Although the Kraken are just a Brandon Montour (and a Matt Murray) away from having their full lineup available for the first time all season, they did not have their best performance in a 3-2 overtime loss to the reeling New Jersey Devils on Wednesday.
In a tough-sledding affair, Seattle didn’t get much going offensively in regulation—though the Kraken were buoyed by an opportunistic Adam Larsson goal and a power-play goal from Jared McCann—and then bungled the 3-on-3 OT period, as they did against the Minnesota Wild last week (the last time they went to OT).
The point is valuable and puts the Kraken two points clear of the idle San Jose Sharks for third place in the Pacific Division. But as coach Lane Lambert said after the game, Seattle left “something on the table” in this one.
Here are Three Takeaways from a low-energy, low-event 3-2 Kraken loss to the Devils.
Takeaway 1: Another early goal against
The Kraken have seen an uncomfortable trend emerge recently, giving up the first goal early in games. In fact, it has happened in each of the last four contests—three times with Philipp Grubauer in net and once with Joey Daccord.
Against Minnesota on Thursday, Ryan Hartman scored first at the 5:00 mark. At Carolina on Saturday, Logan Stankoven scored at 3:23. Against the New York Rangers on Monday, Mika Zibanejad scored at 3:08, followed by Sam Carrick at 5:31.
And on Wednesday in New Jersey, a Dougie Hamilton shot from the point was tipped on the way in, leaving an easy tap-in for Cody Glass on the rebound. That goal came immediately following a defensive-zone face-off and put the Kraken back to chasing just 54 seconds into the game.
#SeaKraken trailing early, yet again. Dougie Hamilton's shot got deflected, which led to an easy Cody Glass rebound goal.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 15, 2026
1-0. Goal came just 54 seconds in. pic.twitter.com/KKmMg72p5N
While the Kraken have consistently rallied back in each of these games, they’re still just 1-1-2 over that stretch. Zooming out, they’ve done a pretty good job of scoring first this season, but they need to nip this recent early-goal trend in the bud before it turns into a larger—and more damaging—issue.
Takeaway 2: Another bad OT period
After what was easily Seattle’s worst overtime performance of the season against the Wild on Thursday, the Kraken looked only marginally better in the extra frame this time and came away with the same result.
New Jersey controlled the puck for almost the entire 3:42 of overtime, leading up to Nico Hischier’s second goal of the game and the game-winner. Jordan Eberle did have two looks after a fortunate bounce deep in the Devils’ end but couldn’t convert, and Vince Dunn also had a chance just before the deciding goal against.
Unfortunately for Dunn—who also assisted on both Kraken goals in this game—he picked exactly the wrong time to go for a line change.
#SeaKraken lose 3-2 after another very sloppy overtime period.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 15, 2026
Vince Dunn picked a bad time to change here, which sent Nico Hischier on a partial breakaway. Second goal of the game for Hischier.
Kraken back to work tomorrow in Boston. pic.twitter.com/6kfvhDLikS
You can see how he made the decision. Eberle appeared to have Hischier covered, and Matty Beniers was also back, so from Dunn’s perspective there was sufficient coverage for a quick change. But the timing was off, with New Jersey having just gotten possession. Making matters worse, just as Dunn headed for the bench, Eberle switched sides to chase Jack Hughes, leaving a clear lane for Hischier up the ice. Hughes hit Hischier with a cross-ice pass, and he was off to the races, deking and beating Grubauer for the 3-2 final.
Takeaway 3: McCann/Wright/Catton line is cooking
The only line that produced anything on this night was the third line of Jared McCann, Shane Wright, and Berkly Catton. That trio has really been humming lately, and on Catton’s 20th birthday, they connected once again.
Eight minutes after Glass gave the Devils an early lead, McCann took a perfect stretch pass from Dunn that put New Jersey’s defenders on their heels. Wright drove to the net and pushed New Jersey back, and McCann tried a quick feed to Catton racing down the opposite wing but fanned on the puck. Instead of panicking or forcing the issue, McCann reset and laid it back for a trailing Adam Larsson, who skated into it and ripped a shot over Jacob Markstrom to tie the game 1-1 at 8:55 of the first period.
THE BIG CAT! 🦁
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 15, 2026
Jared McCann whiffed on his initial pass to Berkly Catton, so Catton went to the net, and McCann passed to a trailing Adam Larsson instead. Larsson rips it home with Catton at the goalmouth.
