The Calgary Flames are 0-5 for the first time in franchise history, and Dan and Matt discuss why this historically bad start might be exactly what the team needs. The guys look at Calgary’s recent games against the Colorado Avalanche and Anaheim Ducks, the signs of progress despite two more losses, and why this season needs to be about developing young players rather than chasing wins.

Matvei Gridin, Ilya Suniev and Jonathan Castagna have all had opportunities to show what they can do at the NHL level. Dan and Matt discuss the latest call-ups, how Ryan Huska should be evaluated during the rebuild, and why giving young players room to make mistakes is essential to their development.

They also revisit Connor Zary’s demotion to the Wranglers and debate whether a trade could give him a fresh start. Could Devin Cooley become a trade target for the injury-hit New York Rangers? And what would Calgary need in return?

Plus, the Flames face another challenging week with games against Anaheim, Vegas and Carolina. Dan and Matt make their predictions and consider just how difficult this season could become.

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This Fireside Chat episode is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Mentioned in this episode: Adam Klapka, Adar Sunyav, Axel Hurtig, Brayden Pachal, Connor Zary, Devin Cooley, Ilya Suniev, Joel Farabee, Jonathan Castagna, Kevin Bahl, Matthew Coronato, Morgan Frost, Samuel Honzek, Simon Nemec, Zayne Parekh