This team. Things went from horrendous to atrocious on Thursday, when the Seattle Kraken—who held a one-goal lead entering the third period for the second straight game—fumbled it away again, suffering their fourth straight loss and 10th in 11 games (1-9-1).
Against the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, you knew the 3-2 lead going into the third was anything but safe. In this one, against a bad Flames team that had lost two of its previous three, it felt like the Kraken were finally going to find a way to close out a victory and generate some semblance of positive vibes within the group.
Instead, they took two straight penalties in the third period (five total in the game), allowed a season-high 46 total shots through to Joey Daccord, and once again let a winnable game slip away in a 4-2 loss.
With the defeat, the Kraken are now on their second consecutive named losing streak—Losing Streak Cynthia—which makes landfall right on the heels of the catastrophic Losing Streak Camille.
Here are Three Takeaways from yet another Kraken loss.
Takeaway #1: A third-period meltdown
Although the Flames haven’t had great results this season, they do tend to be a high shot-volume team, averaging 29.5 shots per game, sixth-most in the NHL. On this night, they threw everything at Daccord, who was excellent and gave Seattle a chance to win despite being outshot exactly 2-1 (46-23).
Daccord’s teammates put him in a brutal position late, forcing him to kill two straight penalties in a high-volume game. Defensive-zone time is taxing on a goalie regardless of shot count, and back-to-back penalty kills under those conditions are especially punishing. Eventually, Calgary broke through.
Nazem Kadri tied the game on a power-play one-timer at 10:04 of the third, and Matt Coronato scored the winner just 65 seconds later.
The Kraken had a 3-on-2 brewing, with Adam Larsson jumping into the play. Eeli Tolvanen tried to hit Larsson at the blue line, but the pass was picked off and the play reversed. Tolvanen and Larsson collided trying to recover, and Rasmus Andersson hit Coronato in stride at the Seattle line. At full speed, Coronato burned around a flat-footed Vince Dunn and sniped it over Daccord’s left shoulder.
…AAAAAaaaaaand 3-2 Flames.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) December 19, 2025
Matt Coronato with a snipe. Jonathan Huberdeau gets his 800th point.
Flames have 44 shots on net, BTW. pic.twitter.com/rcAmev3keP
“More detail. More detail in certain areas that are game changers,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We cannot turn the puck over entering the blue line on their third goal. It just can’t happen. And we keep doing these things over and over again, and it’s getting old, and we’ve got to figure this out.”
Daccord may have wanted that last goal back—it was unscreened and from an angle—but you can’t hang this one on him. He finished with a .933 save percentage and deserved a better outcome.
Kaapo Kakko offered an interesting perspective afterward, saying he thinks the team is “scared” to make plays when protecting a one-goal lead.
Lambert didn’t like that idea one bit. “I think that’s ridiculous,” Lambert scoffed. “I think we needed to get on the forecheck. We talked about staying on our toes, so if that’s what’s going on, then it has to change.”
Takeaway #2: Still liking the Nyman/Wright/Kakko line
I touched on this after the last game as well, but the Jani Nyman, Shane Wright, and Kakko line continues to impress. For a team desperate for offense and chemistry, it’s refreshing to see a trio consistently creating something.
After Wright scored against Colorado on Tuesday, Kakko followed up with a power-play goal in this game, with both of his regular linemates on the ice as part of the unit.
Nyman nearly lost the puck along the wall just inside the blue line but recovered it and fed Ryker Evans rolling downhill. Kakko timed his drive perfectly from the corner, presenting his stick as Evans threaded a shot-pass under MacKenzie Weegar’s stick and onto Kakko’s tape for an easy deflection into the net.
🎶 HEYYYYY KAAPO KAKKO! 🎶 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) December 19, 2025
Shot-pass by Ryker Evans, perfect redirection by Kakko. Power-play goal.
2-1 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/1RL3GYWn5S
It was a beautiful sequence, and another sign that this line is building something.
HOWEVER…
Takeaway #3: Why Shane Wright doesn’t get as much usage as Chandler Stephenson
While that line contributed Seattle’s second goal, they were also on the ice for the Flames’ first. Mikael Backlund’s tying goal at 10:20 of the second period—a bit of a doinker—came immediately off a defensive-zone face-off.
Sound Of Hockey’s Blaiz Grubic wrote Thursday about Wright’s development and noted that one reason he doesn’t get as much ice time as Chandler Stephenson (who has four goals and three assists in his last seven games and scored a beauty in this one) is Lane Lambert’s lack of trust in Wright on defensive-zone draws. Wright starts just 5.6 percent of his shifts in Seattle’s end.
Flames answer. Shane Wright had Mikael Backlund tied up, but it glanced off a skate.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) December 19, 2025
This is why defensive-zone starts matter, and why Lane Lambert leans on Stephenson so heavily for these draws.
