The Calgary Flames carried their first win of the season into Vegas on Thursday night, meeting the Golden Knights at 8 p.m. MT on Sportsnet 1 after beating the Ducks 4-2 in Anaheim. For Calgary, it was the kind of quick turnaround that can tell you whether a win was a reset or just a pause.
Mikael Backlund said the group felt ready to finish the job after the win in Anaheim, and he pointed to a team meeting and a cleaner approach as the reason the mood changed so fast. “We had a good meeting this morning, coaches showing us what we did well and why we were winning,” Backlund said. “We've got to keep doing that, keep playing that solid game and making it hard on the teams and (making) it frustrating for them.”
That mattered because Vegas was not waiting around. The Golden Knights entered first in the Pacific Division at 6-2-0 and had opened a three-game homestand after beating the Predators 5-2 in Nashville on Tuesday. Jack Eichel led them with 13 points, while he and Mark Stone had combined for nine power-play assists, a sign that the home side was bringing both pace and production into the matchup.
Calgary, though, arrived with something it had been searching for before Anaheim: proof it could hold up for a full night. Backlund said, “I think we just kept going,” and added that he liked the effort, pace and energy from a group that had been fighting for a breakthrough. That first win did more than break a skid. It gave the Flames a baseline, a reason to believe the structure was starting to stick.
The mismatch in timing was part of the story too. This was the first of four meetings between Calgary and Vegas in 2026-27, and the teams were not scheduled to see each other again until Feb. 1 at the Scotiabank Saddledome. That long gap means Thursday’s result carries extra weight, because the next chance to answer it will not come for months. Calgary got to test its new edge right away. Vegas got to defend its place at the top of the division at home. One side was trying to prove the win in Anaheim was a turning point. The other was trying to show that its fast start was no accident.
