Look, I’m not saying the Seattle Kraken will go 82-0 this season, but… it remains on the table after they defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 in overtime at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday.
Matty Beniers had an outstanding performance, earning both a crucial goal and an even more crucial assist, while Jared McCann banged home the game-winner to cap an incredible weekend for Seattle sports.
Speaking of which, who was in the building on Saturday, cheering on the Kraken? The legendary HUMPY! After Humpy’s performance shocked the world at the Mariners game on Friday, he appeared at CPA on Saturday—where the Kraken promptly came away with an impressive win over an excellent opponent. Coincidence? I think not.
Global superstar and local hero, HUMPY is in the building!!! 🐟 ELECTRIC!⚡️ pic.twitter.com/Owtly1Pl08
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) October 12, 2025
Here are Three Takeaways from a big 2-1 Kraken overtime win against the Golden Knights.
Takeaway #1: Matty looks different
Beniers had a notably slow start to last season but seemed to find himself once Kaapo Kakko arrived and started creating some space for him. So when Kakko broke his hand in training camp, I wondered how big of an impact that would have on the start of Matty’s season.
Through the first two games—especially Saturday against Vegas—Beniers has looked fast, confident, and downright crafty. Even before he scored, I was commenting to others in the local media about how he looked.
When I asked him if he’s feeling good about his game Saturday, he said, “Yeah, I feel good.” (It was a funny exchange that’s worth watching below.)
Hear from Matty Beniers on what the win means for the #SeaKraken and his confidence early on. pic.twitter.com/YqOMqy42bc
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) October 12, 2025
There’s a determination in his game right now that we haven’t always seen from him over the past couple of seasons. The way he’s dangling through the neutral zone, the way he’s defending, and even the way he’s carrying himself with the media—it all suddenly looks and sounds like a veteran NHLer.
Against the Golden Knights, he was the beneficiary of an unbelievable between-the-legs pass from Jordan Eberle from below the goal line to set up a power-play goal seven minutes into the second period. But he also made an elite play on his own, pulling the puck to his backhand and sliding it around Adin Hill’s outstretched left pad.
MATTY MAGIC! 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) October 12, 2025
Sick setup, sick finish, sick celly.
Power-play goal, and it's 1-0 #SeaKraken. pic.twitter.com/AfVFcsAmxz
“It was an awesome pass [by Eberle],” Beniers said. “He’s an extremely gifted passer, we all know that, and he put that on display right there by going between his legs. I’m right in front all alone, so he set that whole thing up.”
He’s still just 22 years old, but it feels like it’s time for Matty to become Seattle’s best player. If that happens this season, the Kraken could go a long way.
(By the way, I missed Matty’s goal in real time, because I was busy looking up how many career shutouts Adin Hill has. So, you’re welcome for that.)
Takeaway #2: Overtime dominance
After Pavel Dorofeyev sent the game to an extra frame with his fifth (!!!) goal in three games, Seattle showed it knows how to play at 3-on-3—despite not practicing it much.
The Kraken won seemingly every battle and held the puck for nearly the entire five minutes of overtime. When the Golden Knights did manage to get possession, they’d rush up ice, take a shot from distance that Joey Daccord confidently kicked away, and then Seattle would go right back to work. It was an impressive display.
“Very good,” coach Lane Lambert said of the overtime performance. “Watching [Kraken teams] in the past, there’s a pretty good understanding there, and I thought we won some battles, and I thought we did some really good things in 3-on-3. We reorganized with the puck, we didn’t— we took shots that we felt were good opportunities, which you have to do. So we managed it very well.”
Of course, it’s all for naught if you don’t ultimately score. But with the clock ticking down and Beniers dancing around at the top of the slot, he finally pushed his way down Lenny Wilkens Way and snapped a shot into Hill’s chest. The rebound popped out and landed right on McCann’s stick, and he won the most important battle of the night, sending the crowd home happy.