1-1 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/k8TXY1wO8Z
Backlund’s goal is a clear example of why. Wright stayed with Backlund and tied up his stick reasonably well, but the clean face-off loss put Seattle on the back foot immediately, and Backlund ultimately got a fortunate bounce. Worth noting, Wright didn’t get the defensive-zone start by choice; Seattle had previously iced the puck, meaning they weren’t allowed to change lines.
Wright’s usage frustrates fans because everyone wants to see him continue to grow and take on more responsibility. But these are the details Lambert keeps referencing. To earn trust and move up the lineup, Wright needs to improve in these areas. He likely will over time, and when that happens, the minutes will follow—but this is important context in the meantime.
I’m sure you will all react very calmly and respectfully to this take in the comment section. (Seriously, please be nice to each other. It’s been a little ugly in there lately.)
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go find something to break.
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.
A Seattle Times reader just wrote that now it is on the owner for allowing this debacle to continue. When will she make changes?
The media needs to make these kind of statements to put pressure.
Too much of The media is in the bag for this team
Exactly start to make a statement that this is not going to cut it. Actually make them really want to sensor the media like they tried.
I know a vocal media in Vancouver and Toronto has really helped those franchises.
Daryl look at those franchises do you blame them?
The point is I think there is very little a vocal media can accomplish in shaping the direction of a franchise. On the contrary, an organization that is guided by media pressure is, to my thinking, more likely to flounder rather than flourish.
I agree with you but when you get to a certain point it’s time to put pressure on ownership to do something to better the team. I’m not saying that the media should be hard nosed all the time but when a spade is a spade call it a spade.
We’ve reached the point where the FO are too incompetent to be fired, because firing them would admit that the org’s wasted five years and made a long run of horribad decisions, many of which reflect poorly on the owners themselves. One such mistake was “promoting” Francis rather than firing him outright. Who here believes Botterill can fix this mess when his immediate boss, and he himself, were instrumental in creating it themselves?
The focus is now shifting to the owners. Will they join the truly awful owners in this league or are they acually ambitious and daring? Limping along brainlessly as they have is hardly an option, you’d think. But bad orgs are bad orgs, we’ll soon know for certain where this org fits in.
Do you get the sense lambert is losing the locker room? I have to think the chances of firing another one and done coach is out of the question unless ownership cleans house entirely
I would like to calmly and respectfully note that named storms follow an alphabetic progression and I subscribe to the belief that losing streaks should as well… but if you want to start em’ all with “C”, I guess that’s fine too.
😂
Cron Cfrancis please
It’s losing streak Darren…he just didn’t want to call it that for some reason.
That makes more sense than just about anything I’ve seen or heard in a while.
Darren it is!
Sorry buddy.
I don’t think you blame Wright on that goal, every kraken center has lost numerous clean draws and Wright was doing what he needed to do to prevent the goal it was just a lucky bounce.
I’ll say this about the game I was expecting a high flying let’s win this game effort not a let’s park the bus all game and see if our goalie can win it for us. This was a must win game and I fully expected them to play like it was a must win game. I’m so very disappointed.
“More detail. More detail in certain areas that are game changers,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We cannot turn the puck over entering the blue line on their third goal. It just can’t happen. And we keep doing these things over and over again, and it’s getting old, and we’ve got to figure this out.”
This guy reminds me sooo much of Trump 😂
Ok this is the problem!!!! It’s you Lambert!!! Too many details and not enough energy and drive, stop parking the $*%^* bus all game and expecting results. Lambert you are the problem.
Kakko was completely right and I’m glad he said it. Play the game like it’s a hockey game and screw your stupid system that’s only ever done one thing… gotten you fired because it’s a ridiculous system that at best keeps you at pace in a game but puts everyone to sleep.
This is absolutely insane that we got out shot by this margin to the flames, yes they shoot a lot and many were not dangerous but our passive defensive system didn’t pick up pucks and send plays the other direction like it should have we just let them keep it going and they probably had at least 15 grand A shots.
At 5v5 they had seven high danger chances and the Kraken had seven high danger chances… your “grand A shots”. I think spoting them five power plays to one certainly didn’t help things.
Wasn’t looking at stats that just how the game felt, lots of slot and cross crease plays. Joey played very very well until he didn’t.
Political or religious opinions don’t belong in sports discussions.
Stating that someone reminds you of someone else isn’t political or religious.
Come on now. You know what the real intention was.
But that doesn’t make it political. If I say something about DT’s hair that doesn’t make it political.
Well, with 4 starters out it’s truly too much to even consider that this team has a chance against anyone right now. Fully healthy we’re maybe, maybe a .500 team but right now it’ll take miracles to beat the bottom feeders. There’s still time in the season to save face and bounce back with a winning record but the playoffs are out of the picture.