1-1 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/p3DhTXcLIT
McCann also scored a power-play goal, cleaning up a Dunn rebound just five seconds into a man-advantage opportunity to tie the game 2-2 at 5:06 of the second. With his goal and assist Wednesday, McCann now has 10 points (5-5—10) in 10 games since returning from injury on Dec. 28.
He’s been a nice, steadying presence for the young players he’s skating with, and they seem to be working off each other well. Catton, in particular, was especially good in this game and seems to be gaining more and more confidence with every outing alongside McCann.
With Chandler Stephenson returning to the lineup Wednesday after the birth of his third child, I was surprised that Jacob Melanson was the player Lambert chose to scratch. After all, he had seemed to be a catalyst in getting this team moving back in the right direction when he was inserted onto the fourth line a few weeks ago.
Given that they played what Lambert called a “slow” game against the Devils, one has to imagine Melanson will be back in the lineup Thursday in Boston, on a night when the Bruins will be highly motivated and Seattle will have to wait around for Zdeno Chara’s No. 33 to be lifted to the rafters in a pregame ceremony.
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.
12 minutes a game for Wright + Catton ain’t gonna cut it. Team needs to get serious. The default to the vets is exasperating
What’s frustrating is how far the puck handling on breakouts has slipped for this team. It directly holds down their SOG and scoring chances. It seems like most teams the Kraken play show better puck management but nobody who covers the team seems to bring it up. It’s an obvious weakness and shows lack of focus.
Fans need to be serious and stop whining about ice time. I see zero evidence of defaulting to vets. They are defaulting to roe best chance to win. Catton is looking better but he’s a mistake machine some nights.
Oof.
I fell asleep it was so boring. No 4th line action. This is on LL. Melanson was the fire. They still got a point, which was surprising.
Great hockey game. Tightly fought. If you told me in Oct we would be going into NJ and getting a point, I am OK with it.
I will say…the absence of Melanson was palpable. I would play Meli over Wints. That said, if you have a disciplined structure and the right players, it shouldn’t matter.
Go Kraken!!
No one knows, but Melanson in that game and we’re winning. NJ seems a little soft.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Melanson in Boston tomorrow. That’s going to be an emotional game. Maybe we are just resting him for that contest.
BTW, where the F is Chuck Holmes? He doesn’t have much to say when The Kraken are getting points.
Maybe it makes his brain hurt.
I’m becoming convinced that your list of favorite things includes C-SPAN, data entry and sitting in traffic.
Haha. Well, I have a hard time understanding what some Seattle fans expect from their hockey team. From what I can gather, it is a mythical team made of only elite 20-25 year olds who somehow navigate an 82 game season always in a top 4 playoff position without any veterans who have been there and can help guide them. Of course, our young players don’t need that. And of course, we should be able to sign any players we want and hire any coaches we want. It’s basically a video game.
Maybe it’s been going on all along but I was amazed at the number of pick and rolls New Jersey ran in OT. It really doesn’t seem like Seattle does the same thing.
Some of my observations from last night:
– It won’t happen but I hope Gaudreau sits tonight in Boston. He’s looked sluggish and slow to react for the last handful of games.
– Jack Hughes sure goes down to the ice easy.
– Cale Fleury is doing a lot of little things right as of now. It’s good to see him rewarded with ice time.
I think we all realize that there was zero spark and we all know who has been providing that lately. I would also like to see Kartye play tonight and sit one of the veteran players. Schwartz has played rather tentatively since his return, so maybe him or someone who needs a maintenance day.
Stephenson returns, and sure enough, his line goes back to getting absolutely slaughtered. Loses a faceoff, misses an assignment, and then goal against on his very first shift. I guess we should be thankful he got only 15 minutes of ice time? Then yeah, of course he must start overtime, which goes about how you’d exoect. But yeah, keep sitting the young guy with real energy and upside and play the slow, loafing, washed up, tired veteran. Because, yeah, um, little things.
This hast to be the dumbest take on that first goal against and on Stephenson as a whole. Is work on learning how to parse the game. May save you from the taste of shoe leather in the future.
…or on the PP in the second Stephenson wins the faceoff to Dunn and BOOM! to Eberle to McCann and just like that… tied 2-2.
This whole Stephenson thing – all of it – is soooo tired.
Again the shots and scoring chances we had were way too low, this system is so boring. 😴
I don’t like what has been done to our 4th line. They were fantastic just scratch someone else or make a trade. If you have something working stick with it.
Tough overtime loss, but it was a hard-fought game and could’ve gone either way. The Kraken showed real պայք and moments of strong control throughout. Games like this almost feel like agario—one small shift can change everything in an instant.