Three Takeaways – Kraken blow lead again, recover again, win again over Mammoth

It’s almost time to start asking the question… Are the Kraken good?

With their never-a-doubt [wink, wink] 5-3 win over the Utah Mammoth—who definitely are good—on Thursday, Seattle is officially off to its best start in franchise history at 7-3-1 through 11 games.

National pundits don’t yet believe in this team, and that’s probably fair, considering the way Seattle faceplanted down the stretch last season. But for those of us who are watching them every game, this group does look very different than the 2025-26 iteration.

Within the uncertainty, the Kraken have faced scrutiny based on the strength of their schedule so far, with four of their wins coming against Calgary and Detroit and one against Philadelphia. But after taking down the Washington Capitals in their building on Oct. 11, they’ve now added a win against the high-flying (and first-place) Utah Mammoth.

These Kraken are faster than last year, they’re more creative, and they can score goals. They continue to get ahead in games with timely contributions from all four lines, they bend but don’t break (more on that in Takeaway 1), and they’re getting rock-solid goaltending from Philipp Grubauer, who coach Lane Lambert has continued to roll with as the “hot hand.”

So… are they… good?

Here are Three Takeaways from a 5-3 Kraken win over the Mammoth.

Takeaway 1: Third-period woes

In each of the two games since returning home from a 10-day, five-game East Coast road trip on which the Kraken went 3-1-1 and earned seven out of 10 points, they have looked very good through 40 minutes. That was true against the Red Wings on Tuesday, when Seattle carried a 3-0 lead into the final frame, and it was true against the Mammoth on Thursday, when the Kraken held a 3-1 lead at that same juncture.

In both cases, Seattle allowed a goal relatively early in the frame, which gave the opposition the momentum needed to mount a big comeback before the Kraken bounced back and found a way to win. This was also the scenario at the Philadelphia Flyers 10 days ago.

“If you want to look at it from a positive standpoint, we’re getting into a position where we’re able to give up a multi-goal lead and still win,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We’ve got to continue to play the game the same way that got us the lead, and that comes with a little bit of experience, a little bit of time. What it says about our team’s resilience in these situations, it says a lot.”

Against Utah, Seattle entered the third on a penalty kill after Jared McCann high-sticked Logan Cooley with 30 seconds left in the second. Cooley must have taken that personally, because he scored his first of two goals—this one off a mid-air tip of Mikhail Sergachev’s shot from the point—just 27 seconds into the third. That was the second time Utah’s NHL-best power play connected in the game, after Vincent Trocheck got a PPG to momentarily tie it 1-1 at 17:57 of the first.

Cooley scored again at 7:42, finishing a give-and-go play high in the zone with Sergachev after Utah hemmed Seattle in for a very extended stretch.

But… Lambert called a timeout after that.

“We were standing there watching them play, and we needed to be reminded that we’re actually pretty good too,” Lambert said.

Indeed, the Kraken got things back on track after that. Bobby McMann appeared to score at 8:39, but Utah successfully challenged for Chandler Stephenson entering the zone offside. Yet instead of letting that sap the momentum, Seattle continued to push, and McMann ultimately set up Mackie Samoskevich for the game-winner with 5:25 left.

Now, as we try to answer that big question about the “goodness” of this team, this is an area where Seattle can improve: playing with a lead in the third period. After Lambert gave his team a lot of grace for fumbling away the three-goal lead over Detroit on Tuesday, he was less understanding of its third-period performance against the Mammoth.

“Obviously, they scored right away at the beginning of the period on a power play, and then I just thought we—unlike the last game, where I thought we came out in the third period and went after them, had opportunities to make it 4-0 against Detroit—I thought we sat back [against Utah],” Lambert said. “And I didn’t like that very much. So, obviously we had a chat at the timeout, and I thought we played better hockey from there.”

Takeaway 2: Timely (and pretty) scoring

While the Kraken have had a hard time with multi-goal leads in the third period, you have to give them a ton of credit for pulling out victories in all three of those contests. Though the previous two required shootout heroics from Grubauer and McMann, this one was decided thanks to impressive resiliency down the stretch.

Samoskevich’s goal was nice in its own right because McMann made an unselfish play, finding his new linemate flying toward the net when he absolutely could have just spun and stuffed the puck into Vejmelka.

“I just saw him out of the corner of my eye because I wasn’t sure if I could spin and shoot that one,” McMann said. “I would have tried to, but then he was there, so I’d rather it be on his stick.”

“It was a bit chaotic,” Samoskevich said. “The puck was bouncing everywhere and then came to Bobby, and he kind of just made a perfect play to me. I didn’t have to do much there, so credit to him.”

But Matty Beniers’ power-play goal at 18:23 of the first was the real dazzler in this one and a good indicator of this team’s improved skill this season.

After Beniers won the face-off back to Brandon Montour, Montour gave the puck right back. Then Beniers sent it all the way across to Berkly Catton and headed toward the net. Lawson Crouse tracked Catton up the half wall, hoping he’d try to dump it back to Montour at the point so Crouse could jump the lane and take off on a breakaway. But Catton baited him beautifully, turned on a dime, and sent the veteran forward flying.

Catton wasn’t done there. He put a perfect no-look pass on Kaapo Kakko’s tape at the side of the net. Kakko flashed some skill of his own and sent his own no-look backhander across the crease to Beniers, who had a wide-open net.

“Really good deception [by Catton],” Beniers said. “He’s got a lot of skill, and then Kaapo made a great play to the backdoor. So two really good plays.”

This was a nationally televised game, so John Forslund wasn’t on the call. But if he was, he surely would have thrown a “That’s hockey, baby!” after that one.

Again, trying to answer the big question above, there is real skill here. It’s another indicator that the Kraken might—in fact—be good.

Takeaway 3: Grubauer keeps rolling

We actually got tricked at morning skate into thinking Joey Daccord would start this one (we shouldn’t have been tricked… that one was on us). But Lambert instead stuck with Grubauer and was rewarded for the decision.

Through one period, Grubauer didn’t get peppered with shots. But there was a stretch in the second when Utah was pressuring hard, and Grubauer stood tall with a few 10-bell saves. That allowed the Kraken to get to the third period with a two-goal lead.

“Well, he’s playing great,” Lambert said on why he stuck with Grubauer. “I saw his game as fantastic. I think that he was— full marks for winning the hockey game. He gave us a chance to win all night long.”

After facing just eight shots in the first, Grubauer ended the night with 33 saves and was once again a huge reason Seattle escaped with a win.

Grubauer improved to 4-1-1.