That was not the outcome Seattle Kraken fans were looking for in what was ostensibly a critical pre-Olympic game against the division rival Anaheim Ducks. Seattle ultimately lost 4-2, but it was worse than the score indicated, with the Kraken mounting a too-little-too-late push in the closing minutes after falling behind 4-0 in the third period.
The second period turned the tide of the game, and things went from bad to worse early in the third. By the time Seattle started to push, the mountain was simply too high to climb, giving Anaheim a leg up for third place in the Pacific Division.
Jordan Eberle and Shane Wright scored late in the third, and Philipp Grubauer made several dazzling saves—finishing with 27 stops—but also had a couple of blunders that proved costly.
Here are Three Takeaways from a painful 4-2 Kraken loss to the Ducks.
Takeaway 1: Second-period struggles
When the Kraken have gotten through the first period tied 0-0, they’ve generally fared well this season. That wasn’t the case here.
Matty Beniers took a holding penalty just 1:56 into the second period. Seattle’s penalty kill did its job, but as Beniers stepped back onto the ice, Cutter Gauthier slapped at a bouncing puck from the top of the right circle, and the shot eluded Grubauer to make it 1-0 at 4:01.
Cutter Gauthier breaks the ice, as he did the last time these teams played each other.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) February 4, 2026
Not officially a power-play goal, but it came seconds after Matty Beniers left the box.
1-0 Ducks. pic.twitter.com/RtfFOLpMQq
From there, Anaheim seized control of the momentum for much of the middle frame.
The real turning point came late in the period, though, after Seattle tilted the ice the other way and had the Ducks on the ropes. Anaheim was hemmed in for nearly a minute and a half and clearly exhausted, with forward Jeffrey Viel limping on one leg after blocking a shot. The Ryan Winterton–Chandler Stephenson–Eeli Tolvanen line was relentless, firing pucks on net and recovering rebounds. Even when the Ducks briefly gained possession, Seattle stole it right back.
The Kraken were in the middle of a change when Shane Wright jumped on the ice and continued the attack, but his attempted low-to-high pass misfired, exited the zone, and ended the sequence.
Just over a minute later, Jacob Trouba scored with a seeing-eye shot through traffic to make it 2-0 with only 32 seconds left in the period. That goal was a killer, and the Kraken failing to capitalize on that extended pressure likely cost them the game.
Takeaway 2: An odd night for Grubauer
For large stretches of the game, Grubauer was sharp and was a big reason Seattle got through the first period unscathed. But it was also one of those familiar nights of yesteryear where strong play was undermined by a couple confusing goals that make you stop and ask whether they should have gone in.
Gauthier’s goal looked stoppable, though it came on a broken play that appeared to catch Grubauer off guard. Alex Killorn’s goal 24 seconds into the third, which effectively put the game out of reach at 3-0, was tougher to grasp. Grubauer appeared to be reading a pass across the slot and lifted his left leg to push laterally, opening his five-hole. Killorn found it.
Alex Killorn makes it 3-0 just 24 seconds into the 3rd.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) February 4, 2026
That's a tough one for Grubi… #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/7gY9CevkVe
The worst moment came at 13:54 of the third, when Grubauer took his eye off a rimmed puck behind the net, which hopped over his stick and eventually left Ross Johnston with an open cage.
Salt in the wound for the #SeaKraken. Grubauer takes his eye off the puck and mishandles it, and Ross Johnston ends up with an open net.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) February 4, 2026
4-0 pic.twitter.com/UAQHgetqLS
There was certainly some bad luck mixed in—Grubauer tracked pucks well for much of the night and made several stops he probably shouldn’t have made—but the mishaps in this one were damaging.
Takeaway 3: Melanson catches Terry
One reason Jacob Melanson has quickly endeared himself to Kraken fans is that his physical play has generally come in the “right way.” He plays hard, makes opponents uncomfortable, and hasn’t taken many penalties.