What exactly is the point in that, if we’re out like you suggested why would we just not put extra effort into player development and not worry about the wins and losses.
Like how about at least trying to play a hockey game and screw this system that isn’t working.
Totally reasonable point on Wright and if the Kraken were seriously in playoff contention I’d readily agree.
Most metrics suggest they’re nowhere near that so I hesitate a bit. Is it better to work through the mistakes with playing time or by watching more? I don’t know.
But for me, Stephenson is a horrible waste of cap space and evidence of very poor roster management. Having him take ice time from one of our best prospects while the team is not good pours a fair bit if salt on that wound.
Probably a fairly ridiculous take, but I’m just a fan. I’m certainly not alone in ridiculous takes in this neighborhood.
I’m with you… on the ridiculous takes part. That’s definitely me too.
Love how they can penalize Wright for faceoffs yet Stephenson’s cycling back from the offensive zone is almost always dreadful. He’s on the ice for a huge amount of goals against. Nothing justifies the time on ice differential. Now they’re playing Gaudreau excessively as well.
He’s a young player, live with mistakes. Gating him at the end of last year was a mistake. Continuing to do so is idiotic.
Lambert is a Stone Age coach whose over reliance on vets is making him a laughingstock and going to get him fired. Would have felt bad for him but it’s beyond that now. The season is lost, Botterill needs to step in and force the coach to play the kids and build towards the future. Dump the vets or get rid of the coach.
Fans deserve better than watching their team become a punching bag.
Stephenson’s point streak on a team that is otherwise starved for offense seems like pretty good justification to me. Really, nobody other than Stephenson has stepped up his offensive game in the absence of Jaden Schwartz and Jared McCann. Chandler Stephenson right now is the team’s most consistent offensive performer, which is especially remarkable given how often he starts in the defensive zone.
Now, that right there is my big criticism of how the team is being handled now. Stephenson–your best offensive forward–should be getting the lion’s share of the o-zone draws, and Matty Beniers–your best defensive forward–should be taking the defensive zone draws. Those two guys should be doing what they do best, because they are actually extraordinary players in their respective specialties. We have some extraordinary players. They just need to be allowed to be themselves.
The thing I’m having a hard time sorting out… with the exception of the two Edmonton games, the Kraken have been within one goal before pulling the goalie in every game during Cynthia and Camille – every one.
How is it that a team with a lame coach, decimated by injuries, terribly constructed and poorly developed… how is it they’re playing all these games so close?
Yes but that exactly the system that LL runs, it’s always going to be a tight game unless we really screw it up, it doesn’t make it any better it’s crap hockey coached like a chicken. He isn’t capable of coaching a team that tries to win a hockey game, it’s all about just dump the puck don’t do anything stupid and let’s see if our goalie plays a better game. This is not what Seattle signed up for.
So they’d be winning these close games with this terribly constructed, poorly developed, injury riddled team if it wasn’t for the coach?
Pick a side, do you blame the cracking or RF? This is not an ideal situation there has to be a problem somewhere. Yes I blame RF for building this mess and for hiring this coach that can’t coach. It’s both for me it’s clean house at the top and rest everything. Not saying trade the whole team but a new direction needs to happen.
But you you’ve gotta at least pick one reason why this hast worked.
FYI cracking was ment to read coach 🤷♂️
I think pick a side is exactly the point Nino. When you complain about EVERYTHING, it’s hard to be taken seriously about anything. I think there are plenty of legitimate issues, but the idea that everyone and everything sucks seems a bit much.
So what is the problem and who’s to blame, I didn’t hear a response to the question?
FYI the things I’ve been complaining about are things that are now blowing up, I wasn’t wrong.
I have always had a lot of good things to say about our youth and have in many occasions defended players like Wright and Matty.
I’ve always thought that RF wasn’t doing a good job with building a roster… was I wrong? Am I wrong?
I wanted to give a considered answer so it’s posted as a TLDR below.
Just popping in to make sure everyone’s being nice to each other. Decent start so far, except for Daryl pointing out that I f***ed up the storm naming convention.
It’s past RB’s bedtime we’re all good, check in again in the morning he might wake up grumpy 😂
Losing streak Darren is upon us.
This is easy. McKenna…Stanley Cup. We’re losing to win people. Just hang in there!
I’m trying to be on the Chuck Wagon, but I don’t know why he disappears when things start going his way.
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Never thought I’d say this, but the worst thing right now is to start winning. The idiots who run franchise will conclude again that everything is going according to plan. As we see the plan was to change four year of empty-calorie points and ugly play for … emm.. for what?
Four years of building something unclear, only to start tanking in the fifth…
Believe in the Process.
Comment from Facebook:
They promise to Release the a Kraken, but they deliver Krack is whack” Now, that’s funny.
