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Three Takeaways – Kraken earn another point but struggle to generate offense in OT loss to Rangers

Darren Brown

The Seattle Kraken lost to the New York Rangers 3-2 in overtime on Saturday, their second straight overtime loss. The game had a different flow from Tuesday’s 4-3 OT loss to the Montreal Canadiens, but the story felt familiar: Seattle again struggled to create much offense, instead sitting back for most of the game and relying heavily on defensive-zone structure and Joey Daccord to earn a point.

Chandler Stephenson scored on the power play, and Brandon Montour’s second-period missile tied the game 2-2, but that was all the offense Seattle could muster. Will Cuylle’s game-winner off a 2-on-1 gave the Rangers the rightful win.

Here are Three Takeaways from a 3-2 Kraken overtime loss to the Rangers.

Takeaway : Kraken not generating enough

One of the things many things I’ve admired about Lane Lambert’s approach to coaching the Kraken is his postgame honesty. He tends to identify the problem clearly and directly—soft-spoken but precise in his assessment.

After Saturday’s game, in which the Kraken spent most of the night trapped in their own zone and managed only 13 shots on Igor Shesterkin—the fewest in franchise history—I asked Lambert if he was comfortable with how much time his team has spent defending.

Here’s what he said:

“Well, I think the answer’s obvious. We don’t want to spend this much time in our zone. We’re battling when we do, but again, the first period was a classic example of what I’ve been talking about all year long. We’re misfiring on passes, we’re not— at times, I’m not saying all the time. Our guys are working, and they’re giving it everything they have from that standpoint, but we’ve got to find a way out of our zone better and have more composure and more poise. It’s the bottom line. We turn the puck over, and we spend another 30 or 40 seconds in our zone. So, we wonder why, that’s why.”

It was a perfect summation of what we were all seeing, especially in those first 20 minutes when Seattle simply couldn’t get out of its own end. The Kraken defend well when the other team has the puck, but when they finally regain possession, too often they throw a bad pass or bobble the puck, allowing the forecheck to reset and keeping Seattle on its heels.

Problem No. 1: The Kraken aren’t exiting their zone cleanly enough to even put themselves in position to attack.

Problem No. 2—especially on Saturday—is that when they do get set up in the offensive zone, they’re not pulling the trigger. Case in point: In the final 30 seconds of regulation, Seattle had the Rangers pinned. They passed around the perimeter so long it felt like a buzzer-beating winner was inevitable. But with the puck on Montour’s stick at the top of the slot, the horn sounded before a shot was even sent in Shesterkin’s general direction.

“It’s fair to say [we didn’t have a shoot-first mentality],” Lambert said. “I think we passed up too many shots when we did have good opportunities… At the same time, they defend well, they’re in lanes. So it’s easy to say, ‘Shoot the puck,’ but if people are in the lanes, it’s a little bit harder to do. It’s not going to get through. But at the same time, I thought we passed up shots, and we had opportunities to shoot pucks from even bad angles and create a second opportunity, and we didn’t.”

Takeaway : Kaapo Kakko returns

It was good to see Kaapo Kakko back in the lineup Saturday, facing his former team for the first time since being traded to Seattle by the Rangers on Dec. 18, 2024. The Finnish winger, who broke his hand on a slash during preseason, played 14:16 in his season debut.

“Always the first game is kind of hard. I mean, I’ve been working out well and skating and doing all those things,” Kakko said. “I think, some good things, but I can be a lot better.”

He skated on a line with Mason Marchment and Shane Wright, which didn’t look all that effective. Lambert began mixing things up in the third period, so we’ll see if that combination sticks moving forward. The three played 8:13 together, though Kakko also logged 2:34 with Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle. Meanwhile, Berkly Catton’s ice time dipped to 11:36 after playing over 16 minutes Tuesday against Montreal.

“That was my first time playing with both [Wright and Marchment],” Kakko said. “I usually played with Matty last year, so I think it takes, always, some time when you start to play with new guys. But there’s a couple of good things. I think we got one pretty good chance, but yeah, that can be better, also.”

After Kakko arrived last season, he was attached at the hip to Beniers, so it was surprising to see them separated for this game. I’m curious how long it will take before Lambert puts them back together.

“I thought he played well,” Lambert said of Kakko. “Big, strong body. You could see what he is going to add to our team down low in the offensive zone.”

I had high hopes Kakko’s return would provide an instant offensive spark, but that didn’t happen in his first game back. Still, it’s a big boost for Seattle to have him healthy and in the mix again, and continuing to move toward having more of their regular players back.

Takeaway : Another standings point

It’s early to start obsessing over the standings (although Blaiz’s story on Saturday noted that Halloween can be an early playoff indicator), but the Pacific Division already looks like a grind. From the first-place Vegas Golden Knights to the sixth-place Vancouver Canucks, there’s currently only a three-point gap.

That means every point matters—even the ones Seattle is “stealing” from games it probably should have lost in regulation. Saturday’s OT point against the Rangers fits that description, as does Tuesday’s comeback against Montreal.

While it’s fair to be frustrated by the lack of offensive zone time, it’s also impressive that the Kraken continue to find ways to collect points. 11 games into the season, they’ve lost just twice in regulation and remain unbeaten in regulation at home.

They’re showing exactly what Lambert promised back in training camp: that if they stick to their defensive structure, they’ll be competitive every night. Even on a night when they didn’t generate nearly enough offensively, they still found a way to come away with something.

Now, if they can just figure out how to play some offense…

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.

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