MCCANN CAN! 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) October 12, 2025
WITH 3 SECONDS LEFT IN OT, JARED MCCANN WINS IT! #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/y38BJQvz5A
“I knew there wasn’t much time on the clock,” McCann said. “Matty made a great play, obviously, turned back and created space from the guy, and I just tried to do the same at the net.”
Takeaway #3: All aboard the Lane Train
After practice on Friday, Lambert reflected on the third period of Seattle’s season-opening win against Anaheim. “We feel like if we play like that, we’re going to give ourselves a chance to win. Are we going to win all the time? No, but if we play like that, we give ourselves a chance to win. And I thought that period was good.”
The Kraken played three of those periods (four, if you count OT) on Saturday. Sure, the game against Vegas could have gone either way, but Seattle had victory well within its tentacles all night.
Of course, Daccord has been very solid in both of these first two games, and the puck management in the opening frame against the Ducks was atrocious. But there have been very few defensive breakdowns so far, and against Vegas, odd-man rushes almost never happened. Even Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy commented on that after the game.
“They had a game plan, and they weren’t going to lose D up the ice,” Cassidy said. “Even though I think they did a pretty good job of getting involved in the offense, it didn’t allow us a lot of odd-man rushes to get through the neutral zone clean. So I think it took us a while to figure that part out.”
Lambert doubled down on his earlier sentiments after the game.
“It’s important for our team to understand that what we’re doing is a formula to have success,” Lambert said. “You’re not always going to win, and that’s the way it goes. The outcome was great, but had it been slightly different, I wouldn’t have been unhappy with our hockey team’s effort.”
For all the talk about tighter defensive structure from the Kraken, I’m not sure I believed we’d see it this early in the season. But Seattle just totally shut down a Vegas Golden Knights team that has dominated them throughout their four years of existence.
All aboard?
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
Nine thoughts:
1. What in the world was Vegas thinking of having 3Fs on a defensive zone draw with seconds left in OT?
2. Nice cross check by McCann on Marner to get separation.
3. Beniers seems like he is stepping up to the challenge this season. Must be the ‘stache.
4. Stephenson really carried the mail in this game.
5. Without Joey, where are the Kraken? Hope they don’t use him more than 3 times on the upcoming road trip.
6. Montour continues to show his importance.
7. Winterton gets more TOI than Wright, Tolvanen, Marchment, Nyman, Kartye. Is he earning a permanent roster spot?
8. Stephenson 30 shifts, Gaudreau 24, Beniers 24, Wright 16. Veteran C heavy game required?
9. Who sits so Catton can debut on the road: Nyman?
2. I loved seeing McCann out-battle Marner in front of the net for a win after all the off-season nonsense.
3. Matty is like Hercule Poirot. The ‘stache imbues him with confidence and swag. For real, Matty is different this year in a good way.
7. Winterton showed up to play this year. He is made of effort and hustle, which is uncommon among capable scorers. It is no wonder that Lambert seems to like him.
8. Way back in the day in the other Washington, Lambert coached a rookie Stephenson who earned his place as a PK regular. Stevie must be a familiar comfort for Coach on this new team. The same probably goes for Eberle who once again finds himself a top-line guy.
I think Marty’s confidence is coming from his Marchment mustache 😉 Kraken looked very good on the PK, even though they let one, they were stellar. The PK is way better than it has ever been. While Beniers is definitely coming into his own, I want to shout out Kartye and his presence of the forecheck, buzzing around and being a pest, filling a void created when Tanev left. Tye looks like he belongs in NHL and actually deserves the ice time. I’m excited for the Lambert era, so far, so good. LGK!
That game was awesome. They totally hung with Vegas all night.
The Eberle-Beniers-McCann line looks incredible these first 2 games. Reminds me of the year they made the playoffs. The 4th line was very effective as well.
Boy, after a horrible game on Thursday, Stephenson was rewarded with an astounding amount of ice time. So I guess we’re doing this again. He looked a little more engaged but they still only *survived* his shifts. His line had a 10% xGF% on Natural Stat Trick. Ten percent! Unfortunately the Wright line wasn’t much better, at 15%. Wright has looked off. I’m excited for when both he and Matty are clicking at the same time. It’ll happen! Last night, the other two lines were amazing and the D played a lot better than game 1.