Dear hockey Jesus, save me from this team!
mcdavid to seattle? 👀👀👀 he does only have a year left on his contract
I think I agree with Kakko. This game in particular looked like those situations where the harder you try to not fuck up, the more you do. Tense up, start gripping the stick harder and now you’re not clearing the puck. Fight or flight ramps up – the fighters give up stupid penalties and the flighters hesitate or back off and open up space for the opponents.
Guys are in their heads. The upcoming break could be a blessing or a curse – either enough time to sort things out and reset, or enough time to ruminate and spiral deeper into the abyss.
And speaking of stupid penalties, what is the record for puck over the glass penalties? Because Seattle has got to be on pace to break it.
I agree as well. LL’s entire system is designed to play ‘not to lose’. Calgary’s style is designed to feast on LL’s system, and it worked.
Look at how Lambo has handled Nyman. Nyman has 4 goals in 10 minutes ice time. Mat Beniers, Eli Tolvanen, Marchment have same amount of goals with lots more ice time. Yet those players never get benched for a mistake. Isn’t it time for Mat Beniers to take the next step or does his 4 goals indicate who he truly is?
Just checked in on the latest 32 thoughts and the last thought is about Seattle. Good listen. It starts at about 47:15 (not 1:14:14 like the summary says). It will be interesting to see if they continue to follow the situation. Particularly if they can manage to get any insight to what is actually happening inside the locker room.
Starts at 45m15s. Elliotte: “They just made a GM change [promoting Francis acolyte Botterill], they just made a coaching change [old school hockey guru Lambert]… The frustration and disappointment out there is enormous.”
Understatement of the year EF!! What do you think the fans feel after five years of this?
This did not look like the same team that just went toe-to-toe with Colorado. The passing, transition, possession all looked really good against the Avs, and total crap this game. They looked completely deflated after giving up the go ahead goal, and I can’t blame them. It’s pretty clear that Kakko is right — they don’t trust themselves or the system.
I don’t think there’s one party to blame here. The players are not good. The coach is a boring dinosaur. The FO might be incompetent. But hey at least the broadcast team still rules! I feel bad for them having to cover this team right now.
I took Kakko’s comment to be about how they are being coached, a polite way of saying we’re not allowed to do anything. It definitely appears that LL took it the same way as he was defensive (no pun intended) about the statement.
If they could have come out playing as hard as they did against the AVs then it would have been fine. It seemed like they play up to whatever ability they are playing against. It’s so bizarre to me how this is all playing out. It’s time for a come to Jesus meeting between players. What can we do not to embarrass ourselves? I get the losing season gets them a better draft pick but they can’t continue to play like this for 50 more games.
I never thought the Kraken could make the Flames look like a better team than the Avs but hard to argue with that after last night.
The worst part is that if you asked LL which game he liked the best, I can guarantee he would say the Flames game. He was clearly unhappy that we deviated from his system against Colorado, despite many fans thinking it was the most exciting game we had all year.
He explicitly said he thought they played much better against COL than CGY.
Even the Avalanche have an off night. I watched their game against the Predators last week. Colorado ultimately lost in the shootout, but it only made it that far because Makar tied it with 8 seconds left in the third. They should have lost in regulation.
Likely a typical case of one team (Colorado) going into the game expecting to coast and the other (Nashville/Seattle) wanting to rise to the occasion.
Leading up to the break last year, I remember the Kraken going on a 5 game losing streak that looked significantly worse than this one in terms of how competitive the games were. They were listless and clearly didn’t want to be there, it was the worst stretch of hockey I’ve ever seen from this organization. This current stretch is more disappointing precisely because they’ve put in effort, have been competitive, but just haven’t been able to get across the finish line.
I said yesterday I couldn’t see them firing LL, but that was assuming they could pull out of this funk and regress to the mean. I’m not sure if they can do that now and it’s clear by player comments that they aren’t sure about it either. That’s a toxic environment and one that 100% has to change.
I agree with you. It seems like now, times might get desperate and LL could be the sacrificial lamb. It certainly won’t be anyone in the head office, yet.
I’m kind of enjoying this??? I hate LL’s boring system and want him gone. I want to see Shane Wright take defensive zone faceoffs even if Stephenson is better at it. I want ownership to stop wasting money on mediocre free agents.
This trainwreck was guaranteed to happen eventually, but it might have taken 2-3 years to collapse like it did for Hakstol if we had managed to overperform this year. We should all be thankful that rock bottom is coming sooner and this time the front office won’t be spared the axe. I look forward to a clean start next year and hopefully with a successful draft.
Not gonna happen. This roster works well for what Lambert and Botterill wants to do. Score by committee and be hard to beat. They have the goalie and center depth to do it. Beniers and Stephenson are the cornerstones rn. (7 game point streak anyone?) Strap in for the long haul cause this is the hockey we got. Have patience my friend.
