The Seattle Kraken captured three points out of a possible six over the past week. However, after securing two points in their first game of the week against Utah, it feels like a missed opportunity to gain more. Following Tuesday’s win over Utah, they came from behind to earn a point against Vancouver but then lost in regulation to Edmonton in a game where the Kraken got off to a horrible start. On top of that, injuries have started to pile up as the hope for any playoff contention push becomes more and more unlikely.
Kraken cold starts and playing from behind
The Kraken had a rough start to Saturday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers, conceding two goals within the first 5:18 of the game. Frankly, it could have been worse. Falling behind has been a recurring issue all season. The Kraken have allowed the first goal in 60 percent of their games this season—second worst in the league, behind only the New York Islanders. Their record is 8-16-0 when conceding the first goal, compared to 9-4-3 when scoring first. So far, they’ve trailed during 43 percent of their total game time.
To the team’s credit, Seattle has consistently shown resilience, never giving up and often battling back, as they did on Saturday. They were down 3-0 at one point in the game but managed to cut the deficit to 3-2 before Leon Draisaitl sealed the victory with an empty-net goal in the final two minutes.
Injuries are stacking up
In case you missed it, the Kraken placed goaltender Joey Daccord (retroactive to Dec. 22) and forward Yanni Gourde (retroactive to Jan. 4) on injured reserve (IR) over the weekend. This move opened two roster spots, allowing the Kraken to call up defensemen Cale Fleury and Gustav Olofsson from Coachella Valley. Why two defensemen, you ask? On Saturday night, Adam Larsson missed the third period of the game against Edmonton. He was a full participant in the morning skate on Monday, and coach Dan Bylsma indicated that he is likely to be available against New Jersey. Daccord has been skating with the team, so we expect him back in the relative near future.
Bylsma also indicated that a second defenseman is dealing with an injury, but all six regulars were accounted for at morning skate, and Bylsma said the call-ups were “insurance.”
The Kraken’s playoff hopes are already slim, but with Gourde joining Jordan Eberle on IR—and multiple defensemen banged up—the odds have grown even longer.
PWHL in Seattle
Seattle truly showed up for the PWHL Takeover Tour, delivering an incredible game and an electric atmosphere. Seeing Kraken coach Jessica Campbell drop the ceremonial face-off gave me chills. The attendance of 12,608 was the highest for a PWHL game this season and the second highest in league history. Hats off to the Kraken organization, Climate Pledge Arena, and the PWHL for putting this event together.
Incredible ovation for Jess Campbell, as she drops the ceremonial opening face-off. #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/9PTbziHzJv
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 5, 2025
There’s no doubt in my mind that Seattle could support a PWHL team. It might not happen during this round of expansion, but when the league starts looking westward, I fully expect Seattle to be on the short list for future teams.
Other musings
- Blysma was asked Monday by Alison Lukan about how to address slow starts. He said, “With a loud voice.”
- Yanni Gourde missed Saturday night’s game against Edmonton. While I don’t have exact data, it feels like the Gourde line has started most of the Kraken’s games this season. I can’t help but wonder if the Kraken’s rough start Saturday might have been avoided had Gourde played and started that game.
- Saturday night might have been Philipp Grubauer’s best performance of the season. The Kraken had no business being in that game, but Phil gave them a chance to compete.
- This week was my first time seeing Kaapo Kakko play live as a member of the Kraken. It’s hard to put into words, but his baseline across all aspects of his game feels higher than most Kraken players. While he might not excel at any one skill, he performs well above average in every area.
- Matty Beniers had moments on Saturday where he looked the best he has all season. Though he didn’t register a point and only managed two shots on goal, he was noticeably driving play throughout the game.
- The World Juniors tournament was a treat this year, with eight Kraken prospects participating. I expect four to return next year: Jakub Fibigr (CZE), Julius Miettinen (FIN), Berkly Catton (CAN), and Kim Saarinen (FIN). Beyond those four, there aren’t many candidates currently in the Kraken pipeline that might be in line for next year’s World Juniors—maybe Nathan Villeneuve (CAN), though that might be a stretch.
- Speaking of the World Juniors, it’s hard to imagine the tournament going much better for 2023 first-round pick Eduard Šalé. He captained the bronze-medal-winning Czechia team, scored six goals in seven games, and tallied a goal in the bronze medal game. He also converted on two shootout attempts, including the game-winner.
