Bummer. The Seattle Kraken, who are now 1-9-0 all time at the Edmonton Oilers, had every chance to win Saturday despite minimal puck possession in the first period, an issue exacerbated by taking three penalties and allowing the Oilers’ lethal power play to tilt the ice.
Seattle pushed back in the second, though, got a power-play goal from Bobby McMann to tie the game, and came within 2:27 of at least earning a point. But a bad bounce that landed on the stick of Leon Draisaitl and subsequently in the back of Seattle’s net ultimately did the Kraken in.
Bad break for the #SeaKraken. A rim attempt hits a bottom and caroms straight to Draisaitl on the doorstep.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) October 4, 2026
2-1 Oilers late. pic.twitter.com/BM7X1LBoJp
“I think we deserved a better result when you see [goals] like that,” McMann said. “You sometimes realize that’s the game of hockey, and you want to put yourself in a position where maybe something like that doesn’t matter as much because you maybe have a goal up or something like that. So there’s always ways to counteract that, but yeah, those ones are always tough to see when a game’s so close, and you’ve been playing so well down the stretch towards the end of a game.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a hard-fought 3-1 Kraken loss at the Edmonton Oilers.
Takeaway 1: First-period penalty trouble
On Thursday in Calgary, the Kraken played a very disciplined game and used their speed to force the Flames into dumb penalties. The penalty-related tables turned dramatically in the first period Saturday, though, with the Oilers’ terrifying power play getting three chances in the opening frame.
The penalty kill came up big, backed by a couple of 10-bell saves from Philipp Grubauer, including this right-pad dazzler after Seattle let Vasily Podkolzin walk down Main Street and Leon Draisaitl threaded a pass through to him.
The #SeaKraken get a big kill thanks to this 10-bell save by Grubauer on Podkolzin. pic.twitter.com/PCKzLFA0iJ
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) October 3, 2026
“First of all, we got some good kills, and we got some great saves by Grubi,” coach Lane Lambert said. “There wasn’t any rhythm in the first period. Some guys only played maybe two minutes. So once they started to get the rhythm going and the flow going a little bit, I thought we settled in quite nicely.”
Three successful kills in the opening period meant the Kraken were firmly on their heels for much of that frame, but in the closing minutes before the first horn, you could see them starting to find their game.
Indeed, they tilted things the other way for a good stretch of the second period, got the lone call of the frame in their favor, and took advantage with McMann’s snipe under the bar.
MCMANN CAN! 🎯 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) October 4, 2026
What a snipe. Seattle's first power play of the game was looking pretty sad, until a quick strike by Bobby McMann just under the bar.
1-1 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/EN8Rag55Q8
“We just needed to stay out of the penalty box,” Lambert said. “It wasn’t like we were doing anything terrible, terrible. We were sitting back maybe a little bit, but we just couldn’t get anything going because we had a steady stream to the penalty box.”
Takeaway 2: They held off the big guns, until…
For the vast majority of the game, every time it looked like Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl—who skated together on a line—was about to connect on a pass, a Kraken stick would magically appear in the lane and break it up.
I was prepared to go down to the dressing room after the game and ask about how the Kraken had so successfully held the big guns at bay… until…
Edmonton was pushing late and had extended zone time. Ryan Shea tried to rim the puck deep from the blue line, but it hit McDavid on the shin pad and ricocheted straight to Draisaitl on the doorstep. Although Grubauer got across in time, he wasn’t able to properly square up to Draisaitl, who chipped it over his shoulder and into the far corner.
“In the first two games here, I liked our structure for the most part,” Lambert said. “Really unfortunate the winning goal tonight was the bounce that it was. So we just have to keep building on it, but I liked our structure, and I think our sticks were pretty good.”
McDavid followed that up with an empty-net goal, so after 57 minutes and 33 seconds of holding that duo completely off the scoresheet, Draisaitl ended up with the game-winner, and McDavid got two cheap points.
What can you do?
Takeaway 3: Lots to build on
If the Kraken can bounce back and take care of business against the Flames—who they smoked 6-1 on Thursday—in their home opener Sunday, then this should be viewed as an extremely positive start to the season.
They absolutely could have beaten Edmonton in this game. And considering the Oilers had played two insanely high-scoring games against Vancouver to start their season, holding them to one goal for almost the entire game—while also controlling some stretches—should be viewed as a positive.
