The Seattle Kraken dropped their second game in as many nights, falling 5-1 to the St. Louis Blues.
St. Louis came out firing. The Blues put eight shots on net, rang two shot off the posts and got a goal from Dylan Holloway before Seattle even registered a shot. Holloway later added a second-period goal and an empty-netter to complete the hat trick.
After the opening goal, Seattle pushed back. Kaapo Kakko scored the equalizer to make it 1-1. The Kraken then outshot the Blues 10-3 over the next stretch.
That momentum did not carry into the second period, however. St. Louis scored twice in the first 95 seconds and never looked back. Philipp Grubauer made several strong saves to keep the game close, but the offense never followed.
Here are three takeaways:
Takeaway 1: Top line?
Jared McCann, Matty Beniers and captain Jordan Eberle form Seattle’s top line. You would not have known it in this one.
The trio recorded zero shots at five-on-five despite leading the team in ice time. McCann has 22 points since the calendar turned to 2026. Beniers has 14, and Eberle has 13. Still, the line went scoreless for the second straight game.
Pointless nights happen. But generating no memorable chances against a team ranked 31st in the league is more concerning.
Per MoneyPuck, the line produced just 0.131 expected goals, the lowest of Seattle’s four lines. Shane Wright’s line led the way at 0.750. Chandler Stephenson’s group posted 0.488, followed by Ben Meyers’ line at 0.430.
Before the Olympic break, Seattle averaged 3.53 goals per game in 2026. One goal in each of the last two games will not win consistently. The offense needs to get rolling again.
Takeaway 2: Starting slow
For the second straight game, Seattle looked slow out of the gate. The intensity was not there early.
On offense, the Kraken forced passes instead of putting pucks on net. With the Kraken trailing, the situation called for a sustained push and a focus on getting pucks to the net front, but that push never materialized. Instead, Seattle committed 18 turnovers and stalled its own momentum.
The Blues controlled the first eight minutes and scored first. Seattle responded to tie the game, but the second period opened with two quick goals against. St. Louis struck again in the opening minute of the third. Those early goals in each period halted any comeback before it could begin.
Takeaway 3: Powerplay blanked
After going 0-4 on the power play against Dallas, Seattle finished 0-3 against St. Louis. The unit is now 0-7 since the break.
The Kraken generated five shots and just 0.08 expected goals across six minutes of power-play time. Quality chances were nearly nonexistent.
Seattle still converts at 22.4 percent on the season, which ranks 11th in the NHL. This is a two-game sample, but the Kraken powerplay looked slightly out of sync, which made it difficult to connect on one-timers and get pucks on net.
On to the next
St. Louis entered the night ranked 31st in the league, but the Blues gave the Kraken more than they could handle and clearly looked like the better team.
On Saturday, Seattle faces Vancouver, which sits 32nd in the NHL. If there is a lesson from this loss, it is simple. Rankings do not matter if the team is not ready at puck drop.
The Kraken return home looking to reset. Two losses to start the post-Olympic stretch are not ideal, but the Kraken still hold the final wild card spot. The response now matters more than the stumble, especially with a home crowd ready to push them and help fuel that home-ice advantage.
Leave any comments or questions below.
Blaiz Grubic
Blaiz Grubic is a contributor at Sound Of Hockey. A passionate hockey fan and player for over 30 years, Blaiz grew up in the Pacific Northwest and is an alumni of Washington State University (Go Cougs!). When he’s not playing, watching, or writing about hockey, he enjoys quality time with his wife and daughter or getting out on a golf course for a quick round. Follow @blaizg on BlueSky or X.
Put a fork in them, they’re done. Trade deadline is in one week. Sell the vets, bring up some hungry kids and start giving them chances to play in situations they need to play in to reach their potential. Not particularly impressed with Lane Lambert’s abiliity to inspire, either.
100%. The FO is clearly in job survival mode and making decisions not in the best long term interest of this organization. Sell the vets, clear the cap space, play the kids, clean house and commit to building this team the proper way.
I’ve watched about 70% of all Kraken games in their lifetime and this is the least enjoyable team they’ve ever had. I am tired of Lambert and think he was a bad hire.
I’m seriously considering canceling my season tickets which I’ve had since day one. This system is not worth the expense and effort it takes to go to a game. If I saw some plan in place it would be different but LL hockey just sucks to watch.
I hope I’m proven wrong but I expect a buy move. Ownership sees 50% playoff odds and wants a vet that fits LL’s system.
I do think/hope that they are smart enough not to move Wright, I expect it will be for draft picks.
How many times have we seen this? Slow starts, no shots, and overpassing? I find it hard to believe that all 3 (3!!!) of our coaching staffs over 5 years can be the ones to blame. Players were a turnover machine last night too. When this team is gelling, they are a super competitive group. When they stink (and look pathetic against the really bad teams) man, they sure know how to suck the joy outta things. Saturday night could be an ugly scene if the ‘Nuks outplay them.