A LOT of empty expensive seats, for a Saturday night….
The big red eye and head thing was really cool. Nice change from the tentacle.
We’re going to do another season of the Chandler Stephenson xG% thing?
Yes, in nine minutes the Schwartz-Stephenson-Winterton line had a 10.43 xGF%. They managed two shots and surrendered two according to Natural Stat Trick. What you don’t see on NST, but do on MoneyPuck, is that swapping out Marchment for Schwartz resulted in a 61.2 xGF% in a little over three minutes even though they were out shot three to one. Stephenson led the team in 5v5 minutes among forwards at 15:34 with a on-ice xGF% of 50.55 accordingto NST. MoneyPuck has him at 17:21 and 50.6 xGF%.
There are plenty of issues with xG, but with these tiny sample sizes, it absolute garbage.
And by the way… in 1:15 Schwartz-Stephenson-Tolvanen had a 97.7% xGF% with one for and one against.
I really hope we can move on from this someday.
“Vegas’ potent top line of Ivan Barbashev, Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner was kept quiet in 5-on-5 play. The three were minus-3 in shot attempts and created just 24-percent of all shot quality in 6:24 together. That’s primarily a credit to the Chandler Stephenson line (which included Ryan Winterton and ultimately Jaden Schwartz) and the Adam Larsson-Vince Dunn pair which saw the most time against the Golden Knights trio.”
-Alison Lukan
I love Alison Lukan’s articles. She is one of the rare corporate journalists who actually understands sports in-depth and is willing to really dig into the details.
Imagine watching this game and thinking Stephen played poorly. This is a perfect example of data used without knowledge being useless. Shane also looked the best he’s looked with the Kraken
The hiring of Lane Lambert may turn out to be the best move the Kraken organization has thus far ever made.
Go Kraken!!!
I love that we’re jumping to this kind of reaction after two games. TOOT TOOT! ALL ABOARD!
I love that all the yelling in the dressing room is now positive yelling. I love that guys are now immediately and without any trepidation leaping to the defense of their netminder and other teammates against big dudes–big dudes who play for the Ducks and the Flames in particular. I love the high-effort back-checking that gets the puck out of the defensive zone and ultimately creates offense. I love guys like Winterton and Kartye being able to earn big roles with an elevated level of effort. If I had a hockey Christmas list, Santa Lambert left everything I wanted under the tree a couple months early.
I know it is way too early to reach any kind of conclusions about what the Kraken really are this season, but the preseason and these first two games could not have realistically looked any more promising to my eyes apart from the injuries. It’s about the attitude of the players being so completely different than it was last season. At least right now. Is it just a “new coach bump?” Maybe it is, or just maybe it is buy-in. We will find out later when the puck stops bouncing their way, but right now I am enjoying watching hockey played by guys who believe in what they are doing. It feels like a long time since Season Two.
Who knew that Seattle can actually complete passes? And carry the puck through the neutral zone and get it across the line without always dumping it into the far corner?
I wonder if the first period could have been even better if they’d won any of the first 7(!) faceoffs. Or if Gaudreau had gone better than 1/13 on faceoffs.
Finally, is it just me, or has the puck been going out of play a LOT? Like it’s a few grams light or the glass is lower?
Considering we just completed game 2 (only 79 to go), having a new coaching staff, the preseason injuries, the offseason additions, not having any “elite talent” (obviously due to terrible management) and not developing all our young players aggressively enough, this team looks pretty good! Undefeated and top of the division is a great start, especially given the compressed schedule.
Seriously, that was a great hockey game. The Kraken did not look out of place against a team widely regarded as favorites to win the west and contend for the Cup. Again, it’s only game 2…but it’s also only game 2. Lots of opportunity ahead for improvement.
Sorry…80 games to go! Sunday morning cobwebs. Go Kraken!