There was some bad luck and a couple of absolute robberies by Devon Levi, including a save on Eberle that was so close to going in, the officials actually reviewed the play to see if his glove crossed the line.
[Dr. Evil voice]: "You know, I have one simple request, and that is to have technology that tells us when a fricken puck crosses the line."
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) October 4, 2026
That said, insane save by Devon Levi. #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/ClzvsGInto
“It’s hard after a loss. Losing is not fun,” Lambert said. “But I think if you look at the [first two] games as a whole, we did a lot of good things. We had a lot of commitment, and I thought everybody played an important role. Everybody matters on our hockey team.”
The early returns are encouraging. What say you?
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.
There was a lot of good in the game, for sure. The Dunn/Larsson pair was outstanding, and, coupled with their performance in the first game, they look to be fully back to their old dominant ways. It is still early, but we will see. The Lindgren/Fleury pair was also very good and held up better than anyone expected to Edmonton’s offense. If Fleury gets that sixth defenseman spot permanently I would be alright with it. The team speed overall really showed, and you could see it frustrate the Oilers who are used to having that particular advantage. Grubauer was incredible. The Stephenson line stood out to me for some o-zone creativity and good puck control. They did a tremendous job checking as well; they just mugged some guys on occasions when it looked like Edmonton was about to get something going. The obvious stars of the game for the Kraken were the penalty killers. Even when they were trapped in their own zone for an extended time they stayed in their structure and shut down the middle of the ice. It was just a great night for special teams. Who saw that coming?
The bad was, of course, was highlighted by the ridiculous number of undisciplined penalties, especially early where it looked like the game was about to get away from them if Grubauer and the killers hadn’t stood on their heads. There was a lot of unnecessary chippiness as well as some, let’s say, not good hits thrown. I mean, everybody knows that McDavid is a douchebag, but that is not a reason to run him like that. Play hockey. That leads me to another bad thing, namely that the Evans/Montour pair were playing loose and undisciplined all night, and they were giving up plays because of it. There was no excuse for Evans to have his stick that high on the third period penalty; that was some lower level hockey slop.
Otherwise,I cannot be upset with Grubauer for his penalty. That dude kicked his pad playing inside the crease like he was. That can’t be permitted. Also, Lindgren’s fight was a good, honest effort to settle a beef between two guys. Good on the two fighters for doing it like they did. But maybe Lindgren should think twice about squaring up with a guy who is six inches taller and about forty pounds heavier than he is. Never punch above your weight class, as the saying goes. The Catton line–Ryan Winterton especially–got some good things going on several occasions, but they were a bit outmatched against the McDavid line. Even still, they looked solid when the puck was away from the wall, but the board battles did not go in their favor at all. It was an overall good showing, but they are not jedis yet.
I pretty much agree with everything except I thought Monty and Garth looked good and have in both games. They are a more offensive pair and are trying to create, they did a good job of recovering when mistakes happened. That stick lift on Garth that resulted in a breakaway was a crazy great play, I thought Evans did everything right… established body position rotation towards the board to clear the puck up the wall. He reached around the body at full speed lifted his stick and grabbed the puck with one hand while not slowing down. That played works 1/100 times if you’re lucky.
Overall we looked a long way off from being able to beat the oilers without getting top notch goaltending, there are a lot of teams better than the oilers we have a hill to climb. I feel like we might have wanted to push a little more offense considering what the AHL Canucks were able to accomplish. Maybe LL could have recognized that Gru was on his game and pushing more offense might have helped more than hurt? Overall I liked that we had a forecheck and committed to offense quickly and tried to maintain puck possession in the offensive zone. Last season it would have been one man in if he can’t make something happen they just sit back. There were a few times the we jumped into defensive position in the offensive zone with puck possession that made me scratch my head.
I turned to my brother before this game and said “I don’t care if we win or lose. We are going to lose at least 30 games this season. I just want the boys to play with some structure and be hard to beat”. They delivered. That said, this game was a f*cking embarrassment for the NHL officiating dept. That hit from behind on Dunner? If that hit were on McDavid, it would have been a game misconduct, suspension and a fine. The League owes The Kraken and Seattle fans a huge apology.
The hit from behind was a penalty but nothing beyond 2 minutes it wasn’t that violent. Had an injury occurred then it would have been reviewed for a major. I thought the referee did a good job on this call, he did call it a penalty.