This roster is not working well. WTH? Stop with the gaslighting and sycophancy already. How can people defend the nonsense we see for ourselves on the ice. This is not a good team, the roster construction is shit, the coaching is shit, management is shit and the players can’t bootstrap themselves to “relevancy”. This org is becoming a Buffalo/Vancouver level joke around the league. For years outside observers were mystified by the decisions made by this franchise and we have seen nothing whatsoever to give us PROOF there is a viable plan or direction. This org looks like other failed teams, plays like other failed teams, has the results of other failed teams. About the only thing going for them is that they have an effective marketing department and protection, perhaps indirectly, by a distinctly meek local media group and fan loyalty (blessings all).
The expansion honeymoon is OVER. It’s time for this org to get it’s shit together ASAP or we are looking at years and years of Vancouver style soap opera on and off the ice. The love, even worship, of mediocrity has to stop.
Working well, as you stated, is very different from works well for what they want to do, as I stated.
I 100% agree with you that this team is not good. I’ll take that a step further and say they’ve never been good. Certainly not good enough to compete for a stanley cup, let alone a deep playoff run. That is the point of the game anyway right?
Yet, have they not been competitive in nearly every game of this losing streak? Did they not look like a better team than Calgary last night? That’s with 3 big time players out of the line-up. To me, that points to good coaching, not shit as you mention. Lambert has squeezed everything he can get out of this roster to date. The roster is not good. No finishing. Sloppy in defense. Yet the coaching system works. Look at Grubauer’s improvement. The roster is shit yet Grubauer no longer looks like a drag for this team. Lambert brings reliability that was non-existent under Bylsma. You wanna change the coach and system again??
You’re saying the front office is shit? I disagree. I like what they’ve done with the roster. Marchment on a one year deal. Matt Murry on a one year deal. Tolvi on waivers.
Eberle and Schwartz are aging UFA. If things don’t work out (as we’ve seen happen so far in the season), the roster has the flexibility to re-tool. If things go in the opposite direction as we saw with the start of the season they have or rather, they had the option to trade for some rental scoring for a play-off push. That’s looking more and more unlikely as the season progresses yet they’re still in a good position for the future. That’s not by luck that’s by design.
So I actually agree with you that this team is not good. We disagree about the coach and front office, but to say this fan base loves or worships mediocrity is not only disrespectful, its just plain lazy.
At least they got rid of Marchment so there’s a start.
I don’t agree things are looking good for the future. That is the issue. The future looks like more of the same Groundhog Day style… unless they smarten up quickly and start to be much more proactive and sharp in their dealings.
They have a lot of prospects in the pool, but the difference makers look few and far between or very far away. They have a lot of vets they need to start to cycle out asap. They have a very bad habit of signing stupid UFA contracts with middling players that do more harm than good. They keep hiring brutal coaches.
WHEN they ACTUALLY start to deal with the issues, then we can start talking about things looking up. Right now this team looks like Calgary, a team with declinging vets and a huge pool of decent prospects but a future that looks without much traction.
The Kraken’s core issue is the lack of a real core, especially a young core. This issue must be the main focus of the FO.
Unless they smarten up. You hit the nail on the head and I agree with you 100%. But if it was really that easy, everyone would be doing it.
And yeah as I said, they have a lot of vets who need to be exchanged for the future. I agree with you, but see my point above. It’s hard to do. Maybe volume of draft capital will help?
Every team’s issue is having a young core. With that in place you can off-load some for proven talent, you can tempt UFA to come play for you and get truly better.
I’m not a very smart guy so I’ll put my trust in Botterill (until I don’t) rather than play armchair GM. It’s fun to do nevertheless.
Let’s play a game; Describe how you’re feeling about the Kraken in a song! I’ll go first.
Where is my mind – the Pixies
“Lightning Strike” by Judas Priest.
As far as why it hasn’t worked… I think the overriding issue is they do not currently have enough talent on this roster to be a consistent playoff team. Very, very few players are like Macklin Celebrini or Matthew Schaefer, they take time to develop.
I think it’s easy to say Francis should have landed an elite talent by now, but I’ve yet to hear anyone make a compelling case beyond dubious hindsight on just how that should have happened. Certainly there’s the tanking path, but that guarantees nothing. The Shark’s scorched earth teardown has landed them some real talent, but then you look at the Canucks – five top ten picks in six seasons, an elite, elite No.1 defenseman, a legit No.1 40/100 center, a Vezina caliber goalie and a Jack Adams coach… and they’re back to tearing it all down. Ironically, Seattle won too many games last season to land Schaefer. You can cherry pick whatever scenario you want, it seems to me the tank is at best a 50/50 proposition between contender and disaster. For me, and I can absolutely see how other folks are on the other side of this, I think it’s a bit soon to bet on a coin toss.
