That was a massive win for the Seattle Kraken, who knocked off the second-best (now third-best) team in the NHL thanks to a complete, full-team, 60-minute effort that featured opportunistic scoring, staunch defending, and outstanding goaltending.
The Carolina Hurricanes played exactly the game we expected from them, tilting the ice for long stretches and throwing the kitchen sink at Joey Daccord. But the Kraken’s structured defense was nearly perfect on the night, and when it wasn’t, their goaltender bailed them out almost every time.
Considering Carolina had won five straight and was 10-0-2 in its previous 12, this was something of an unexpected victory for Seattle. Not only was it a big win because of the opponent, it also vaulted the Kraken past Edmonton for third place in the Pacific Division and gave them a five-point cushion over San Jose, Nashville, and Los Angeles for the final wild-card spot.
Here are Three Takeaways from a memorable 2-1 Kraken win over the Hurricanes.
Takeaway 1: The Big Rig game
Was that the best game Jamie Oleksiak has ever played as a Kraken?
Despite his massive frame, I don’t recall him ever looking downright scary to opposing players trying to enter the Seattle zone—but he did in this one against Carolina. The Big Rig finished with 11 hits, a new career high.
“He was outstanding,” Daccord said of Oleksiak. “He’s just such a beast. He’s an absolute beast, he’s a warrior, blocking shots, I thought he had a great stick tonight. He made so many good plays tonight, and then obviously just burying guys too.”
Plus, when the Kraken were forced to kill a 6-on-4 situation over the final 1:29 of the game, he came up with a critical shot block, then won a puck battle to get it out of danger and briefly relieve pressure.
Two of his biggest hits—one on Taylor Hall with 22 seconds left in the first period and another on Seth Jarvis with 14 minutes remaining in the third—indirectly led to scoring chances going the other way.
As we were saying…
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) March 3, 2026
Now Oleksiak steps up and absolutely blasts Seth Jarvis, who was slow to get up and hobbled to the bench.
Jarvis staying on the bench so far. #SeaKraken https://t.co/cVh8vgDZwr pic.twitter.com/1kMEm3jtgy
If Oleksiak played like that every night, he’d be one of the most feared and dominant shutdown defensemen in the sport.
“I just thought he was hard,” Lambert said. “I think there’s games where he’s equally as hard. Maybe the hits don’t show up, necessarily, on the score sheet so much. But his presence, and certainly his presence around the net in the defensive zone for us tonight was huge.”
Takeaway 2: Joey was excellent, too
It’s true Seattle’s defensive structure was mostly airtight in this game, with many of Carolina’s attempts coming from the outside. But you don’t win a game in which you’re outshot 36-15 without a special night from your goalie.
Daccord was visibly dialed in from the opening face-off. There weren’t many acrobatic saves—largely because he was square to shooters and the Kraken kept chances to the perimeter—but his play reading, puck tracking, and rebound control were excellent.
The home crowd chanted Joey’s name multiple times throughout the night—rightfully so—and he earned first-star honors.
“A big thing with playing a shot volume team [like Carolina] is just controlling your rebounds,” Daccord said. “Because they’re going to try to just get pucks in that create chaos, so if I can suck up pucks, get a lot of whistles, put pucks in the corner, that helps our D a lot in terms of just killing their motion in the offensive zone and resetting the play with a D-zone drop.”
There were brief stretches this season when it felt fair to wonder whether Daccord would rediscover the elite form that endeared him to fans last year. He appears to have found it. He’s now won six of his last seven starts, dating back to Jan. 25.
This is a very good time for Daccord to be playing his best hockey.
Takeaway 3: Critical goals at critical times
Seattle did an excellent job keeping the game low-scoring, but you still have to capitalize when opportunities arise.
The Kraken appeared to score three goals but were only credited with two after a beautiful give-and-go between Jaden Schwartz and Kaapo Kakko was overturned on an offside challenge.
That play came at 7:57 of the second period, with Seattle already holding a 1-0 lead thanks to Kakko’s icebreaker on a 2-on-1 with Berkly Catton. The overturned goal could have deflated the group—but instead, the Kraken responded with a crucial tally from their fourth line.
The sequence started with Jacob Melanson doing Jacob Melanson things in the defensive zone. After Daccord rimmed the puck around the boards, Melanson beat Sebastian Aho to it, absorbed contact against the wall, and protected the puck long enough to slide it to Adam Larsson, who quickly transitioned play up ice.
