The Seattle Kraken gave it their all against the vaunted Colorado Avalanche and nearly came away with an unlikely victory. But in the end, Colorado’s stars proved to be too much and handed the Kraken their ninth loss in 10 games.
“I thought we played hard, like we have been,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We just can’t find a way to get it over the finish line.”
Here are Three Takeaways after a 5-3 Kraken loss to the Avalanche.
Takeaway #1: Every chance to win it
If you put this game in a vacuum and forget about the fact that the Kraken have gone 1-8-1 since Nov. 23, you’d feel great about their performance. Ostensibly, they played one of their best games of the season, going toe to toe with a team that came in with just TWO regulation losses through 31 games.
In fact, the Kraken had every chance to win this one, taking a 3-2 lead after Chandler Stephenson scored his second power-play goal in as many games at 19:24 of the second period to send Seattle into the third in the driver’s seat.
STEVIE DOES IT! 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) December 17, 2025
His seam pass, intended for Matty Beniers, hits Brent Burns' skate and caroms through Blackwood. #SeaKraken taking a 3-2 lead into the 3rd period. pic.twitter.com/CqT7yVrJ4R
But Nathan MacKinnon did Nathan MacKinnon things, racking up two goals (one an empty-netter) and an assist in the third period to help Colorado rally back for its NHL-leading 24th win of the season.
The Avalanche converted on essentially the same play twice in a six-minute span. Both times, Cale Makar walked across the top of the zone from left to right, then passed it back across to MacKinnon in the left circle. On the first such look, MacKinnon one-timed it off Adam Larsson and in to tie the game 3-3 at 2:40 of the third.
The Kraken then got a power play AND a penalty shot after Josh Manson put his hand over the puck in the crease. They failed to convert on the power play, and Jordan Eberle hit the post on the penalty shot.
Just 26 seconds later, Vince Dunn went to the box for tripping, and the Avs struck again on the Makar-to-MacKinnon connection. This time, the puck got a friendly bounce off the end wall for Brock Nelson to bang it home.
4-3 Avs. Brock Nelson gets a good bounce after they run the exact same play that MacKinnon scored on six minutes earlier. PPG. #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/Wl4Pibw756
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) December 17, 2025
“We made a big mistake at the end on the last kill,” Lambert said, during his very strange media availability (more on that in Takeaway 3). “We can’t make that. The power play scored for us, so, aside from the goal we gave up, which was a critical situation and a critical error, [special teams] were fine, but again, not good enough. Didn’t get the job done.”
I believe the “critical error” Lambert was referring to was Ben Meyers shading from the left side over to the right and leaving that side unprotected. Meyers also got his pocket picked by MacKinnon earlier in the sequence, which eventually led to MacKinnon’s first goal.
Takeaway #2: Nyman / Wright / Kakko
Lambert shuffled up his lines for this one, making the “top line” Eeli Tolvanen, Chandler Stephenson, and Freddy Gaudreau. That was clearly a matchup play, hoping to get three players he trusts defensively out against MacKinnon as much as possible.
He also gave Shane Wright another look between the two big Finns, Jani Nyman and Kaapo Kakko. All three looked effective against an outstanding team and were rewarded with a good, hard-working goal at 3:03 of the second period.
WRIGHT AS RAIN! ☔️ 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) December 17, 2025
This Nyman/Wright/Kakko line has been solid tonight, and they get rewarded.
Wright hits Nyman in the 🍑 with his shot, Jani hits the post with the rebound, then Shane Wright cleans it up.
1-1 pic.twitter.com/M0p9GfpJ33
That’s a trio I’d like to see stick together and try to develop some chemistry. It’s high time for all three to get going, and they seem to work well together.
Takeaway #3: A strange post-game experience
The post-game experience after this one was quite bizarre, with media availability handled in an especially peculiar way. Considering that—even though the Kraken took yet another ‘L’—they played a great game, players and coaches shouldn’t have felt embarrassed or hesitant to face the media, which is generally quite fair to them in this city.
But they received extra protection on this night in a way I’ve never seen before in my five years of closely covering the organization, with Lane Lambert only fielding a few questions from a team employee and none from reporters.
To set the scene and give you a peek behind the curtain, I’ll speak personally. In addition to my Sound Of Hockey duties, I’m also the local Seattle correspondent for NHL.com. That means wearing a lot of hats on home game nights: writing the neutral game story for NHL.com on a deadline, running the Sound Of Hockey Twitter (but don’t tell anyone it’s me), and trying to ask meaningful questions of players and coaches in post-game scrums so I can complete the NHL.com article and eventually Three Takeaways here on Sound Of Hockey… dot com.