RB called out the Final Thought from Friedman this morning and he concludes the Kraken are “gonna take a big swing”. So far they’ve done pretty well with the limited player trades they’ve made and they’ve acquired a lot of picks, but they haven’t taken a “big swing” and I’m not sure they’ve really had a good opportunity. If they do, I certainly hope they don’t force something and end up only making things worse. We’ll see.
So Nino, why I think it hasn’t worked. I think in a 32 team league with parity by design it takes time, patience and a some luck to build a contender. As awesome as the playoff season and run was, I think it set the clock back a bit. I also think the choice of coaches and Grubauer were huge mistakes. With how they’ve built their blueline and how they’ve drafted, it seems to me they’re doing a traditional build from the backend and then out through the middle. When your goaltending isn’t there, you’re already in trouble. I don’t know enough about systems to do an honest appraisal of Bylsma, but it seems clear he didn’t prioritize defense. It seems to me when you lack talent you’d better be defensively sound.
With their young players now showing up throughout the roster and a ton of cap space available for a limited number of holes it seems to me they’re in a good position to make that “big swing” that Friedman was taking about and I also think the depth and prospects on this team are better than folks realize. As I mentioned before, they’re hobbled with injuries and they’re still right in pretty much every game.
Maybe there’s nothing here to build on and it’ll have to all be scrapped, from the head office down to everyone over 22, but I think there’s still enough here to build a winning team and a winning culture. I am not so convinced of my views to believe that to think otherwise is stupid – which seems to be a popular opinion on here – but for me this seems like the most rational approach. Continue drafting and developing and continue trying to win.
Go Kraken!!!
I also have had concerns about taking big swings or making big changes and potentially making things worse. Sometime in the last week it dawned on me: Yes, it could get worse. But it can’t get much worse.
But it could extend how long we are bad for, any big trade for an impact player Will was young talent. I don’t trust this group to try and fix things.
100%
Waiting for a holiday package, so had a free moment, and read this thread. At the bottom, there was Daryl W’s latest Ron Francis fanboy post. Let me answer it briefly just to show there is another side to this ongoing argument. No need to respond.
Francis has had six years to establish an identity for this franchise and stock the roster with talent. As at Carolina, he has failed and the results are there for everyone to see. I have posted enough links over time from varied sources across the NHL universe who collectively view the Kraken roster as nothing short of a disaster and Francis (again) as a failure.
The worst current owner in the NHL (after the Coyote crisis was resolved) just smartened up and hired an experienced GM who has a history of getting his teams into the playoffs and drafting astutely. Kekäläinen has stepped out front to be the defining voice of a new way that that franchise needs after so long of missing the playoffs despite having a talented roster.
That is exactly the profile of what the Kraken needs for a GM. Someone out front, creating an identity, astutely drafting young talent, and getting into the playoffs. Except unlike the Sabres, the Kraken do not have a talented roster to easily turn around. It is going to take many years to fix the disaster of Francis’ tenure in Seattle.
To answer what could the Kraken have done, go back and look at what all the smart GMs across the league have done in the last five years and ask why could the Kraken had not pulled off those trades, those draft picks, or those UFA signings. It all comes down to a lack of imagination, a lack of courage, and the team’s lack of a winner’s identity. That is all on Francis.
Besides absolutely blowing the expansion draft opportunity to wheel and deal, what would a smart GM have done when a proven NHL star C became available in November 2021? He would have stepped up and offered his recent no. 2 pick in the amateur draft (Beniers) straight up for Eichel, himself a former no. 2 pick. And I bet Adams would have taken that over the weak package he got from Vegas.
This would show a confident GM determined to build talent and win by taking risks. Just think how different this team might be if we had this true number one scoring center here for the last four years? Maybe then we could have attracted Marner and other UFAs to come here, because beside money, all NHLers want above all to go somewhere to win.
At every turn, Francis has taken the chicken’s approach to roster building, no imagination, no creativity, no juevos. Sometimes a statement must be made in an organization to show things have changed. That is why I suggested they buy out Grubuaer last summer. Whether he could still play goal or not was not the question. A statement had to be made about poor play.
Sam Holloway needs to make that statement now by firing Francis and hopefully Botterill, as he was along the whole time, and find an experienced winner NHL exec to be the face of the franchise who can then plucked a leading younger AGM from a winning franchise. At this point, I would even take Brendan Shanahan just to give the team some of the gravitas it lacks.
Boldness in roster building is what the Kraken have lacked from day 1. Just about every other GM over the last five years has made bold moves to improve their rosters while Francis shirked that duty. It was time the Kraken had such a leader at the helm so the next five years won’t be a repeat.
I agree Chuck… no need to respond.
Who would you like to see as the GM?
