their roster, and they don’t really have high external expectations. They can just play and not worry about the big picture. And that can be really, really freeing for a team.

Oh man, I really love how Jeremie Poirier plays with the puck. When he’s confident and playing his game, he can be a great offensive catalyst at five-on-five and on the power play. Right now, I don’t know if he has the details away from the puck down well enough to be an all-situations top-four NHLer, but he could be a PP specialist – he thinks the game that well.

One word: expectations. After the season the Oilers had last year, there’s a realistic, palpable chance that they could win the Stanley Cup. And when cracks appear in that foundation, no matter how early in the season or small the cracks may be, it can drive Oilers faithful absolutely bonkers.