After all that, I drive home, usually around midnight, and start actually writing Three Takeaways, which takes at least an hour. If all goes well, I’m asleep by 2 a.m.
That’s all to say that I—and others in the local media corps—invest a lot into covering the Kraken and filling gaps in a sports landscape dominated by the Seahawks and Mariners. The Kraken need us.
One challenge of the NHL.com role is that I’m expected to tell the story from the perspective of the winning team, with commentary from the losing team mixed in. While I’d prefer to always go to the Kraken dressing room, a stretch like this one means I’ve been visiting the opposing locker room more often than not. Even so, I typically still make it to Lane Lambert’s press conference, where I ask at least one question. (I’d prefer to ask more, but I understand the dynamics of a shared presser and can’t always hog the mic.)
On this particular night, I went to the Avalanche dressing room, where players were understandably celebratory after the comeback win. I asked Mackenzie Blackwood what it’s like playing behind Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar just as MacKinnon walked back in from his TNT interview. Somewhat jokingly—but very much on the record—Blackwood said, “He’s fucking nasty!” while nodding toward MacKinnon. MacKinnon shouted back, “Next question!”
Blackwood then doubled down: “No, those guys are fucking unbelievable leaders, and I love to watch those guys on a nightly basis.” That unnecessary on-mic cursing got a chuckle from the room.
After that, I asked Colorado coach Jared Bednar a few questions in the hallway outside the Avalanche dressing room and then headed to the Kraken media room, where Lambert had not yet arrived. When Lambert did come in, the microphone—normally passed from reporter to reporter—was already in the hands of a Kraken employee, who asked a short series of questions. Lambert gave brief answers, and the Kraken PR representative then cut off the presser without allowing anyone else in the room to ask a question.
Here’s Lane Lambert’s entire press conference. Only a team employee was allowed to ask questions tonight. #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/CCKAjHEFdz
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) December 17, 2025
It was peculiar behavior and a bad look for a team desperately trying to maintain interest in a crowded sports market. I included the background on my night not to complain (I absolutely love doing all this; otherwise, I wouldn’t do it), but to illustrate how much effort goes into covering a team that has lost nine of its last 10 games and frankly isn’t earning much positive attention right now.
All that said, following the availability, it was communicated that this approach was a one-off decision and would not be repeated.
Bonus Takeaway: Brandon Montour potentially injured
The Kraken had their jump back in this game after looking sluggish on Sunday against the Buffalo Sabres. Many on the team have been sick, with Mason Marchment missing that game, and then Kaapo Kakko and Vince Dunn missing practice on Monday. All three were back in the lineup, making things feel like Seattle was inching in the right direction in terms of its many health- and injury-related issues.
But early in the third period, Mason Marchment found himself throwing gloved fists with Josh Manson.
FISTICUFFS! 🥊
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) December 17, 2025
Mason Marchment gets into with Josh Manson, and the two start throwing massive punches with gloves on, then all hell breaks loose.
Montour ends up down on the ice with Burns, throwing punches, and he goes down the tunnel after. #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/Pd5B09TSYZ
Chaos ensued, and Brandon Montour ended up on the ice, punching Brent Burns. Montour left the game after this and did not return. Lambert did not give an update on his status.
Needless to say, the Kraken simply cannot survive adding Brandon Montour to their injured list.
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.
Perhaps some terminations are on the way.
team relocation to Arizona, 100%
Really Denis? I thought it was a good crowd last night for a Tuesday. I thought teams move when people stop attending the games.
Is Arizona due for another shot in the NHL already after just losing their franchise?
I guess AZ did tank to get Cooley and a bunch of other great players, so we may not be out of the woods in our bid to get McKenna. Time will tell.
The Kraken are making the league a ton of money. This team is not going anywhere.
Guys, it’s just a joke. This team is immune to any bold changes.
Btw, I’m really surprised to see 100% attendance at the every game at all five years. I’m not from Seattle, so very curious what is the reason for city without big active hockey fun base (as far as I know it).
The organization has done an awesome job with arena renovation, marketing, and fan experience. Just imagine if/when the team is actually good!
It’s not 100% attendance. It’s 100% ticket sales. If they counted actual butts in seats, it would be a much lower number – probably around 90-95% for Saturday nights, down to 75-80% for mid-week games against low-interest opponents.
Driving the ticket sales:
1) corporate partners – the source of virtually all of the empty seats you see in the lower bowl.
2) transplants from more traditional hockey markets: Canada, Minnesota, Michigan, Chicago, Boston, etc. The rough estimate is only about 30% of people living in Seattle were actually born in Washington state
3) no nba team to compete for ticket dollars. I’m highly skeptical that we can support both.