It took 14 rounds, but Eduard Sale secured the bronze for Czechia in the shootout! @SeattleKraken | #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/WkbEQMX1FN
— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) January 6, 2025
- I tend to adopt a favorite SHL team each season based on Kraken prospects, and for the past couple of years, it’s been HV71. One of my favorite Kraken prospects, Oscar Fisker Mølgaard, plays for them. HV71 has won eight of their last 10 games, and Mølgaard has been a significant contributor with 10 points over that span. Being a point-per-game player in the SHL is incredibly difficult, and this is a promising sign of development for the 2023 second-round pick.
Goal of the Week
You might expect me to pick Eduard Šalé’s game-winning shootout goal as this week’s Goal of the Week—but he already claimed last week’s honors. This week, the title goes to Jani Nyman for his game-winning goal for Coachella Valley on Sunday night.
THE OT WINNER!!! pic.twitter.com/QNxKuCzqbj
— Coachella Valley Firebirds (@Firebirds) January 6, 2025
Player performances
Jagger Firkus (CVF/SEA): Firkus is on a five-game point streak with Coachella Valley. He is currently tied for second in points for the Firebirds this season, alongside Nyman.
Clarke Caswell (SCB/SEA): The Kraken’s fifth-round pick from the 2024 NHL Entry Draft has been on fire, tallying 10 points in his last 10 games for the Swift Current Broncos in the WHL.
Vince Dunn (SEA): Dunn has racked up seven points in the four games since the Christmas break, including the game-winning goal against Vancouver last Saturday and the game-tying goal against Vancouver on Tuesday night.
The week ahead
The Kraken haven’t been a playoff-caliber team for a while, but you hope they can keep things interesting down the stretch and maintain the illusion that a postseason push is still possible. They face a tough test on Monday against the New Jersey Devils but then have three winnable road games later in the week: Columbus on Thursday, Buffalo on Saturday, and Detroit on Sunday.
Despite being “winnable,” the matchups won’t be easy. Both Columbus and Detroit have better records than the Kraken and have been playing well over their last 10 games. With the Kraken’s injury struggles, earning six out of eight points this week will be challenging—but it’s what they’ll need to keep the hope alive.
I’m impressed that Sale was the Czechia captain. He keeps surprising us!
My wife and daughter went to the PWHL game and had an absolute blast. My 9 y.o. daughter is also in the Jr Kraken girls program, and some of the Montreal and Boston players participated in a “skills clinic” with the girls on Saturday at KCI. It was really nice. Special shout-out to Montreal’s Mikyla Grant-Mentis, who was enthusiastically celebrating my daughter’s goals during drills, encouraging/coaching her cellies, and mock-wrestling her for puck positioning.
I agree, Saturday may have been Grubauer’s best performance of the season…and yet, MoneyPuck had him down for -0.46 GSAx.
I expected better from expected goals.
Alison had the post-game analysis of “preventing 1.47 more goals than he should have based on the shot quality he faced”. I assume that is from sport logic which probably has more info than moneypuck but no one really discloses the math here so who knows. Just felt like a solid effort in a challenging game.
I feel like even +1.47 is a bit conservative. “Solid” is a good description.
I think a lot of the analytics numbers that get used are not built for small sample sizes but end up being applied in that manner anyway.
Agree that had Yanni been in the lineup, the first period on Saturday probably would have been better.
Tanev and Kartye were the only two players who seemed ready to match Edmonton’s pace of play when the game started. I think Kartye had 3/4 of Seattle’s first shot attempts. Yanni likely would have added to that energy and possibly been near the net to tip in one of those attempts.
Also, the second goal happened after Kartye missed a check, then ran into Myers (colliding with his own teammates has been a persistent pattern with Myers every time he’s been in the lineup).
While the missed check probably would still have happened, Yanni likely would have been in a better position to cover for it (and not on a collision course with Kartye).
Interested to see if/when Sale is going to get a call up, though not sure where he’d best fit into the lineup.
I know injuries are up but even then, Blysma seems be trying to match lines with other teams lines. There preventy any kind of continuety amongst players. I can’t remember how many games have had the same line mates for the whole game. This issues should have been dealt with at Traing camp and not halfway into the season. We used to have names for linemates but not with Blysma. Every game has mystery line drawn from a hat and not from sjill set. Wright, plays on a different line every game
You’re right, and I feel like Bylsma changed that up for the NJ game. He put guys who worked together and kept them out there. It was lots better.