Late in the second period, though—perhaps in an effort to spark something—Melanson flattened Troy Terry, who was playing his first game back from injury. Replay showed Melanson’s elbow coming up, delivering his first regular-season hit that crossed into questionable territory. (It’s worth remembering Melanson was suspended for a head shot in a preseason game back in 2022.)
Oh, boy. Melanson catches Troy Terry up high right at the 2nd horn, and all hell breaks loose. 😬
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) February 4, 2026
Could be an interesting 3rd… #SeaKraken #FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/DFHE7Wc0Ay
Melanson was assessed a 10-minute misconduct and, notably, did not take another shift after exiting the box in the third period. It remains unclear why he didn’t return to the ice.
—
This was a brutal loss given the opportunity Seattle had to create separation in the standings against Anaheim. Now sitting in the final wild-card spot, the Kraken head to Los Angeles on Wednesday with a chance to claw back into third place before the Olympic break—or risk falling out of the playoff picture altogether.
That game is enormous.
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.
Ouch!
Anaheim a very young team and the older legs of Seattle could not compete.. Even if Seattle gets a wild card, they will be hard pressed to win a series against a top team. Time to trade the old legs and slow brains.
Seems Anaheim also has quite a few older players. Trouba, Kreider, Gudas, Strome, Johnston and Granlund.
Once Anaheim upgrade the vets they brought in as stand ins and props during the rebuild years and their young core of talented and exciting players gain experience they will have a real team.
Anaheim this season have 84 goals from players aged 22 and younger. The Kraken have less than 20 goals from players aged 22 and younger and exactly one core player under the age of 24, Matty Beniers. The farm isn’t exactly brimming with exciting talent either. This is the situation in year five of the expansion for a team supposed to be “built through the draft”.
One of these teams has an exciting future and that team sure as hell is not the Kraken, who continue to merely exist in the doldrums of this league, slipping into the playoffs on a banana peel or not. At this stage the Kraken should have an exciting young core of their own and they simply do not.
They remind me a lot of the 16/17 Leafs.
I guess you mean Anaheim.
Who does the Kraken remind you of? (I hope you didn’t mean the Kraken because I want no association with the cursed Leafs whatsoever…)
No, of course not Seattle, Anaheim. Matthews, Nylander, Marner… all very young and scoring lots of goals. Got them into the playoffs for the first time in a very long time that season. Clearly the Ducks have a great opportunity in front of them, we’ll just have to see how they manage it.
As far as who Seattle reminds me of, it’s a little tricky because they’re still transitioning from being an expansion team. The team I’d say is closest, to me, may be the current Red Wings. They’ve been a bit unlucky with the draft but they’ve also developed players well and made good picks with what they’ve had. Obviously, Seider is on another level and so is Larkin, but those guys are a bit older. Sometimes it takes a while. Yzerman , I think, comes as close to being worshipped in Detroit as a mortal can be and it sounds to me like they were ready to run him out of town if they missed again this season. I see some similarities between these two “builds”. I think the biggest difference is Stevie Y went full “tear down” and I think Francis and company are doing more of a “transition”. Given the lack of a legacy in Seattle, the Kraken may not have had an honest alternative.
I think a lot hinges on two things now. First, can they add that top-line scoring winger everyone has been chattering about? Second, next season. It’s true Seattle doesn’t have the young “playmakers” Anaheim does, but they still have high quality young players, lots of young depth and their cap is in great shape going into the offseason.
This season is definitely, to me, an improvement over last season. Can they add? Can their young guys take a step? Dunno. If you’re living game to game with this team, I think it may be a rough ride ahead.
One loss and ole’ Wittmont is back with their wisdom. Well done.
I have bad news. Every team in the league will be losing games before the season ends, including your Ducks.
All you have is insults since you lack meaningful arguments.
Let me give you an example of an “argument” with someone like you.
Rational person: “if the Kraken are as awful as you suggest, how do you explain them being in 3rd in the division and beating LA away on a back to back after a very tough game against a tough Ducks team?”