4) junior hockey presence. Washington state has 5 CHL teams. This is as many as Alberta and more than 6 of the other 9 provinces (BC, Ont and Que have more). Two in the greater Seattle area, including the thunderbirds who used to play at the Seattle Center. Everett, Seattle and Spokane are all consistently in the top ranks in CHL attendance and outdraw all but the very largest NCAA teams.
…and most of us are still pissed about losing the Sonics and many remember how close we were to losing the Mariners and Seahawks at various low points in their histories. There are people in my family still mourning the Pilots.
So we probably are a little more sensitive when it comes to talk of losing one of our teams, even when mentioned in jest.
There are a lot of hockey fans in Seattle. Shocker. We were the first US city to win a Stanley Cup. We would have won two in a row against Montreal, but forfeited due to a Montreal player dying due to the Spanish flu. The team refused to accept it.
Great book you should read. When it Mattered Most.
You sure the egregious mistake wasn’t Dunn flubbing the puck (again!) which lead to a turnover inside the D zone and a scoring opportunity for the Avs? The penalty he took on that same play lead to the Avs game winning goal.
Exactly what I wanted to comment on. That was inexcusable and sloppy, especially for our supposed #1 Dman. He still can’t shake that turnover bug he caught last year. I had high hopes for him when they signed him to that contract, and he’s been very inconsistent at best.
Dunn is a great defensemen and does so many good things on ice for the Kraken, but that”turnover bug” has been there since the first season. Occurs almost once a game where Dunn will have a bad turnover by either looking up ice and flub/misplays the puck OR makes an ill advised pass with either event resulting in a good scoring chance against Kraken. This is not something that just started last year. As good as Dunn is makes me question whether he should also be on the trade list should Kraken finally decide they need to rebuild as Dunn would get a good return.
If you are trying to make things happen and not always making the safe play turnovers will happen, you have to live with them as long as his value is a plus on the ice (and it is) he’s helping the team by taking those chances.
Lambert mentioned a costly error on the PK. Dunn’s flub wasn’t on the PK.
Thank you for being candid about this Darren. You guys deserve better, we all do.
Hey, who knows maybe an arena packed to the gills with opposing fans, from a non- Original Six team, could start to elicit some changes from this organization. Money and keeping up appearances seems to mean a lot to them.
Was it because the national media was there and he didn’t want to face any scrutiny? What was the reasoning?
Compared to many other games this season, I thought last night was surprisingly light on opposing fans.
OK, well the point remains the same. There’s been way too many opposing fans in the arena all year. Does that work?
That’s always been true, even during their 100-point year, and can’t come as a surprise. Seattle has a lot of transplants, and the Kraken are still basically a brand new team.
Takeaway 4:
We may have just lost the best player on this team to injury.
Even without the additional (eyebrow-raising) background about not passing the mic, that post game press conference was super weird. Unless there was some sort of family emergency Lambert needed to rush off to, that was inexcusable.
100% agree on Nyman/ Wright/ Kakko. They’ve got something going. Let’s see if they manage to keep that line together.
Roster freeze is Friday. With so many injuries, I’m doubting anything will happen, but if Seattle loses Montour to IR due to yet another one of Marchment’s old grudges (there’s a history with Manson) maybe the team will finally realize that Marchment is more trouble than he’s worth and ship him off.
My guess is there is going to be major movement trade-wise (or organizationally, although I don’t see them firing Lambert) coming before Saturday and they didn’t want to put him in the position of having to answer questions about it. Looks bad but I’m guessing the next 48 hours will give us more context for that decision, especially since they said it was a one-off.
Also of note with the roster freeze – it is also essentially the deadline for double-retention with any trades at the actual trade deadline. Meaning that a player can be traded this week with salary retention and meet the new 75-day requirement to be eligible to be traded again with retention. It will be interesting to see if anyone takes advantage of it or if the new restriction just becomes another thing that continues stagnation of player movement.
Bummer of a loss… but definitely not boring.
Good to see them generate volume AND quality while being able to maintain decent posession, especially against Colorado. I belive someone on here speculated the Kraken could end up with less than 10 shots on goal total. They had 11 by the end of the first and finished with a season high 37. MoneyPuck had them just over six expected goals for and NST had them just under.
Now let’s see what happens
I tend to agree with this comment. Last night is the best the Kraken have looked since, what feels like, the first two weeks of the season. They looked hungry, they looked focused, and they were in that game for a full 60 minutes.
We came out fast and driving to the net with numbers, we were on a mission to get an early lead. We got it and the Wright line was getting lots of ice time and looking like the most dangerous line. Grubauer was playing well and was giving us a chance to win, I wish he’d play every game like it was Colorado.
