There’s a party happening, and the Calgary Flames weren’t invited. The 2026 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. For those heartbroken Flames fans who enjoy their hockey with something to root for, take heart. Here is the Flames fan cheering guide for the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Vegas Golden Knights
For the pragmatic, success for the Vegas Golden Knights is good news for Calgary. If Vegas wins the cup, a second-round pick they sent the Flames as part of the Rasmus Andersson trade would switch to a first-round pick. It makes the future brighter for the rebuild, and we should cheer for it.
Recent Flames Players
Besides Andersson in Vegas–a team that also rosters former Flame Noah Hanifin–there are other recent Flames players who’ve joined playoff teams at the trade deadline.
MacKenzie Weegar is now with the Utah Mammoth, who’ll be underdogs in round one against those Golden Knights. A battle of easy-to-like, first-pair defenders with snarl. Pick your favourite.
And Nazem Kadri has rejoined the Colorado Avalanche, the team he left as a free agent to sign with Calgary four years ago. The Avalanche have had a dominating Presidents’ Trophy-winning season and are heavyweight favourites to win their second Stanley Cup since 2022. Kadri was a key part of that win, and it’ll be fun to see him try to repeat that performance.
Whoever Plays The Edmonton Oilers
Battle of Alberta animosity courses through the veins of most Flames fans. We cheer for Oiler failure. They’ve made the Stanley Cup finals twice in a row only to fall short of winning it all. Bullets dodged. Thank you, Florida Panthers.
How far the Oilers go this year remains to be seen, but whoever they face along the way will have our full support. In the first round, this is the Anaheim Ducks.
The Buffalo Sabres
No moment of this 2025-2026 Flames season was more animating to fans than Don Maloney’s infamous late-November “Rebiggle” TV interview. In a segment riddled with fumbles came this comment alluding to the Buffalo Sabres:
“There’s examples out there right now where you’re talking potentially decades it can take to rebuild… We don’t want that culture as part of this organization.”
A short month later, the Sabres would begin their climb into the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference. So Sabres for the Cup, and Sabres for the laughs.
Playoff Cheer
Whether cheering for draft positioning, former Flames players, the timeless classic anti-Oilers, or Rebiggle relitigation, there is plenty to root for in the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs as a Flames fan.
Photo by Jenn G / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