Wittmont: “They just got lucky. The reason they are in 3rd is everyone else is bad. LA doesn’t have any elite players other than Kopitar (he’s old), Fialla (he’s Swiss), Kempe (he had a bad game) and Doughty (also old). Kraken are still terrible and Ron Francis sucks. I can’t actually explain why Seattle wins hockey games.”
I (sort of) feel like it was okay for Gru to have that blunder. The offense wasn’t making any points.
The looked half asleep and sloppy. So many take aways AND give aways, bad passes. Even Monty looked bad. I wonder if they have a hard time rising to the occasion when it’s a game they need to win? Kinda looks like it.
They were only dominated for 35 minutes instead of 40, so that’s progress?
Its funny how quickly people’s opinion can quickly pivot but this team has been streaky so it feels like a tale of extreme highs and lows for fans during the season. If we win tonight that is 2 out 3 games on the road trip which seems like a successful result.
That 2nd goal definitely seemed to be the dagger that swung the game. We had them hemmed for an extended period and had started to shift the momentum, and then gave one up which really seemed to kill the team. It was nice they pushed hard at the end of the game and prevented a shutout and made it interesting. It could have been really exciting if Stephenson’s shot had been 2″ to the right and deflected in off that post.
I am wonder if LL held Melanson out because it was unlikely he would win us the game but there was a risk it would devolve into chaos if the Ducks tried to get retribution. Is it smarter to sit your 4th line guy so that we don’t not run the risk of setting something off by rolling him out there. Remember Marchment’s behavior caused a scrum and that directly led to Monty hurting his hand and missing a month. We aren’t exactly a team built around toughness.
To be fair, my opinion of the team hasn’t changed. I just thought they looked awful. They can hopefully have a better effort against Kings
The playoffs seem so far away with a third of the season left. I can’t imagine that game was worth more than a 5% swing either way. I’ll start caring about the playoffs in April. For now we live in the painful land of mediocrity, where every 2-3 game trend in one direction will be superseded by another trend in the other direction.
My only real concern is worrying if there is truth to the Shane Wright rumors. We can’t possibly be dumb enough to trade him to try earn the right to get smoked in the first round of the playoffs, right?
I don’t think they’re looking for a playoff “rental” – they’re looking for a long-term top-line scoring weapon. If someone they’re targeting for the future is available now, they need to jump on them so another team doesn’t lock them up, regardless of playoff status for this season. I don’t expect they’re going to be making a short-term acquisition.
It would be nice to see Mahura take a turn for Oleksiak.
this game was such a stinker. we just couldnt get anything going. cant wait go get catton back.
How does last night’s game inform the with/without Melanson debate?
12-6-2? He’s still young, and I like the team better with him in the lineup.
All you have to do is listen to Larsson’s comments in the first intermission of the LA game.
Good news, bad news…
Panarin not going to Seattle.
The bad news… he’s going to Kings.
At least he won’t be in the lineup tonight.
Prediction: They will still be energized by the trade and will crush the kraken.
You can always hope…
It seems obvious there’s difference between a prediction and a hope. Between wanting a team to win and honestly believing they are good enough to win. But a lot fans don’t seem to grasp this difference.
Well then I guess you must be excited they were good enough to win tonight.
Go Kraken!!!
LOL. Maybe you should just try watching a hockey game and see what happens. Predicting…believing…hoping…these are childish ways to deal with things that don’t exist.
More to ponder on. This from PHR:
“David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported that the Seattle Kraken made a strong effort to acquire the superstar, offering him an extension in the 3-4 year range, worth what Pagnotta said is “north” of $12MM per year. The contract could have doubled term compared to what Panarin promptly signed with Los Angeles, a two-year extension worth $11MM each year.”
Thank you Panarin for saving us from our own FO.
So depressing on multiple levels. Our front office was dumb enough to make this deal, and a player will give up millions rather than play in Seattle for this organization.
“David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported”
Lel. Kek even. Isn’t it lovely that sports journalists routinely cite a guy whose entire function is to spew hot takes about trade rumors? I miss the days when sports writers at least pretended to have some measure of integrity.
Thank gawd we aren’t getting Panarin. Last thing we need.