Three Takeaways – Kraken stumble of out post-Olympic gates, lose 4-1 to Stars

Well, that wasn’t the post-Olympic start the Kraken wanted, but it also wasn’t terribly surprising.

Facing an outstanding Dallas Stars team that has had their number, the Kraken just didn’t generate much offensively and didn’t seem to be firing on all cylinders. And although their defensive structure looked decent for much of the night, pucks still found their way into the back of Seattle’s net, while the team struggled to solve Casey DeSmith—who continues to be a massive thorn in the Kraken’s side this season.

“We failed to execute on a lot of different situations,” coach Lane Lambert said. “For whatever reason, apparently we had a pass-first mentality instead of a shoot-first mentality. That just doesn’t work with our hockey team. There’s no excuse for it, there’s no reason for it. We’ve got to be better.”

Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-1 Kraken loss to the Stars.

Takeaway 1: Ice tilted, but also some bad bounces

The Kraken shouldn’t get too big of a pass for how that game played out. Dallas was undoubtedly the better team, and Seattle mustered just three shots in the first period and six in the second.

“We had opportunities to shoot the puck, and we didn’t, that’s just the bottom line. We need to get more pucks to the net,” Lambert said. “It certainly wasn’t our game, and certainly not the way we want to play and not the way we had been playing before the break.”

But…

I didn’t think the effort was that bad. While the offensive side left plenty to be desired, the team—and its goaltender—defended better than the four goals against by the 6:14 mark of the second period might suggest.

Joey Daccord and the Kraken simply got some bad bounces. Three of the four goals against—both of Wyatt Johnston’s tallies and Matt Duchene’s—came off redirections of shots that would have missed the net. That’s not to say they weren’t legitimate goals; Dallas did exactly what good teams do by getting traffic to the front and getting sticks on pucks. But it wasn’t as if the Kraken were throwing pizza pies into the slot or repeatedly blowing assignments.

Despite the four goals against and a .875 save percentage, Daccord looked sharp and came up with a few spectacular stops to keep things from getting more out of hand.

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Enormous save by Joey Daccord on Jason Robertson in the last minute of the 1st period to keep the #SeaKraken deficit at 1-0.

Seattle had two power-play opportunities in the frame but came up empty. Got outshot 11-3, though the period didn't *feel* that lopsided. pic.twitter.com/A1XJJ03Mko

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) February 26, 2026

The result wasn’t there. The execution wasn’t there. But it wasn’t a total structural collapse, either.

Takeaway 2: Tye Kartye is the odd man out

Lambert alluded last week to the fact that Seattle was going to have a roster decision to make upon returning to action.

The last time the team faced a numbers crunch while nearly fully healthy, the front office elected to send Jacob Melanson to the Coachella Valley Firebirds, since he was one of just three players—along with Shane Wright and Ryan Winterton—who could be sent to the AHL without requiring waivers.

With Berkly Catton and Ben Meyers both returning from injured reserve Wednesday, making the Kraken fully “healthy” (except for Matt Murray, who remains on IR), it was somewhat surprising to see Tye Kartye no longer listed on the Kraken’s official roster.

His removal suggests he will likely appear on waivers Thursday when the NHL processes its transactions. Once placed on waivers, teams around the league will have 24 hours to claim him. If no one does, he can report to Coachella Valley.

It’s something I’ve wondered about for a while this season. Melanson has shown he brings an edge and seems to be a better fit for the fourth-line grinder role that Kartye has occupied for much of his NHL career to date.

Here’s hoping nobody claims Kartye.

Takeaway 3: Ryan Lindgren injured

Former Kraken forward Colin Blackwell had a rough start to the night, getting dropped like a bad habit while trying to lay a check on the much bigger Jamie Oleksiak in the opening minutes.

On his next shift, Ryan Lindgren caught him with a thunderous hit that sent both players crashing hard to the ice.

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Goodness, gracious. Tough start to this game for Colin Blackwell.

He gets leveled by Ryan Lindgren, and both players have since gone down their respective tunnels. #SeaKraken https://t.co/XaEy8RPSUG pic.twitter.com/rPEpUAjOt0

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) February 26, 2026

In the end, though, it was Lindgren who got the worst of the collision.

Blackwell briefly went down the tunnel but returned and finished the game. Lindgren stayed on the bench momentarily before heading to the locker room and did not return.

Replay showed Lindgren’s knee smashing hard into the ice, and the medical staff was working on his leg on the bench before he exited. If I had to guess, that’s likely the injury area.

Lindgren’s exit put things into flux for the Kraken, who had to roll five defensemen for almost the entire game after the injury occurred on Lindgren’s second shift of the game.

He is a tough customer, so it takes a lot to knock him out of a game. That suggests he could miss some time, which would open the door for Cale Fleury or Josh Mahura to re-enter the lineup.

It would be unfortunate if the Kraken were to lose Kartye via waiver claim and then have to place Lindgren on IR—an injury that, had it happened 24 hours earlier, might have eliminated the need to expose Kartye in the first place.

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The Kraken wrap up the second leg of their back-to-back Thursday in St. Louis. That might be a good opportunity to flush this one quickly.