All things considered, it was a pretty fun weekend of Seattle Kraken hockey. In back-to-back games with travel, Seattle prevailed 4-1 against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday and had the Eastern Conference-leading Washington Capitals on the ropes for much of Sunday afternoon before falling just short in a 4-2 loss.
Now that Seattle has fully thrown in the towel on its postseason hopes, the results don’t matter as much anymore—just getting to watch entertaining games is all we ask for.
Here are Three Takeaways from an fun pair of Kraken games against the Flyers and Capitals.
Takeaway #1: Big weekend for Chandler Stephenson
Center Chandler Stephenson—despite some criticism from Kraken fans due to the seven-year, $43.75 million contract he signed as a free agent—has quietly put together a solid first season in the Pacific Northwest.
He had a standout weekend, scoring a shorthanded goal on a breakaway Saturday in Philadelphia and assisting on Jordan Eberle’s Sunday, the captain’s first goal since returning from a pelvis injury.
Stephenson’s assist Sunday was pretty. Eeli Tolvanen gained control of the puck along the boards in the neutral zone and flicked it ahead past three Capitals players. Stephenson collected the puck and skated in on a 2-on-1 with Eberle, threading a pass through newly acquired Capitals forward Anthony Beauvillier. Eberle buried it short-side.
O Captain! My Captain! 🫡 🚨 #SeaKraken https://t.co/TjDYYTppnY pic.twitter.com/OVsPYkqI4z
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) March 9, 2025
That was Stephenson’s 32nd assist of the season, leading the Kraken in that category. He now has 43 points (11 goals, 32 assists), ranking second on the team behind Jared McCann.
Takeaway #2: Gru back in the net
Philipp Grubauer got his first start in net against the Flyers on Saturday since being recalled from the Coachella Valley Firebirds. He made the most of his AHL stint, going 5-2 in the minors, and returned with a strong performance.
Grubauer allowed just one goal, and even that came off a fluky play. Ryker Evans attempted to poke the puck away from Owen Tippett but inadvertently popped it up, causing it to bounce off Tippett and trickle past Grubauer.
Statistically, Grubauer posted a .958 save percentage, his second-best outing of the season. He was the best penalty killer on the ice too, helping Seattle shut down all five of Philadelphia’s power play opportunities.
One common criticism of Grubauer is that he doesn’t always make the big save when needed. That wasn’t the case Saturday. With the game tied 1-1, rookie sensation Matvei Michkov collected a rebound and backhanded what looked like a sure goal toward an open net, but Grubauer reached back with his glove and snagged it out of the air. Just 38 seconds later, Matty Beniers scored, and the Kraken never looked back.
Takeaway #3: Special teams
Seattle had four power play opportunities against the Capitals but couldn’t convert. They maintained possession in the offensive zone but struggled to generate quality chances against Washington’s seventh-ranked penalty kill (81.7 percent). Adding in a 0-for-3 effort against Philadelphia, the Kraken went 0-for-7 on the power play over the weekend.
On the flip side, they didn’t allow a power-play goal and even scored shorthanded, finishing plus-one in special teams situations. The Flyers, coached by John Tortorella, came up empty on five power plays and have struggled all season, converting just 15.3 percent of their chances.
Seattle’s power play continues to be a problem, clicking at just 18.4 percent—26th in the NHL and below last season’s mark of 20.7 percent (16th in the NHL).
Bonus Takeaway: The back-to-back struggles continue
Seattle came out strong against Washington, outshooting the Capitals 14-7 in the first period and taking a 1-0 lead. The Kraken have struggled with slow starts this season, but that wasn’t the case Sunday. However, despite a solid effort, they ultimately fell to the now league-leading Capitals. It never felt like they gave up—until Alex Ovechkin sealed the game with an empty-net goal, the 886th of his career.
Career goal No. 886 and career point No. 1600 for Alex Ovechkin. #Gr8Chase
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) March 9, 2025
Ovi is now 9 goals from the record. pic.twitter.com/HshOlC2APN
The Kraken are now 0-10 in the second leg of back-to-back games. They have one more back-to-back set this season on March 18-19 against the Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota Wild. While the playoffs are out of reach this year, figuring out how to win these tough turnaround games will be crucial if Seattle hopes to make a playoff push next season.
Don’t forget 10 in the box!