Then what happened? LL pulled the plug and the team went back to boring zone entries, dumping the puck and basically parking the bus. The Wright line was barely used though the middle of the game. Why did LL do that we were looking good playing a more offensive game, leading the game and entertaining the crowd for once.
This is not the way you coach, cutting down the mins of your best line of the evening… wtf? 😳 changing your game plan when it’s working… 😳 (I’m sure it was the game plan all along to come out strong and the park the bus if we got a lead but still 😳)
The Wright line did get more ice time again in the third but there was no need to cut their ice off for as long as he did.
The 4th line didn’t look as good with Karts not there, he brings a lot of life and gets creates a lot of turnovers. Very poor decision to scratch him because of a mistake that I would not even fully pin on him last game. He’s a young player, not a top tier player but the type of 4th line player that will benefit us for years. Develop those guys too LL don’t bench them if they make a mistake, try something called coaching.
That press conference was crazy, why would they do that. It just makes LL look even worse. You’re the f$**# coach and leader of the team, it’s your job to stand up and represent the team. Is this the leader we want? Thanks RF.
Last note, I no fully understand why Marchment acted like a chicken. Crap did he ever get his ass kicked. We don’t need a player like him, his antics got another player injured. Although he had another decent game he’s hurting us more than helping.
There could have been some urgent personal matter that Lambert or someone else had to deal with that made them short on time, but they didn’t want to skip the media availability altogether because that looks worse, so this was the solution for keeping it short. My feeling is that since they said it’s a one-off, and we don’t know the reason, we should be charitable for now.
Also, just actually watching it now — maybe Lambert is sick? There is a bug going around the locker room.
That press situation is definitely odd. I also suspect Lambert might not have been feeling well.
Colorado plays impressive D in all three zones, as you would expect from a team with their record. You can easily see the difference in gaps when Seattle had the puck vs Colorado had the puck. Avs players regularly get 5-7’ of room for several seconds, but Seattle players are immediately swarmed and suffocated. I didn’t see gaps larger than 3’ or so as soon as Seattle had the puck. It’s also interesting how these good teams know what the refs will let them get away with when harassing and interfering with opposing players.
On a positive note, we that much closer to getting McKenna, unloading these old lazy vets and winning the Cup in 3 years. Woohoo! 😄
Appreciate the perspective, Darren.
Marchment needs to hit the road ASAP. Everyone is in agreement in that it seems.
Firing LL would be a total joke. The FO already got three coaching hires which is one more than most get. If three coaches can’t win with the roster that’s being constructed, what does that say about the people who construct the roster?
No he should be gone and should not have even been hired. He’s never shown that he has the ability to coach in the NHL it was just a joke hiring him in the first place. Especially when you’re trying to be “young” and get your young players development, he’s completely the wrong coach for this team.
Your right that the front office should be cleared out, it’s should all be done at the same time.
LL is what happens when every single coach with experience passes on the Seattle job. And who in their right mind would take this job if we’re looking for our 4th coach during our 5th season?
Firing management isn’t gonna turn things around as quickly as people think it will. Going through 4 coaches in 5 years isn’t gonna get players to want to be here. Nor will it get better coaches to want to be here if they are only fired after half a season to a year.
I’m not sure how anyone could possibly think given the injuries and the talent level of this roster that after 30 games the idea of firing the coach is even worth considering. It lacks any sense of credibility.
But you also think RF is doing a good job 🤷♂️
Getting new upper management would bring a reset and we’d have a much better chance of getting a good coach. You nobody wants to coach for a GM that can’t keep a coach but if he is gone the problem is gone.
Like I said, lacks any sense of credibility.
Who would you hire, brilliant Nino? Obviously you’re smarter than the whole Kraken organization.
I was just listening to the pod.
Did you guys know that Chandler Stephenson takes a lot of D zone draws and also a lot of tough matchups?
Weird.
Hahahaha!
And I hope that everyone realizes if Eberle is traded/not re-signed that Stephenson is likely the next captain.
Teammates, coaches and management all love him (plus his contract means we’re virtually guaranteed to have him for 5 more years). Personally, watching him outside of play, in practice, etc., he displays solid leadership qualities and I think he’d be an excellent choice. As Toronto has demonstrated, star player does not automatically equal good captain.
I gotta agree with something Denis said the other day. I figured everyone had heard all this a million times going back to last season… but then a couple weeks ago Curtis (if I remember correctly) mentioned this as if it was a new insight and now today on the pod Darren was like, “I asked Lambert about this and I was real surprised by what he had to say.”
I guess some folks are tired of hearing it and for others it’s the first time.