No he didn’t. They both went to the box for fighting or something. The ref was standing right there and didn’t raise his arm when the hit occurred literally right in front of him.. You’re wrong on this one.
I thought that the Calgary penalty was for the hit, when the hand goes up isn’t always an indication of intent. The play happened and ended pretty quickly. I’d be hesitant to call me wrong when you follow it up with or something…. You could be correct but you obviously didn’t do research to prove me wrong you just assumed that it was called the way you thought.
2 minutes each for unsportsmanlike conduct. I don’t know what game you were watching. Maybe you didn’t even watch it.
Now you did research… 😂
Like I said it wasn’t a terrible hit probably was or should have been a penalty. I’d agree with it being a 2 minute penalty all day long but nothing past that.
Two rules were broken here, right in front of the ref. 1) checking from behind…and plowing a defenseless player’s head into the glass and 2) boarding. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QCSu579RMdweCRvtunU2JxfiC_dNHn0i/view?usp=drivesdk
Again, I don’t think you actually watch hockey games.
Look at that picture. No penalty was called. Imagine that’s McDavid. Embarrassing joke.
I really don’t agree with this assessment, you watch hockey obviously. You know that that is never going to be called a major penalty unless there is an injury or the player at least drops to the ice and appears hurt. You might not like it but that is the way the NHL works, no special rules for the kraken sorry. Post all the rules you want the game has consistently. There are blown call that definitely happens and yeah that should have been a 2 minute penalty but that’s it end of story.
We can safely say I do not have a history coming on here and needlessly bitching about officiating. Last night was abysmal, and hopefully not a harbinger for how The Kraken will be treated this season.
Also, that puck in the glove on the Kraken goal that was ruled a non-goal was clearly in. Clearly. One point stolen from the Kraken. We can already see the hill we have to climb this season.
You have to hand it to Lambert, the coaching staff and the players for not completely losing their shit in this game. I would have walked out.
There was no video that I saw that clearly showed the puck crossing the line. You can speculate that it was in because of the glove position but even then it would have been possible that the puck was closer to the hand and didn’t cross the line.
Unfortunately this was the correct call and if it went the other way it would have gone viral.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YgbuSS7LHBjgqNf13PXPJwouGkidA6Xk/view?usp=drivesdk
Where’s the puck? It’s in the glove, over the line and in the net. Once again, you are wrong. Should be no surprise to anyone who follows comments on this site, I am sure. Again, I don’t think you actually watch hockey games.
Can you honestly say for 100 percent certainty that that dark spot it the puck and even if it was that it was 100 percent across the line? Adding to that there is also a dark spot further up the glove that could also be the puck, if a referee call that a goal because of that image there would be a serious outcry.
It might have been in it might not have but according to the rules there has to be 100 percent evidence that it was and that image is inconclusive at best. The correct call was made it just didn’t go the krakens direction….. that sucks.
And how about that “tripping” call on Evans. Two guys skating for the puck and f*ckhead GRABS Evans’ arm as he is losing the battle and falls down. Let’s call “tripping” on The Kraken because an Oiler fell down in a battle for the puck. Unbelievable.
I saw 17 comments and thought there would be some interesting energy on the game. As is too often the case here, it’s just two guys arguing.
Anyway, decent game but the Kraken really did struggle to exit their zone and setup. I think there will be a lot of good fight losses this year.
Sorry to disappoint you. Maybe there’s another forum suitable for discussing your team’s hockey game? Isn’t that how this Internet thing works? Series of disappointments?
Kraken played a competitive game. Was it perfect? No. But they effectively held the Oilers to two-ish goals. We had a pretty good PK. Gru played great. Ebs was fantastic and lead like a captain. The forechecking was solid. The first period felt like a boxing match, where one guy lets the other throw all their punches to wear themself out. If this is what a Kraken loss looks like, I will take it. Even with the shitty NHL officiating.
Haha welcome to the sound of hockey comments section
Probably not fair on my part. I believe I’ve had a fair bit of fun debating with you specifically. There’s just a couple of guys that just seem to like to go at each other and it gets old. Negativity never helps.
Any thoughts on zone exits and entries? It’s what I’ve been watching the most and there is some improvement. Not a much a i was hoping.
I tuned in halfway through the second period and was surprised by the physicality. Lots of pushing and shoving going on. Battling. If they can keep that going and continue to frustrate teams they will keep themselves in a position to win.
Bad bounce at the end but that’s hockey for you.