Three Takeaways – Catton and fourth line rescue Kraken from slow start against Red Wings

After Seattle’s 6-2 loss to the Golden Knights on Tuesday, I was ridiculed by Vegas fans for my Walk and Talk, in which I stated that (A.) I thought the gameplay was a bit more even than a 6-2 score would indicate and (B.) Ben Meyers’ hit that injured Victor Olofsson was not malicious.

Well, regarding point “A” above, I could say something similar about this 6-3 Kraken win over the Detroit Red Wings on Friday—the gameplay was closer, or even tilted against Seattle, than the positive 6-3 result would imply. As for point “B,” the NHL apparently agreed with me on that one and didn’t give Meyers any supplemental discipline.

This ended up being a big benefit for the Kraken against Detroit, because Meyers and his fourth-line mates drove the bus.

“They came hard at us in their building in the first period,” coach Lane Lambert said. “I thought we could have probably countered that a bit better by making some more plays or winning some more battles, but we weathered the storm, our goaltender was really good, and then I thought from there, the game was a little bit more evenly matched.”

Here are Three Takeaways from a 6-3 Kraken win over the Red Wings.

Takeaway 1: The Li’l Cat’s Meow

During Training Camp, we could see that Berkly Catton had improved significantly over the offseason after spending his summer skating with the likes of Matty Beniers, Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, and others. We also heard from Kraken brass that Catton looked like the best player in camp.

Then, during Seattle’s first game of the season at the Calgary Flames, a pro scout sitting near me in the rickety Saddledome press box leaned over and said very matter-of-factly that Catton is the Kraken’s best player.

Is this true? Is the 20-year-old Catton, who played 27 games last season before scoring his first goal and posted just 17 points, now Seattle’s best player?

In the first few games of this season, Catton has played like it. He’s fast, shifty, dynamic, and on several occasions in this game against Detroit, he showed defensive responsibility, quickly recovering from turnovers and stealing the puck right back.

In that first Calgary game, it was a shift by Catton, Shane Wright, and Ryan Winterton that got the Kraken going after a slow start. In this one, it was a combination of Catton, Kaapo Kakko, and the newly formed third pair of Ville Ottavainen and Josh Mahura that connected to get things moving in the right direction toward the end of a dreadful opening frame.

Trailing 1-0 and getting dominated all over the ice in the first period (the Red Wings held a 16-3 shots-on-goal advantage at this point), Catton made a good read in the defensive zone after Mahura pried the puck free. He circled below the goal line to pick up the loose puck and took a hit to make a pass to Ottavainen.

Catton then raced up the ice, and by the time Ottavainen had hit Mahura with a cross-ice pass and Mahura had centered it to Kakko, Catton was in position to pick up the drop pass (or fortuitous fumble) from Kakko, deke, and lift it over a very leaky John Gibson.

THE LI’L CAT! 🐱 🚨 Clipping the whole sequence here, because it starts and ends with Berkly Catton. Both Ville Ottavainen and Josh Mahura made nice plays to get this puck up the ice, too. 1-1 #SeaKraken https://t.co/oEcnEE7Ttt

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) October 9, 2026

That goal came at 14:52 of the first and made things feel very doable for a Seattle team that had previously looked like it was on its way to a convincing loss.

Takeaway 2: What a night for the fourth line

On a recent Sound Of Hockey Podcast (it must have been the most recent one, but I don’t know… they all run together in my brain), I talked about the mix of forward lines now that Mackie Samoskevich is back from injury and playing on the first line. That pushed Winterton back down to the fourth line, where he’s skated with some combination of Freddy Gaudreau and one of Meyers or Curtis Douglas (remember, Jacob Melanson is still out with an upper-body injury).

My take on the podcast was that with Winterton, this is a line that can produce offense, harkening back to Year 2, when Morgan Geekie, Ryan Donato, and Daniel Sprong seemed to come through with depth production every night.

The line isn’t quite that, but there is some real skill there. Gaudreau is off to a great start to the season and sniped the top corner on Gibson twice in this one. Both times, he was set up by Winterton.

FREDDY B. GAUD! 🚨 The fourth line answers immediately. Good skill by Gaudreau, who goes skate to stick and chips it into the top corner. 2-2 #SeaKraken https://t.co/PrJGD36opv

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) October 10, 2026

Plus, Meyers came out of the penalty box with six minutes left in the second period and found himself on a 2-on-1 with Wright. Meyers looked off Wright and snapped a no-looker over Gibson’s glove and under the bar, making it 5-1 and ending Gibson’s night.

BENNY BOY! 🚨 Ben Meyers, who is NOT suspended, comes out of the box and immediately scores. 5-2 #SeaKraken, and that’s it for John Gibson. In comes Daniil Tarasov. https://t.co/Z1Jz1rJ2wS

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) October 10, 2026

And who started that play, by the way? Berkly Catton for his second point of the night.

“Huge plays by [Winterton], huge plays by ‘Benny’ just before, too,” Gaudreau said of his goals. “They’re awesome guys to play with. I think we can contribute that way, just by supporting each other and communicating. It’s fun to feel that little chemistry building.”

Takeaway 3: A win’s a win

Considering the final score of this game, it really could have been a Detroit win if Gibson had stopped… well, anything, and Philipp Grubauer hadn’t been sharp—he came up with 37 saves in the end.

The Kraken have had several slow starts in the early stages of this season, so that is something that needs to improve.

“We know when we’ve got to step it up, and they obviously had a lot of shots [in the first period],” Gaudreau said. “But we focused on ourselves and trying to be more connected, skate more, and that’s how it felt like we came out [in the second].”

But to their credit, the Kraken are taking advantage of their opportunities and beating up on bad teams.

Now, if only they can figure it out against the good teams…