(please do respond)
Re: landing Schaefer – don’t forget that the Islanders and Mammoth won the lottery and Seattle actually dropped 2 spots (as did everyone else above them in the original order). So technically they did lose enough – the islanders were just luckier.
Which is also a reminder that even finishing last still doesn’t guarantee #1 (or even #2).
That was exactly the point in saying they didn’t win enough games to get Schaefer.
Ah. Reading comprehension fail on my part.
I have a terrible habit of failing to recognize that subtlety and irony seldom translate in text.
Well said Daryl, I don’t agree but well said.
OK, I’ll bite. Darren, I appreciate you asking great questions to Lambert, including why he trusts Stephenson so heavily and what Stephenson does that isn’t captured by analytics. But his answer was neither illuminating nor encouraging. First, he said that Stephenson is good at defense. This shows a rather extreme ignorance of analytics. If Stephenson was playing good defense, that obviously would be captured in the on-ice results — and the analytics. The Athletic actually has distinct ratings for offense and defense and rates Stephenson considerably WORSE at defense than offense. What little value he still contributes is offensively, mainly on the power play. Then, Lambert talked about faceoffs, but as Allison Lukan has proven to you guys, faceoffs mean very little. The other point Lambert made is that Stephenson takes all the tough matchups and d zone draws. But the analytics folks track usage, too, for example, the Athletic ratings. And there is simply no way that this situational disadvantage is enough to explain the extreme, egregious xG shares he is putting up at 5v5 — 35% on moneypuck, THE WORST NUMBER IN THE ENTIRE NHL out of the 475 players who have played at least 300 minutes this year (Stephenson has played 451 minutes). You can convince me that maybe, with context, he’s not THE WORST player, but there is absolutely no possible way that he is actually GOOD. There are plenty of centers in the NHL who are given tough zone and matchup assignments, and none of them handle those assignments even close to as poorly as Stephenson.
Bottom line is, I’m no expert on analytics, but literally everyone who is such an expert and isn’t employed by the Kraken believes Stephenson’s play — and ESPECIALLY his defensive play — has been a disaster, which is completely consistent with what I and many other fans are seeing on the ice. There is no way that the Kraken have some private, proprietary data showing Stephenson is actually a good defensive player. And if they do, maybe they should scrap that data and start over, because… (gestures at the team’s record the past 2 years).
I’m sure Curtis would make these obvious rejoinders, and much more, yet when you brought up Lambert’s comments on this week’s podcast, it drew some approving comments from John, and Curtis was apparently compelled to stay silent. I don’t get it. Whenever Curtis even hints at talking about this topic, he’s shut down. Why not have a lively discussion about it? It would be really interesting. Obviously, who the team allocates no. 1 center role and minutes to is a big deal — it’s arguably the most important role on the team other than maybe starting goalie. I love the podcast and the site, but this weird sensitivity around tackling the team’s biggest/worst decisions, and especially the number one center, is holding you guys back a bit.
And I’m not saying Wright should be given a heavy share of d-zone draws either or should simply be getting the same minutes/assignments that Stephenson is getting. The Kraken also DO have a really good, defensive, shut-down center, and it’s Beniers. Beniers should probably be getting a lot of those extra D-zone draws that Stephenson is inexplicably getting. Wright should probably just be getting more ice time in general, at both ends, and more special teams time. Honestly, ideally, Stephenson should be moved to 3rd line winger, where there’s a chance he could actually still be a value-added player, but they are obviously not going to do that.
From the outside, it seems like this is what is going on: Stephenson is the veteran player coasting on reputation from earlier in this career (which even then was probably inflated by elite linemates). Lambert is a dinosaur, conservative coach who yells at young players about every mistake they make, ignores the mistakes his “veteran leaders” make, refuses to make tough decisions based on performance and will just defer to “veteran presence” and outdated reputation. It’s the easy decision to play the guy with an established reputation and the big contract your boss handed out, rather than stick your neck out and trust younger players who might, gasp, make some mistakes. Lambert’s answers to your questions only further supported this outsider’s impression.
So the team is stuck in this loop. Wright needs to “prove himself” to earn more ice time and toucher matchups, which he is not allowed to do, even while Stephenson is proving that he CANNOT handle the ice-time, which is excused by the tougher matchups. We hear a lot about “details” and “pucks in deep” and “toughness” while the team just ignores the fundamental need to acquire and develop elite players. It’s a self-perpetuating culture of losing that we have seen a lot of NHL teams get stuck in for years on end.
Foist coming through with the best comment ever made.
OK I’m already thinking of one flaw in my post. Beniers has slightly more minutes than Stephenson this year, so perhaps it is unfair to say they are treating Stephenson as the “number one” center. But the overall point on allocation as between Wright and Stephenson remains the same.
One other item I might quibble with… and I think I have an understanding of analytics that approaches basic but I may still be missing something here.