“‘Mel’ made a great play on the wall, got it to ‘Lars’ in the middle,” Meyers said. “He just moved it quick to me, I got it to Freddy, and then just drove the net. I was able to put her home after a great pass from Freddy too.”
B-B-B-BEN MMMMEYERS! 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) March 3, 2026
It starts with a physical, hard-nosed play in the defensive zone by Melanson. Gaudreau feeds Meyers, who sticks with it and gets a good bounce.
2-0 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/zcKAMZt55u
Meyers’ finish wasn’t pretty, but it counted—and it ended up being the game-winner after Nikolaj Ehlers cut the lead to 2-1 late in the second.
From there, it was defend, defend, defend until the fans counted the Kraken down to the final horn, after which Daccord was mobbed by his teammates.
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.
That game was so much about finding/making space. Carolina was smothering Seattle throughout the first period. Any time a Kraken player had the puck, they seemed to be swarmed and surrounded by 2-4 guys in white.
The players who were ultimately successful in getting through that were either able to find the open space (Kakko and Catton) or plow their way through it (Meyers, Melanson and Oleksiak).
Excellent job by Joey stopping pucks and controlling rebounds. He also appeared to be playing the puck a bit more conservatively behind the net. I’d love to know how much of that was strategy going into the game based on scouting Carolina’s style of play or adjusting in real-time to respond to Carolina’s attack.
Go Kraken!!!
Ditto!
Go Kraken!!!
Such a great game. The energy in the arena was awesome despite the healthy Canes fan numbers. The boys battled and didn’t give up, not even after the goal that was called back. Then they noticed that if you stay tenacious, it pays off and the Canes started to breakdown towards the end of the 3rd. Kraken were not done.
Frankly, I was expecting them to give up a goal with the net empty in the last minute. Shame on me.
Nice work!
Great take Darren on the Big Rigs game. Yes, it’s got to be one of his best games physically as a Kraken. He should have been one of the three stars of the game.
Wonder if the upcoming trade deadline may have been a factor one way or the other in the Big Rigs inspired play?
It definitely could be him wanting to prove that he is a contributing player on this team and wanting to be part of making a run this season. Frankly I don’t see the Kraken parting with any of the UFA’s unless they’re offered 1sts or players they’re interested in.
Good job on the recap, Darren!
Was Oleksiak inspired by the trade deadline? He is an UFA after this season; and Kraken signed D Gustov Olofsson yesterday. I like Olofsson’s +38 over his 3-1/2 seasons at CV, and he could replace Mahura as an extra D, typically scratched, if Rig gets traded. Whatever the inspiration, loved Big Rig’s game last night.
Dunn’s play on the lone Cane’s goal was disturbing with another minus to go to the team low of -19.
I was definitely wondering if he stepped up his game because of a possible deadline trade. He’s definitely a candidate to get moved, I’d hate to see us keep him for a playoff run that will end quickly regardless if we squeeze in or not.
Open for debate if he was playing to be traded or trying to show management he has more to offer? He could be in the process of working on an extension they are trying to get done before the deadline?
Joey has been so solid all season, Grubauer has been getting a lot of the chatter because of his bounce back season but Daccord has only been fantastic for the kraken consistently. Makes me a little nervous seeing Joey get the majority of the starts coming into the final week before the trade deadline. If they were thinking of moving Gru he’d be getting starts right now. If they are not moving Gru hopefully they keep both goalies I’d hate to see us double down on Grubauer just way too much risk in that.
They’re not trading Joey if that’s what you’re worried about. Starting him more frequently is probably to get him back in a groove after extended time off as well as give Gru a breather after the olympics.
Yes you’re right hopefully and most likely but until Grubauer is done and gone anything is possible. It doesn’t make sense to be spending this much on goaltending next season.
You’d think this year’s trade deadline would be the perfect time to unload a goaltender you don’t plan on keeping, with them both playing well and possibly having some value. Nothing this front office does makes any sense.
Kraken netminding is the mainstay of the franchise. I hope they change nothing, but they do have $11.9 M tied up with Joey $5M, Gruby $5.9, & Murray $1M. Moving Murray would be understandable as he is 2026 UFA and could possibly help land some offense.
Will Kraken be buyers at the deadline? Hope so, but I’m doubtful. Any of Blues’ Kyrou & Thomas, Rangers’ Trocheck, rumored as being movable forwards, would make Kraken more of a Win Now club.
I was just chatting with someone before the game about how Rig would be a valuable player if he would just use his size and be more physically assertive. It will be interesting to see if he keeps it up.
Definitely