The Kraken have been rolling for the better part of a month now, riding a 10‑game point streak that finally snapped Saturday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. It was bound to end eventually; you can only white‑knuckle your way through so many one‑goal games before the good luck you’ve been riding runs out. Seattle is back in the playoff picture, though, clinging to the first wild‑card spot. What’s been interesting about this run is that it didn’t just materialize out of thin air. The seeds were planted a little earlier.
Improved special teams
If you zoom out a bit, the Kraken’s course correction really started before the win streak officially began. Dec. 8 against Minnesota, six games before the point streak kicked off, felt like the moment things began to turn. And the biggest driver of that shift has been special teams suddenly clicking.
Before Dec. 8, the power play was converting at 16.9 percent. Since then, it’s been humming along at 32.6 percent. The penalty kill has followed the same arc, jumping from 64.8 percent pre‑Dec. 8 to 80.4 percent since. When both sides of special teams swing that dramatically, it starts to show up in the standings, especially for a team that leads the league in one‑goal games if you strip out empty‑netters.
When your margins are razor thin every night, you don’t need elite special teams to change your season; you just need them to stop actively hurting you. The Kraken have gone a step further and turned them into a strength.
The tightness of the Pacific Division
Of course, all of this is happening inside the tightest division in the NHL. The Pacific Division remains a tightly packed mess, with just three points separating second and fifth place as of Monday morning. Seattle sits fourth, holding two games in hand on both Edmonton (second) and San Jose (third).
For most of the season, I’ve assumed Edmonton and Vegas would eventually pull away and make this a race for third and a wild-card spot. And they still might. But neither has put together the kind of sustained run that slams the door on the rest of the division. The Kings and Ducks have their own vulnerabilities, and the Sharks, well, the Sharks are scoring goals, but they continue to play a Swiss cheese defense.
All of that is a long way of saying the Pacific is wide open. I’m not predicting the Kraken finish top‑two, but it’s no longer a fantasy‑land scenario. A month ago, that felt impossible. Now it feels… plausible. And that’s a testament to how dramatically this team has stabilized.
Everyone is talking about the fourth line
One of the more delightful subplots of the last few weeks is that everywhere I go, people want to talk about the fourth line. And honestly, that’s cool.
The personnel has shuffled a bit with Ryan Winterton and Tye Kartye rotating in and out, but the heartbeat of the group has been Ben Meyers and Jacob Melanson. Melanson gets most of the attention because he plays with wreckless abandon. His forechecking is relentless, his hits are violent, and his energy is contagious.
But the line works because Meyers is the stabilizer. His positional play is so clean, and his skill level is surprisingly above average for a fourth‑line center. He’s been a key contributor in what the team has needed out of that role—reliable, smart, opportunistic—and has chipped in offensively at key moments. It’s also worth noting that he was the only personnel change on the penalty kill when that unit turned the corner in early December.
The Kraken have been searching for a fourth line with an identity for most of their existence. They might finally have one.
Other musings
- Saturday’s loss to Carolina added yet another one-goal game to their tally this season. The Kraken have now played 32 one‑goal games (excluding empty‑netters), after logging 41 all of last season.
- Here’s another odd one: Seattle leads the NHL in percentage of game time spent tied, sitting at 49.6 percent. Nearly half their season has been played in a deadlock. No wonder every night feels like a stress test.
- The overtime frenzy has cooled a bit since the early-season chaos, but the Kraken still lead their brief franchise history with 14 overtime games already. Their single‑season record is 19 (2023‑24), and they’re well on pace to go over that mark this season.
- The Kraken finally held a four‑goal lead last Monday against Calgary, their first of the season. It was also the first time my blood pressure dipped below “concerning” since October.
- Seattle has also quietly posted a 3-2-2 record and .571 point percentage on the second half of back‑to‑backs. For the first time in franchise history, I no longer feel obligated to type the word “dreaded” before “back‑to‑back.”
- A small but interesting wrinkle from Thursday: Berkly Catton logged 51 seconds of TOI in overtime, the most he’s played in OT this season, and notably, it was the first time he started overtime. A tiny detail, but one that suggests growing trust.
- Eeli Tolvanen deserves a shoutout as one of this season’s unsung heroes. He leads all Kraken forwards with 46 blocked shots, including three big ones against Minnesota last Thursday. In a season where every game feels like a coin flip, those little moments matter.
- The Kraken’s 12 shots on goal against Carolina were the fewest in a single game in franchise history.
- Seattle now owns the ninth‑best power play in the NHL. If you had told me in October that this group would crack the top 10 at any point, I would have thought you were crazy. They finished 23rd last season.
Goal(s) of the week
There were simply too many worthy candidates this week, so we’re rolling with three.
The first comes from Anabella Fanale of the Minnesota Gophers, but the real magic is in the setup from Abbey Murphy, who looked like she was screwing around at a Saturday morning stick and puck to make the play happen.
Next up: the two Kraken rookies who scored their first NHL goals this week.
Jacob Melanson gets the nod first. I included the full sequence because it perfectly encapsulates what this fourth line has been doing lately, relentless pressure, smart little plays, and a bit of chaos. Melanson’s skate pass on the entry is delightful, and Winterton’s recovery after Calgary tries to clear the zone is exactly the kind of detail that makes this line so effective.
Then there’s Berkly Catton, who scored three goals this week, all of which could have been goal‑of‑the‑week contenders. This one was my favorite, mostly because he didn’t realize it went in and skated away looking mildly annoyed.
Player performances
Matty Beniers (SEA) – Three goals and two assists across four games. He looks like he’s rediscovering that swagger, and the Kraken need him to keep it going.
Kaapo Kakko (SEA) – Two goals and two assists as he continues to settle back in after missing a big chunk of the season. His confidence is creeping upward shift by shift.
Ben Meyers (SEA) – Not the flashiest stat line of the week, but he’s been a huge part of the fourth line’s recent success and has a knack for scoring at exactly the right moments. One goal, one assist, and a whole lot of impact.
The week ahead
The Kraken have a real opportunity in front of them with a four‑game road swing through the New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins, and finally Utah Mammoth.
There are no easy games in the NHL, but Seattle is catching both the Rangers and Devils at vulnerable moments. New York is 3‑5‑2 in their last 10 and just got thumped 10‑2 by Boston. New Jersey is 2‑7‑1 in their last 10 and recently lost 9‑0 to the Islanders. Historically, the Kraken haven’t fared well in either building—one win ever at MSG, none at Prudential Center—but if there were ever a time to steal points, this is it.
Thursday brings a rematch with the Bruins, who have won five of their last six. The lone blemish? Their 7‑4 loss to the Kraken last week. On paper, that’s the toughest matchup of the trip.
But the biggest game of the week might be Saturday in Utah. The Mammoth are tied with Seattle at 48 points but have played three more games. That’s a classic four‑point swing scenario, and the kind of game that can influence the playoff picture down the stretch.
Four points out of eight would be perfectly acceptable. Six, with one coming against Utah, would go a long way toward keeping this momentum rolling.
And finally…
After that brutal stretch from late November through mid‑December, the Kraken have played themselves back into the playoff picture and may still give us what we asked for back in October: meaningful hockey in mid‑March. Would it be nice to see them create a little breathing room in the standings? Absolutely. Is it required? Not yet.
Even with a couple dents showing in the last two games, I feel better about this team now than I did when they were winning early in the season. They look connected. They look committed. And maybe most importantly, they look like a group that genuinely believes it can win. What say you?