When Alison talks about faceoffs not mattering she is specifically talking about win percentages and how the NHL identifies them. The analysis, as I understand it, is there is no correlation between faceoff win percentages and team success and this is largely because of the gameplay immediately following the faceoff not being consistent with the “win”. The argument on Stephenson is about faceoff zone location and I think most folks recognize that this does, in fact, matter.
The faceoff does matter. Anytime you have a chance at possession and you don’t get it, it matters.
I think the point here is that there are a lot of faceoff “wins” and “losses” (ie what is officially recorded) that are completely opposite of who actually ends up getting control of the puck once the initial scramble and shove is over.
Everything in your paragraph about the treatment of younger players vs veteran leaders was also true last season.
I was really hoping that was one of the things that would change this year, particularly with the expectation that the team was going to be even younger, and I felt things started out on a promising note. But we’re back to more of the same.
One thing I’d point out on “playing the young guys”… I know it’s a product of injury, but where is Jacob Melanson on the Kraken’s U23 depth chart? I also recognize it’s more about “usage”, but their prospects are getting NHL games… on a depth basis, probably more than any other team.
I really like Melansons game, 4th line ceiling as with Karts but those two could be great 4th line players for us going forward.
RF has gotten some good bottom of the lineup players but he’s an incredibly safe GM with his drafting and roster build. We are never going to be a good team with his guidance.
They are now 31st in the league. What’s the use case in running the vets out there excessively? Is Freddie Gaudreau going to be anywhere near this team if they become competitive?
The inability of fandom to see how wretched this situation has become continues to stun. Getting the kids useful minutes is the only thing that should be on the Kraken to-do list for the remainder of the year. Well, selling off the vets, too…
I was working on a response that said many of the same things. I’ll also add that it’s out of character for this site to trash one of the current Kraken players, just to insist Stephenson is a good defender. For the shortcomings of the analysis presented on SOH, it usually at least attempts to be positive. That clip seems real petty to point at and say, “see, Wright is a flawed defender.” Sure, he didn’t win the faceoff but even the best centers are roughly 50/50 at the dot. Then he engaged the player and took his stick away for a shot or tip. It was just bad luck that a shot in the skates went in.
If you want to isolate a single defensive zone faceoff that shows a lack of defensive aptitude, try this one: https://youtu.be/kNe4xN7KyHA?si=RNiYbd6kS1JYG3rA
(Not sure if YouTube links will post; if not, search “John Tavares 500th point with Maple Leafs”)
ty SOH crew who watched this game im glad i watched TNF instead, to all the commenters take a breath everything will be fine. building a team takes time. also if you listen back to LL’s comments before the season started he was pretty explicit on the fact that the kraken will be hard to play ageist not that we will win games and that is still true.
Did he mean the Kraken would be hard to watch? That’s what has happened, if you like that all the power to you. You’re probably the 1/100 kraken fan, maybe RF will add you to his Xmas list?
This message board was clearly not designed for the Kraken blowing up, it’s so hard to navigate. A new message option could probably by designed by a 10 year old with basic coding skills. RB are you a coding student?
And the new way adds are displayed really sucks, could we have a donation fund to get a new platform?
Santa came early. Marchment traded to Columbus!!!!!
😃
A bunch of new names and lots of great comments. I’ve read a bunch of stuff I totally disagree with today and most of it has been fantastic. I’ve also found a bunch of insights I totally agree with.
Thanks Darren, John and Curtis.
…and stick taps to Andy.
Plant
Agree re Wright… mostly. Check out stats on how relevant face-off percentages are to team success. Almost no correlation. Wright should be playing much more – not just because of his potential but on a “point per minute” of ice time he’s been the leading Kraken scorer… starting to lose faith in Lambert – but he’s playing the cards he’s been dealt. That said – a good organization would have Quenneville as head coach. Which is the real issue. Our owner – Samantha Holloway – was more or less given the team by her dad. Ever meet a rich kid who was truly worth a damn after life was handed to them on a platter?
Renting maternity clothes. That was her baby – no pun intended… before running the Kraken.
So. Get ready for more suck, sadly. Coaches obviously can get fired, so can Francis and Botterill… but not Ms. Holloway.
I definitely feel that ownership hasn’t made the changes that they should have. I feel their biggest mistake has been wanting to be a playoff team as soon as possible and believing the crap the RF has been selling them.
💯 post!!!!
I don’t give a damn how many games Quenneville’s teams win. I don’t want that rat bastard anywhere near any players I care about. No man who does what he did to one of his own players deserves to be called Coach. A coach is not a boss or a manager who is obliged to not show the slightest regard for the well-being of his employees. The title Coach entails trust and responsibility to those under his stewardship, no matter the level at which they perform. Quenneville disgraced himself in a way that should never be forgotten.