Yep that was fun to watch. @sound_hockey has a new header image.
Also, is it just me, or is Washington’s penalty box unusually large? It seems like 3 is usually incredibly cramped, but Seattle fit all 5 sitting at once.
I was thinking the same thing.
Stevenson having a pretty good year. Especially during this last half of the season. His critics though will never admit it. Sure, I understand his contract is a concern, but he deserves more credit for his play than some will ever give him.
Nice mix of rush and cycle today. Given that the playoffs are out of reach, I don’t mind seeing them lose that way today.
Go Kraken!!!
…also… given today… go back and give Episode 300 a listen starting at 44:30. Curtis, Darren and John… nice call.
Play pretty well but lose, perfect game.
Daryl, I was thinking about something regarding our Stephenson discussion the other day. You were comparing what Stephenson’s last years on his contract may be like and used Gourde as a comparator. I don’t think that is very accurate, there will be a pretty significant difference in age by time the last years of Stephenson’s contract comes around.
Offensive players can go downhill pretty fast when they start losing a step in their 30’s. We see it beginning to happen with Gourde and this was his age 32-33 year. Stephenson will be well in to age 32 when year 3 of his seven-year contract begins.
I hope he ages well and makes me eat my words.
Yanni was 33 this season. Stephenson was 30. When he’s 34, in season five of his contract and the cap is around $120m, I’ll worry about his hit and his performance then… in 2028-2029.
I have to point out the playing time of Wright, who by the way loks llike shoresey, so give your balls a tough and tell our bad coach that Bernier does not need to play almost 20 minutes in the the thrid period of back to back games and let Wright pick up so more minutes so he can put more points on the boards. We had 3 players with over 20 minutes and Wright gets 15. Maybe Wright said something about his mother aka Shoresey.
I need to give my balls a tug as I made a typo
Lol
IMO, Stephenson has moments of greatness but he’s one of those players that has a chip on his shoulder and can be moody at times. Dunn is another example. Sometimes it seems like these players are trying not to play hard because they’re ticked off about – whatever. But when they remember why they’re here – it’s magic.
On the other hand, guys like Monty and Kakko seem to bring the same, constant intensity every game. Very little variation. I look forward to more greatness from Stevie and the like.
That is an interesting thought. I wonder if there is something to that. Like you said, there appear to be different compete levels that Stephenson plays at, but the big divide between lazy, lackadaisical Stephenson and hard-charging, dialed-in Stephenson seemed to happen right exactly at the mid-point of the season. Sure, he had some really good games here and there early on and a couple less than stellar outings later, but a switch seems to have been flipped right around Game 42. If second-half-of-the-season Stephenson sticks around going forward and we don’t see any more protracted mood-related slumps, then I will feel pretty damn good about him munching big minutes, because all-in Stephenson is a baller.
He has one of the slickest puck-theft moves I have ever seen. Notice how most forecheckers when they separate the puck from the puck-carrier poke or sweep it so that it skitters, and they take a half-second to calm it enough to bring it forward. What Stephenson does is to somehow pull the puck right off of the other guy’s tape so that he has possession of it before the former puck carrier realizes he has lost it. What makes it really slick is that Stephenson knows ahead of time that is what he is going to do, so his feet are already moving in the opposite direction when it happens. It looks like he is playing basketball defense. I wonder if the move is similar to the technique he uses to win so many face-offs.
Exactly. Part of it may be that he didn’t like getting traded but it seems like enough time has gone by for that to fizzle out. Another reason may be that he’s already got a cup, so why bother? Meh… I don’t know. We all notice when he’s slow or doesn’t seem to be in the right place.
It’s so hard to armchair -psycho analyze these players!
Stephenson definitely has a lot of skill, but his effort often seems to be lacking. That’s what irks me the most. Imagine if he brought it every game!? And someone please explain to me how he can be the second leading point scorer and have almost the worst +/- of the entire team – he’s -11!
Stephenson’s on-ice offensive zone faceoff percentage is 48.64%. Among the Kraken’s top nine forwards he’s the only one below 54%. The two other centers, Beniers and Wright, are at 57.88% and 59.51% respectively.
I think that’s part of why he’s -11.
I think you might mean DZ face-offs?
