昨晚的赛季首场比赛卡尔加里火焰队在主场1：5不敌温哥华Canucks，被彻底地灭了火。

October is for optimists.

Well, at least the early portion of the month is.

“There’s 30 teams right now who believe they’ll have great seasons,” Calgary Flames coach Bob Hartley was telling reporters in the lead-up to the National Hockey League’s opening night, “and 30 teams that want to have a great first game.

“We’re targeting a great start. Last year we had that great start — it’s worth gold.”

Mining began in earnest Wednesday.

But, like last season, the Flames fell to the Vancouver Canucks in Game 1 — this time, outshot 44-30 and slapped down 5-1 at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

The Canucks, who led 2-0 and 3-1 by periods, got goals from Jannik Hansen, Brandon Sutter, Daniel Sedin, Alex Burrows, Henrik Sedin.

Jiri Hudler replied for the sluggish Flames, oddly out of sorts at both ends of the rink. Then again, it’s early days, right?

“Last year, everybody wrote us off and we stayed true to ourselves,” Josh Jooris said the other day. “We knew what we had in this room and we kept fighting forward.

“We knew what we were capable of. Nothing changes this year.”

It hadn’t been all bad Wednesday.

Nearly everyone in red had a moment or two — hits by Micheal Ferland and Josh Jooris, penalty-kills by Mikael Backlund and Mark Giordano, rushes by Dougie Hamilton, saves by Karri Ramo, flashes by the first line, moves by Michael Frolik.

But nothing was came close to being cohesively mounted.

Surrendering 40-plus shots?

Rustling up only one goal?

Not so hot.

At least the locals know now, definitively, it’s not going to be sweat-less, this push for another playoff spot.

“We came out for the first 10 (minutes) and we were fine,” said Giordano, who, like Backlund, was minus-three. “But we were really guilty of turning the puck over a lot and not playing our system at all, really.

“We know how we’re going to be successful and if we start playing like that we won’t win many games this year.”

A year ago, after that season-opening loss to the Canucks, Hartley scratched Dennis Wideman for Game 2.

It would not be a surprise to see one of the dozen forwards lifted for Mason Raymond when the teams meet Saturday at Rogers Arena.

“That’s probably as bad as we can get out there,” said Giordano. “We made poor decisions and they made us pay. They played a solid game, they played the right way, and that’s why they beat us that badly.”

Anyone who monitored last spring’s set between the Flames and the Canucks knew that Ferland’s re-entry into this feud would not be peaceful.

And it wasn’t.

Settling into the starting lineup, national anthem barely over, Ferland looked over. There, old pal Derek Dorsett was chirping.

Not much more of an invitation was necessary.

Two seconds into the contest, the mittens were flipped off.

But the one true highlight of the opening period had been Ramo’s spectacular save. With Sedin & Sedin working two-on-one on Kris Russell, Henrik passed leftward to Daniel, who uncorked a labelled shot. The netminder, in desperation, whipped his blocker upward, parrying the attempt.

On the very next shot, he was not as fortunate.

Hansen hammered in a high slapper — glove side, short side — to give the travellers a 1-0 lead.

Then the Canucks’ (newfangled) first line struck. Down the left side, Daniel Sedin flung a low wrister at the Flames’ net. Ramo repelled that, but, sent the puck into the air and Sutter rapped it, baseball style, in at 18:01 to give guests a 2-0 bulge.

Not that the Flames were likely to have been surprised by the push.

“We’d better be ready for a hungry team,” Giordano said after the morning skate. “You face each other and playoffs and you eliminate a team, they’re going to want some revenge. There’s going to be a good buzz out there. Any time you play each other so much, there’s going to be a fire out there.”

Hartley mixed up his lines to start the second period — but he left his top unit intact.

For good reason.

Barely three minutes after the first intermission, Monahan plucked the puck from Luca Sbisa, shifted it to Johnny Gaudreau, who fed Hudler. The reigning Lady Byng Trophy winner tucked it behind Ryan Miller.