I didn’t listen to the pod, what exactly do you mean?
Your smoking something, no way that he’s our next captain.
At the very end Darren discussed a recent conversation he had with Lambert where he asked him why it was that the analytics seem to be so negative on Stephenson. His answer was basically nothing different than the explanation that has been given by folks repeatedly going back to last season. The matchups, starts and draws are all significant factors in his “analytics” numbers not actually reflecting his quality of play.
It’s not like these are subtle variations. I found it a bit surprising that this insight came as a bit of a “revelation” to Darren. Of course the counter to this is Stephenson sucks, the numbers say so, and what would you expect from such an obviously inept coach.
I feel like there’s plenty of room here for everyone to just go on seeing things they want to see them.
Well the hole in that argument is huge and obvious to anyone with a very basic understanding of how statistics work — he isn’t close to the ONLY center or forward in the league who gets the majority of D zone starts and draws, yet he is dead last by a good margin. Over a larger sample, the statistics become more significant and controlled for variables like that. It’s pretty safe to conclude that he both gets the majority of the D zone starts AND that he’s really bad at it.
Correct, “he isn’t close to the ONLY center or forward in the league who gets the majority of D zone starts and draws.” However, of the 84 centers who have logged 400 5v5 minutes this season, his 31.46 offensive zone faceoff percentage and 34.83 offensive zone starts percentage are 83rd and 81st respectively. Also, his defensive zone counts on both draws and starts is 83rd of 84.
My very basic understanding of how statistics works tells me that 83 of 84 provides a better comparative evaluation than “isn’t close to the ONLY center”… but maybe not.
Out of curiosity, how are the xG% distributed in the bottom 20? If it slowly increases from the bottom up, then I’d say you have a point, but I have a feeling it doesn’t.
Glenn Dreyfus’s post today is also about the postgame. And he wasn’t quite as diplomatic as Darren.
TNT has games again tonight. I wonder if someone from their group will mention it.
Though from hearing the same voices over and over again in all of the Kraken press conferences, I doubt anyone was paying much attention. For home games you generally hear Bob Condor, Piper Shaw, occasionally Allison Lukan, who are all with the team and then (apparently) Darren and maybe one other person. On road games, it’s Piper Shaw and maybe someone from the local media, but only if they have a softball question about a Kraken player who has some sort of tie to the area – former player, grew up there, etc.
Lambert after morning practice did take numerous questions unlike after last night’s postgame.
Mason Marchment is too much of a liability. When he’s good, he’s pretty good. When he’s bad, he’s costly. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze. IMO
Agree. Burakovsky was useless last year, but at least he didn’t take stupid penalties.
I think on a stronger team like Dallas his style works better. But even their fans hated his habit of taking boneheaded penalties. He does translate well to playoff hockey where the Refs let a lot more things go. So we should get a decent return for him. I am hoping they start shopping him if we can get healthy.
I’m new here but here’s my two cents.
Everyone is talking about take away #3 in Darren’s “Three Takeaways”. Honestly, who cares. I’m more interested in the amount of responsibility SOH has been given recently. I get that they’re “just” the local news organization but lets not take that responsibility lightly. Some of the articles I read recently are a bit too “fan fair” and not actually critically written. Like writing about Freddy Gaudreau stepping up? Oh Please. He’s a cap friendly bottom 6 center, nothing more. For that role specifically, I’m extremely happy with to have him and like his game a lot.
It’s all been a little surface level reporting for me. For example, where is the Vin Dunn criticism?
As for additional takeaways, You can’t replace McCann or Schwartz. You can bridge a gap until they return with Tolvanen, Marchment, and Wright, but they’re middle-six guys. Asking them to step up is a big ask. The reality is that they’re bit players and expecting anything much more from them, including minimizing mistakes or scoring more is just not realistic. Playing with Kakko and Newman isnt gonna do much for Wrights numbers. I like the way he looks on the ice though.
Vince Dunn and Montour need to spearhead Seattle’s revival, not these bit players. They’ve both been underperforming in 5v5 situations. These are the guys that need to help stretch the ice and create more high-danger opportunities. There are no superstars on this team, so they need high efficiency. Right now they’re not getting it, and it’s not because of the forwards—they’re who they are. It’s because of the D.
Free my boy Ryker Evans. He’s the young X-factor here, not Wright. At 5v5, he’s outpacing both Dunn and Montour in point production. Let that simmer for a minute.
Shout out to Grubauer. He’s been MIA for well, since his arrival but right now hes Seattle’s most improved player. By far. With that said, might not be hard to do when you’re the worst goaltender in the league. Nevertheless I’m cheering for him.