All aboard the Lane Train! Head coach Lane Lambert has navigated the Seattle Kraken to their best start in franchise history, going 5-2-3 for 13 points in 10 games, and sitting second in the Pacific Division. The Kraken’s previous best start was last season when they finished October with 11 points in 11 games. This season, they bested that mark in just 10 games. Seattle wrapped up its October schedule on the 28th, so all statistics are as of that date.
Injuries
What’s more impressive about this start is the Kraken have continued to collect points despite a slew of injuries. In total, Kraken starters have missed 36 man-games.
- Ryker Evans – 10
- Kaapo Kakko – 10
- Freddy Gaudreau – 6
- Jared McCann – 5
- Brandon Montour (personal) – 4
- Mason Marchment – 1
Fighting through the injuries and missed games, the Kraken have maintained their defensive structure, making them a tough team to play against. As of Oct. 28, the Kraken ranked ninth in the NHL in goals-against average at 2.80.
The injuries also created opportunity, allowing Berkly Catton to make his NHL debut. He’s maintained a spot on the top line with Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle. Catton has yet to score his first goal but has three assists through five games and looks like he belongs in the NHL.
October update
The Kraken had a target of 11 points for October and exceeded it, earning points in eight of 10 games for a total of 13. If you remember from the October edition of Strive for 95, the Kraken had five games against Playoff Bound teams, four against Bubble teams, and one against a Tanker team. Last season, the Kraken struggled against the Playoff Bound tier with a .234 points percentage. This season, they thrived in that tier, earning eight of 10 possible points (.800 points percentage).
Against the Bubble tier, they hit their target with five points. Two of those came against a sneaky-good Montreal team, with both matchups going to overtime. The lone Tanker-tier game, a matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers, was their worst performance of the month, which included Joey Daccord getting pulled. However, the Flyers appear to be improved this season, holding a 5-1 home record and sitting in the final wild card spot in the East.
The Kraken have played a sound defensive game, focusing on limiting high- and medium-danger chances while allowing opponents to take low-danger shots. The coaching staff has done an excellent job getting the team to buy into this structure, and the results speak for themselves. One nitpick: even at 5-2-3, the Kraken have scored just 28 goals and have an even goal differential. Getting the offense rolling would elevate this team further, but their identity is clearly rooted in strong defensive play and structure.
Updated tiers
Through the first month of the season, there are plenty of new names in playoff position. It’s early, so expect these tiers to shift as the season progresses.
Notes on tier movement
Atlantic Division: Montreal and Detroit have played strong hockey to start, but moving them into the Playoff Bound tier feels premature. November will be telling for both clubs. Florida and Toronto are hovering around .500, so they stay put for now but remain on watch.
Metropolitan Division: Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are both in playoff position with winning records, so they move out of the Tanker tier for now.
Central Division: Utah looks legit, scoring in bunches and remaining undefeated at home. That success forced a bit of a reshuffle, as having four teams from one division in the Playoff Bound tier this early felt excessive. Dallas slides down to the Bubble tier. Meanwhile, Minnesota and St. Louis have struggled out of the gate and move to the Tanker tier—not because they’ve given up, but because they’ve yet to find their rhythm.
Pacific Division: Calgary has struggled to find the back of the net and ranks last in the league in goals per game at 2.09, prompting their drop in tier.
November breakdown
November features 14 games — eight at home and six on the road — including two sets of back-to-backs. The road games are split between two trips, the first being a two-game swing and the second a four-game swing. The Kraken are two points above a 95-point pace, but there’s no reason to ease off the gas. The monthly target is 17 points.
Playoff Bound tier
The Kraken face just one team in this tier in November—the Winnipeg Jets at home. In their first meeting this season, Seattle shut Winnipeg out 3-0 as Daccord outdueled three-time Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck. Target: one point.
Bubble tier
Seattle will play 10 games against eight teams in this category, including two each versus Dallas and Chicago. They’ll also face Detroit, Pittsburgh, Columbus, the Islanders, Rangers, and Edmonton. Target: 11 points.
Tanker tier
There will be one game versus St. Louis and two against San Jose. The Blues and Sharks currently rank 31st and 32nd in goals against per game, at 4.4 and 4.6 respectively. Target: five points.
Looking ahead
It’s still early, and teams are feeling each other out. As the season progresses, the tiers will become clearer. The Kraken have started strong and put themselves in a good position to succeed. They can’t look too far ahead, but with only one game against a Playoff Bound team in November, there’s an opportunity to bank more points.
Blaiz Grubic
Blaiz Grubic is a contributor at Sound Of Hockey. A passionate hockey fan and player for over 30 years, Blaiz grew up in the Pacific Northwest and is an alumni of Washington State University (Go Cougs!). When he’s not playing, watching, or writing about hockey, he enjoys quality time with his wife and daughter or getting out on a golf course for a quick round. Follow @blaizg on BlueSky or X.
Sweet!!! Best start EVERRRR!!!
