Friends, let’s get one thing out of the way straight away: the Calgary Flames were never going to lose every single game after the trade deadline.

We often see a few things happen to teams after the trade deadline passes and clubs make their moves:

The Flames are a team that fits into that third category. On Sunday evening, facing the powerhouse Tampa Bay Lightning, the Flames played within their defensive structure, but they played a pretty free-flowing game, largely free of panic or tension, and managed to run their winning streak to three games by way of a 4-3 overtime win over the Lightning.

The trio of wins represent the club’s first three game winning streak of the 2026 calendar year, with their last being Dec. 27-31, 2025.

Following the game, Flames head coach Ryan Huska commented on what’s working for his team lately.

“More of a 60-minute game, I would say,” said Huska. “We’re finding a way to capitalize on some of our chances. Another off-side one tonight that would have been nice if we could have finished off, but I think it’s a little bit more consistency and we’re sticking with it, and there’s been some good energy around our team lately. We talked about losing players but we brought some good players in that are our quality people and good hockey players, and I think that’s that’s helped as well.”

Newcomer Ryan Strome scored the game-winner in overtime against Tampa Bay. He was asked about the importance of the Flames winning games given their team’s situation, and he had a pretty detailed, eloquent response.

“I’ve been through this before, and it’s really, really hard to snap your fingers and just become a winning hockey team,” said Strome. “So I think if you throw these games away, you don’t compete, you don’t play hard, those habits leak into next year. Then all of a sudden you have, you know, a group that’s like, ‘okay, we’ve got to start winning,’ and you don’t have the characteristics, you don’t have those qualities and the leadership and all those things that it takes. I mean, you know, hypothetically it would be great to have the first overall pick, and you can guarantee this and that, but it’s a team game, and there’s a lot of guys in here, I think, playing for jobs and playing for their life, and that’s important. And the team is trying to build a culture and confidence moving forward. And having been a part of this before, I know that it’s a huge piece of it. It’s very, very hard in this league to snap your fingers and show up and make the playoffs. So I think the traits that we’re showing now are great things that will bleed into next season.”

The Flames win pushes their record to 29-34-7 and at 65 points, puts them in a three-way tie with the Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers. Depending on how you want to look at it, the three teams are tied for 29th, 30th or 31st-place overall. The Flames sit atop the trio, in 29th place, by the regulation wins tiebreaker.

There’s a segment of the Flames fanbase that’s a bit anxious about the Flames racking up points and spoiling their potential draft lottery chances. To them we have two responses: they weren’t going to lose every remaining game… and take a look at their remaining schedule.

The Flames have 12 games remaining on the docket.

There are three games remaining on this homestand: Tuesday against Los Angeles, Thursday against Anaheim and Saturday against Vancouver.

After that, it’s on the road for six games: Mar. 3o in Colorado, Apr. 2 in Vegas, Apr. 4 in Anaheim, Apr. 7 in Dallas, Apr. 9 in Colorado again, and Apr. 11 in Seattle. The Anaheim game is a “scheduled win” for the Flames, as the Ducks host St. Louis the night before. The Seattle game is also a “scheduled win,” as the Kraken host the Golden Knights at home the night before.

The season closes out with home dates on Apr. 12 against Utah, Apr. 14 against Colorado and Apr. 16 against Los Angeles. The Utah game is a “scheduled loss,” as the Flames are on a back-to-back with travel. The Colorado game is a “scheduled win,” as the Avalanche are in Edmonton the night before.

Of the 12 remaining games for the Flames, they have eight against teams currently in playoff spots and four against teams that are outside of the playoffs. But three of those four games are against Seattle and Los Angeles, who are desperately trying to claw into the Western Conference wild card spots. In short: the majority of the Flames’ remaining games are against teams that are good, or desperate, or both.

The Flames are playing well right now. They’re winning games. They’re feeling good about themselves. The schedule has been kind to them lately, with the Flames facing both Florida and Tampa Bay after they played in Edmonton the night before.

The schedule won’t be nearly as kind to them the rest of the way.