Three takeaways as Flames' dismal start continues in Seattle

When it rains, it pours, and right now the Calgary Flames must feel like they've been hit by a typhoon.

Nothing is going right. Sunday night's 6-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken was the Flames' third straight defeat to start the season. They've been outscored 16-3 since the 2026-27 campaign kicked off last Thursday, have the worst goal-differential in the NHL, and are struggling to both score and keep the puck out of their own net.

These are tough times, plain and simple. Difficult stretches are to be expected during rebuilding seasons and the Flames will surely find ways to improve sooner rather than later. Nobody will be throwing in the towel just yet around the Saddledome, that much is certain.

The improvements need to come fast, though. These types of results can cause teams to spiral and the organization has done too much work to build a positive culture around the lockerroom over the past couple of years to allow anyone to feel OK about losing the way the Flames are dropping games early in the season.

With an upcoming run of games that includes matchups against the Colorado Avalanche, Anaheim Ducks, Vegas Golden Knights and Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, solutions need to be found before the losses really start to snowball.

Here are three takeaways from Sunday night's defeat at the hands of the Kraken:

The Flames' struggles can't be pinned on the shoulders of one player. That would be completely unfair and inaccurate, as well. It might be a cliche to say that everybody needs to be better after a loss, but that doesn't make it any less true.

The usually-reliable Zach Whitecloud was a minus-4 against the Kraken on Sunday night. Maksim Tsyplakov was a minus-3. Every single player on the roster wound up with a minus by the end of the game, with the exception of Morgan Frost, Yegor Sharangovich and Matt Coronato, who was his team's best player on the night.

It's not a huge surprise that the Flames are struggling to score. That was pretty predictable heading into the season, but their defensive struggles are being shared up-and-down the lineup and need to be sorted out in a hurry.

We're going to shift towards a more positive takeaway here, because it hasn't been all bad for the Flames.

Yes, they were down 5-0 heading into the third period and the Kraken were comfortably sitting back a bit, but the Flames did manage to create some sustained pressure in the final frame.

When Frost got down on one knee in front of the net and scored on the power-play, it was no less than his team deserved. It's the second goal the Flames have managed on the man-advantage this season and if you're looking for positives, that is genuinely encouraging.

Were there other things to feel good about? There were genuinely a few. The Flames managed to stay out of the penalty box completely on Sunday, which was real progress given their penalty struggles in their season opener against the Kraken on Thursday. They got lots of pucks on net, too, finishing with 33 shots, and out-hit the Kraken 29-21.

Those are things they can build on.

Dustin Wolf has not looked like himself early in the season.

While that's true of a lot of the players on the Flames roster and they aren't giving him a tonne of support, it's equally fair to point out that he hasn't been playing to anywhere near the standard that fans have come to expect from him.

He stopped 21-of-27 shots on Sunday. It's the second time he's allowed six goals in a game in two starts.

Again, the Flames' early-season results shouldn't be pinned on Wolf. There's a lot more to it than that.

But the reality is he does need to be a lot better if this team is going to have a realistic chance of coming out of this tailspin.