Only thing entertaining last night was Edzo’s and Johnny’s banter during the game that was not about the game at all. If they dont turn it around quick we might be seeing the last games with Oleksiak, Eberle, Tolvanen, and Schwartz in Kraken sweaters.
Right! At one point talking about hot dogs, ice cream, some old friend named Abner .. see how much they talked about non hockey stuff? Entertaining for sure but it’s too bad they couldn’t talk about what was happening on the ice.
The only thing working in the Kraken’s favor since the return…as bad as they’ve been, LA has been even worse.
Three games and one week until the trade deadline. Yeesh!
Don’t challenge the Kraken. They might rise to that occasion.
For God’s sake, stop f’ing around and bring back Melanson. He’s the only player who consistently has his head in the right place. I don’t care if he’s not the best. Right now he’s better than anyone we’ve got out there.
Watching them salt away all those PP minutes playing hot potato fries my brain.
I’m so disappointed with the coaching decisions. Their system is like watching paint dry, that is why we’re off to slow starts LL thinks he soooo smart he can just sit there and play chess instead of letting the team play hockey.
Seriously we ditch Karts and scratch Melly!!!! We extend Ben!!!! What the F’ing heck is LL even thinking. The statement from Eddie was pretty clear… the team needs guys like Melly and Kartye bring energy to the game. He said this the same day that we ditched Kartye… Eddie is telling us he doesn’t agree with the coaching decisions. He also had another interesting statement. If dumping the puck isn’t working… he pauses. Well then the players have to make a decision to do something else and stop giving the puck away. Eddie is smart enough to know that the puck dumping was the coaching staff’s game plan and he pretty clearly said the players should ignore the game plan if it’s not working.
My question is why did they put Kartye out onto waivers only to turn around and scratch Melanson (who is waiver-exempt)?
The only acceptable explanation would be that Kartye asked to be moved because he wants to play somewhere rather than ride the bench. With the NYR presumably continuing their fire sale, the opportunity should be there. If Trocek and Lafrieniere are dealt, it might even be a chance to escape fourth line purgatory.
…or, they don’t see a future in Seattle for Kartye with all of the young forwards rhey have and this was a chance to shed his $1.25m one-way salary over the remainder of this season and all of next season. If that was their think, it worked.
Yeah I can totally see that, seems like a total waste of money for a 4th line physical player that has speed and can shoot the puck. What we seriously need is more players like Meyers, that older vet that barely is capable of playing in the nhl. That’s clearly the way to go, sign him for two years so we don’t have room for all these young players like Karts that we just gave away.
You’re totally right Kartye was just a road block for all these young players 4th line players who we have ready for the jump into 8 minutes a game. Also what a total waste of money for a 4th line player, 1.25 it’s just laughable that they would even think about spending that kind of money on a player like Karts. Meyers though he’s our missing piece for a serious cup run on so glad we locked him up, so glad that we saved that 1.25 so we could get it done.
…but he’s not a fourth liner and Meyers plays center.
Kartye isn’t a 4th liner? What alternative would are you living in? Kartye is exactly the player you want on your 4th line, something Eddie pointed out yesterday.
We need more centers on the Kraken, that makes total sense. Last count was 5 playing last night alone with options on the farm and jurors not more than a few years away. Yeah we need more centers like a hole in our heads.
Maybe what you meant to say is we need more veteran no skill centers with no real upside?
On this team Kartye is a fifth liner. Yes, we have too many centers… what a shame. What they don’t need is Kartye sitting in the press box. He can’t play up the lineup and doesn’t seem to be outplaying Melanson and the idea of keeping him instead of Meyers makes no sense.
So by Melanson you’re referring to the guy scratched last night?
Kartye and Melanson should not be competing with each other or anyone else in the lineup for a spot on the 4th line. That line looked best when they played together.
What should be happening is guys on the second and third lines should be fighting for roster spots. This is the fundamental problem with the kraken and the way they are built and who’s in charge of setting our lineup. We have way too many middling players, we’re trying to run a second line and three third lines.
Our coach sees no value in anything other than guys that know how to dump pucks and clog up the slot. Clog the slot in our own end that is.
Honestly they should have traded “insert an aging vet here” built a proper 4th line that could bring some energy that we so badly need. Screw this slow methodical boring BS hockey that’s being forced on us. Screw LL and his BS system. Screw the front office for continuing to overpay for middling players and not being able to build a proper roster.
I’m a little concerned that we’re going to trade a young player for another overpaid aging vet by Friday. I feel we’ve now seen the future of the franchise and it seems like it looks just like this. Take a snapshot and come back in three years, bet we’re in exactly the same boat.