Also, those percentages don’t align to the nhl stats page: https://www.nhl.com/stats/skaters?report=faceoffpercentages&reportType=season&seasonFrom=20242025&seasonTo=20242025&gameType=2&playerPlayedFor=franchise.39&sort=totalFaceoffs&page=0&pageSize=50
No, I meant offensive zone faceoff percentage and those are from NST, all situations – same as +/-.
Why use “all situations” when Stephenson has much more PK time… of course he’ll have more D-zone faceoffs when you factor in PK. Use “all even strength” and then look at the analytics.
Also, there could be a very strong argument made that Stephenson shouldn’t be receiving as much PK time as he does as he’s not a great defensive player. He moves the puck well in the offensive zone and has good passing skills, but (despite his FO prowess) his line more-often-than-not gets run over in the D-zone at even strength.
A good defensive center suppresses offense despite unfavorable matchups – that’s what makes them “good.” Stephenson just doesn’t do that. Look at Yanni’s numbers this season at even strength and how he was deployed; he’s a much better defensive center.
…also, those stats are for win percentage, not on-ice percentage for faceoffs in the offensive zone.
Ah, so you cherry-picked some “advanced analytics” to get the story you wanted to tell, but didn’t bother to explain that adequately or cite your sources.
Matt,
I used “all situations” because +/- as used in the question is an “all situations” stat. I looked at 5v5 (-9) before hand and found a similar circumstance, where, with the exception of Eberle, Stephenson is getting a lower percentage of offensive zone starts than all the other top nine forwards. If you run “even strength” (-12) it’s still similar.
The PK knocks down the o-zone numbers, but he only has 123 minutes as opposed to 170 on the PP… so on balance, his special teams deployment actually props up his offensive zone faceoff numbers.
Yanni, and the entire fourth line, were getting, by nature, defensive situations, but I’d be curious to know about the personnel match ups as well. I would assume Stephenson is drawing better opponents than the fourth line does.
I would speculate that part of the reason Stephenson’s line gets “run over” is because he’s being deployed as a No.1 center… he’s not a No.1 center. There were none of those available in free agency and they cost a lot more than $6.25m. I think Shane Wright is beginning to look like he could be a No.1 center, but I think that’s still off in the future a bit.
Just my thoughts. I try to be rational in my takes and I fully acknowledge that using numbers is no assurance of accuracy. I’ve mentioned before the line attributed to Mark Twain… “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics”.
I appreciate your take on Stephenson and I think it’s no less correct than mine. I think the reality is probably somewhere in between. I would say the biggest “blind spot” in my view is I’m just assuming the personnel match ups. I don’t have numbers on that. In a few “spot checks” I’ve found it to be the case, but that’s pretty anecdotal and doesn’t mean much.
Go Kraken!!!
I was curious other thoughts on the pre game RF interview. I thought it was very noteworthy that he talked about his favorite topic “center depth”. He mentioned that the core of our centers were Matty and Wright, no mention of Chandler. Interesting that he didn’t even mention the center with the 7 year contract, clearly he’s a huge part of our center future like it or not and holds the longest contract.
He then went on to talk about Catton and how his play is forcing them to take a long look at him next season, at least playing 9 games.
If Catton makes the team is Chandler already one too many in his second year of a seven year contract?
Stephenson is a good player but terrible fit on the Kraken. Francis made a huge error in judgement signing him and Montour, another good player but bad fit. Now the top four D are good, but softish, puck movers that are exposed in Bylsma’s open system. All this talk about Stephenson’s contract being “not a problem we can buy him out” is in itself a testament to how bad the signing was. The ink is barely dry on that contract and here we are. Francis’s list of mistakes is a very long one by now and he will make more as he attempts to fix his previous ones. Even if there is no one huge obvious blunder the sheer number of mistakes is damning. This org is floundering in mediocre decisions.
I half agree, I think the Montour signing was a good fit and he doesn’t play soft. Otherwise I agree.
Yes, as I said earlier, I like all of them individually, but I don’t like them as a group. Montour is probably my favourite out of the top 4 right now. I like Evans’ IQ and potential. Dunn has been very on/off lately which I think is a mental thing. Larsson as well. To me the issue is that they are so “samey”, signing Montour makes sense if you plan on changes to the D core, but I doubt Francis is thinking about that. The balance would be better with a Romanov type, someone who can still play but with more bite to their game.