In today’s National Hockey League, the biggest hurdle to a playoff spot is besting the seven teams in your own division. The Vancouver Canucks’ rivals in the Pacific Division, each at different points in their team’s evolution, will try to keep Vancouver out of the postseason party. And the only way to best your competition is by knowing them.
Every day this week, we’ll be looking at each of these Pacific Division teams and how they stack up compared to the Canucks.
Today, we’re looking at the Calgary Flames.
In the first game of the 2024-25 season, the Calgary Flames broke the Vancouver Canucks.
After the Canucks jumped out to a dominant 4-1 lead with sheer dominance, the Flames slowly wore them down, erased the deficit and won 6-5 in overtime. That game was essentially a microcosm of the year the Canucks were about to have; blown leads everywhere and an inability to play a full 60 minutes haunted them all through the campaign and set them up to miss the postseason.
The Flames took advantage of that circus to leapfrog the Canucks in the division standings, albeit missing the playoffs themselves via tiebreaker. So what have the Flames done to build on that success? The answer is… nothing, really. Whether on purpose or a lack of interest from UFAs, GM Craig Conroy is running it back with the group he’s assembled and expecting them to take another step forward.
Nazem Kadri has been leading by example since arriving in Calgary, including on the scoresheet last year with 67 points. Jonathan Huberdeau still hasn’t reached the highs of his time in Florida, but he’s improved over time. But with both players in their 30s, they aren’t getting any younger. The next generation of Flames are on their way, including Matt Coronato and Connor Zary, but there’s still work to do around them.
The biggest arrival has been the play of goalie Dustin Wolf. The 24-year-old goalie played 53 games for Calgary last season, picking up 29 wins and a .910 save percentage. Wolf was the biggest reason for the Flames’ charge back into the Wild Card race, and needs to be a rock in goal to keep his team moving upwards.
The Flames are still a team whose best days are ahead of them. In two years time, the franchise will be leaving the ancient Saddledome and moving into the brand new Scotia Place arena, theoretically right at the peak of their contention window. That window could easily begin opening now, if the Canucks don’t have anything to say about it.
Calgary took the season series 2-1-1, playing a key role in Vancouver’s downfall. But a more confident Canucks team with stronger scoring from the top six, on paper, should be able to handle whatever the Flames throw at them. But the aforementioned Wolf will provide the biggest threat for a Canucks forward group that’s seen their confidence waver at times, so Thatcher Demko and Kevin Lankinen will both need to be equal to that task.
The next chapter in this rivalry will also start on opening night, October 9, in Vancouver. And if last season was any indication, how these two teams start could mean a whole lot about where they’ll finish.
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