…and even more even more impressive, that’s against the fourth toughest schedule in the league so far.*
Speaking of that. I don’t think I would have swapped Utah and Dallas just yet. The Mammoth certainly are playing well, but that schedule should give folks in Salt Lake a bit of a pause. They’re piling up goals, but look who it’s against. In three games against St. Louis, Minnesota and San Jose (all teams who are struggling) they racked up 19 goals, otherwise, they haven’t scored more than three in regulation all season. Playing against the fifth easiest schedule so far helps.
Go Kraken!!!
* Power Rankings Guru
https://powerrankingsguru.com/nhl/strength-of-schedule.php
Yep, I don’t disagree about your Utah/Dallas comments. We will see how it pans out in November, but Utah, Colorado and Winnipeg have been better in the early going, so wanted to reflect that a bit. Montreal is in a similar boat and I decided them to leave them as a bubble team, but we will see how it goes.
Yes, get all aboard on the Lane train!
They are playing better than most expected even with a depleted roster. There is already evidence that they are not a fluke.
Count me in as a Lambert believer!
Go Kraken!!!
This is always fun, thanks Blaise. I would suggest you are overreacting a bit to early results with those tiers. Some movement is probably justified (like Tampa from playoff to Bubble, Blues and Flames to tankers). But the Oilers and Stars are clearly playoff bound; I think locking Utah into the playoffs is a little hasty; the Flyers and Blackhawks (and possibly even Penguins) are inevitable tankers with those rosters; and the Wild have gotta still be a bubble team. On the flipside, I think you gotta move Montreal to playoff bound.
Yep, I agree, though I wanted to respect their records and what they have accomplished so far. I will keep adjusting as we move through the season, but with such a small sample it is hard early in the season, but it will even out.
The Draft is working. Young fast teams that tanked for a couple years like Utah(Phix, Chicage, and Montreal have established themselves while teams that had great seasons for years but lasr in the 1st round picks like Boston(Yeah), Minn, amd evem ST. Louis are face planting. This is good for the NHL. If these teirs hold up then Seattle has a shot. I would also like t o point out that tams that hot shots with high salary plaers are not doing so well like Edmonton and the Florida teams are on the downslide. Greeedy playerare not good for teams when those players age.
Counterpoint: Buffalo and San Jose, Las Vegas and Colorado. Also, I would be disinclined to have Utah in the “success” category given that their tanking got them run out of Arizona. Definitely not a model to follow unless you happen to be Ken Behring or Clay Bennett.
Very difficult to put together a winning team when you have a player your playing a large part of the cap to. It will be interesting to see how Edmonton does over the next couple of years with McDavid taking a haircut to build a winning team. As much as I’d hate to see it I could see the oilers winning a championship if they can get a goalie.
On the flip side it’s just as bad to over spend on middling players, we as kraken fans know about that.
Skinner is not Edmonton’s Achilles heel. Their over-reliance on Evan Bouchard is. Right now, when the offense is not coming (say, if they run into a Matty Beniers who wipes Connor McDavid off the ice. I swear, McDavid is going to be seeing #10 in his nightmares) they ask their play-driving defensemen–Bouchard in particular–to pull double duty covering the back end as well as jumping into the play offensively in support of other scoring forwards. Yeah, Bouchard is making beaucoup bucks to do just that, but it is a tall order for even the best defenseman. It takes a great defenseman to pull it off, like for example Shea Theodore or Cale Makar BOOOO. The simplest mistake at that position is catastrophic, as we saw, which is why Edmonton fans are so down on Bouchard. They see the mistakes but not always the magnitude of his role. Also, he can’t be on the ice all the time, so other lines get shut down due to being unable to get that kind of blue line support. It is the system that is used by the top teams in the league (eg. Las Vegas), but the word is out on how to beat it: opportunistic forechecking at the blue line to take advantage of inevitable mistakes and a combination of good defensemen and fearless defense-minded forwards to shut star forwards down. It will be interesting to see how the league evolves on this subject.
I’m a full-blown Laniac at this point. He has the team playing with a real vision and identity. Hard to play against and never out of it. Knock on wood but we are also about to get a lot healthier this month. There’s a real chance the team outperforms the point targets you’ve set! I wouldn’t be surprised if we gain 6 of 6 from the Tankers and 14 off the Bubbles.
Regarding the Central Division, I definitely think its reasonable to have 4 teams in the playoff-bound tier right now. As you mentioned, the tiers are malleable, and the Central is looking like the strongest division in the league. It’s not crazy to suggest there might be five playoff teams coming out of the Central this year.
Let’s Go Kraken!
I’m not so sure about the Central…
Minnesota and St. Louis are beginning to look like this might be more than a slow start. Nashville is still gawd-awful down the middle, and Chicago is still a deeply flawed team sporting a league high 1.039 PDO. Those four may end up getting pounded by the top of that division. I think the Pacific has a much better chance of sending four teams this season.
All aboard the Lane Train!!!