Seahawks at 10:00, and I think there’s an M’s playoff game in there somewhere…
Much better game and a real fun one to watch.
Beniers had a great game and looks like a more confident player. Winterton had also looked like he belongs.
Defensively, great game.
Very surprised by Darren referring to Daccord as “solid”. 97% save percentage over 2 games is waaaaay beyond that. He’s making the defense look pretty good.
Concerned about the offense. Small sample size and they had a very conservative game plan for Vegas, but they have to find away to get more shots. Excluding OT, they have had 5 shots or less in half the periods played. Thanks to Joey, they got a chance at OT, with onky 15 shots for the game. I don’t want to look at the high danger chance numbers, they likely aren’t good.
Wow, great to start 2-0!!!!
I get a little nervous when folks start talking about shot volume. Last season the Kraken had 11 points after 10 games but had the 8th lowest shot attempts in the league… then Bylsma started talking about shot volume and how they wanted to be a “shoot first” team. Over the next 15 they had the 8th highest shot attempts in the league and went 6-9-0.
The season before Hakstol had his “outburst” at practice where he shouted “shoot the f-ing puck!”… and they lost 11 of their next 14.
On the post game Alison mentioned adding more volume also, but for me, I’m much more focused on them getting quality chances, limiting quality chances against and sustaining offensive zone posession. I think when they try and add volume, all three of those things suffer.
Yes it’s very important to acknowledge that we would most likely have lost both games without absolutely outstanding goaltending. Very nice to see wins but we’re going to have to improve our defensive coverage or hope that Joey doesn’t drop off.
I’d like to see Nyman on the PP, at least get some more looks. He can absolutely wire the puck like nobody on the team, long term we are definitely going to want him in the trigger position on the PP. that being said our power play is looking way better this season. Last season it was so predictable and passive, you knew every pass they were going to make.
Overall the special teams are vastly improved, the PK last season was also incredibly passive. Kartye is settling into a very nice role with lambert, he seems to be the go to guy in for the PK. Always starting and getting back in before the PK ends. He’s looking very solid so far this season.
Really don’t like Nyman on the 4th line, it’s clearly not the role that suits his game. He’s not a great forechecker and doesn’t have the speed or physical edge to really work on the line. I’d like to see him on the team and get the NHL level development that he needs but it has to suit his game.
Same thing with Catton, really don’t want to see his NHL deployment be on the 4th line as I’m thinking it probably will be.
“Ain’t nothing better than solid, baby.”
–Marshawn Lynch
It was a mere few days ago that I proclaimed my indifference to Matty Beniers! I can now contribute that to his slump in development last season, 😉 haha. It was great to see how well he’s played so far this year. All the guys are showing solid performances. They certainly made the Knights look like the inferior team. The defense first strategy is working. The only weak spot I saw was the power play.
Sunday morning and I’m still riding high off that OT win in the last seconds. Let’s go Kraken!
The 4th line isn’t highlighting Nyman’s shot, but it has revealed some other good qualities in his play:
1. He adjusts well as the puck rims around to get good body position on board battles just above the goal line.
2. He is truly 6’4″, 212 pounds. Grown men are not outmuscling him.
3. He plays with hustle and with his head, no stupid penalties or penalties due to lack of moving his feet so far.
I hope he gets a chance on the PP soon, but with Lane Lambert’s approach, we know Jani’s going to have to earn it or someone else is going to have to lose their spot first. After the team’s first ever 2-0 start, there shouldn’t be changes just for changes’ sake.
Love the way we played last night and if the credit for that goes to Lane Lambert, consider me a Laniac.
👍👍👍
How about if Vegas doesn’t look like they are making it down the stretch, Seattle trades 2x TBL 1st round picks for Dorofeyev. 😄
Normally I don’t pay much attention to Tampa Bay, but with those picks I’ve been a little curious lately. I have heard a bit of speculation about their blueline being an issue and after giving up five in each of their first two at home games (both loses), I think those picks could have a bright future… but there’s no way Vegas is trading Dorofeyev.