The Seattle Kraken finally returned from their long 4 Nations Face-Off hiatus on Saturday and skated away with a somewhat surprising 2-1 win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.

Captain Jordan Eberle returned to action, the “kids” were impactful, and Joey Daccord looked rejuvenated, stopping 26 shots in his 20th win of the season in 37 starts. For reference, Daccord started 46 total games last season but only earned 19 wins, so he has already surpassed that number and set a career high.

And, hey! The Kraken even got the better of a questionable goalie interference call for a change!

Here are Three Takeaways from a 2-1 Kraken win over the Panthers.

Takeaway #1: The captain is back

A lot has been made of Eberle’s recovery from a serious pelvis injury that required surgery and kept the veteran winger out of the lineup for about three months.

But now that Eberle has returned to game action, it is worth noting once more just how remarkable this recovery was. The injury suffered was one that doesn’t happen often in hockey, so there wasn’t much of a blueprint for rehab. Still, it became clear over the past few weeks that Eberle’s return was imminent, and the only remaining questions were 1.) how soon he could officially get back and 2.) how he would look when he did re-enter the lineup.

The answer to the first question was immediately after the two-week break, and the answer to the second question was… he looked like himself.

Coach Dan Bylsma did end up managing Eberle’s minutes a little, leaning more heavily on the Jaden Schwartz/Matty Beniers/Kaapo Kakko line as the game went along. But Eberle still played 14:03, including 57 seconds of power-play time, and had two shots on goal and several flashes of the creativity that Seattle has so sorely missed with him absent.

It was a solid step back into action for Seattle’s leader.

Takeaway #2: The “kids” came to play

As the Kraken’s season has gone sideways, one thing I’ve been looking for is the younger players taking bigger strides toward becoming the new core of the roster. It does appear likely that the team will move several of its veterans at the March 7 NHL Trade Deadline, at which point Seattle will look to have guys like Matty Beniers (who could already be considered part of the “core”), Shane Wright, and Kaapo Kakko shouldering more of the heavy lifting.

It was encouraging to see all three of those players contributing against one of the league’s best teams on Saturday, with Kakko scoring the game’s first goal on the power play, assisted by both Beniers and Wright. Wright also set up Jared McCann’s game-winning goal for his second point of the night, putting him back on a point-per-game pace in his last 11.

Kakko’s goal was a beauty, too. After he had drawn the penalty on Nate Schmidt to put Seattle on the advantage, Wright dug the puck off the half wall and found Beniers in the slot—a prime scoring position. Beniers faked the shot, pulling two Florida defenders toward him, and had the vision to recognize Kakko was sneaking down the left flank. A no-look pass gave Kakko a clear lane to the net, and he took the ice that was given, deked, and jammed it through Sergei Bobrovsky’s pads.

1-0 #SeaKraken

After both PP units control play and look connected, Kakko – who drew the penalty – capitalizes in a pass from flank to bumper to flank. Beats Bob. pic.twitter.com/bOAE9SuqP2

— Alison (@AlisonL) February 22, 2025

The hope for this team all season was that guys like Wright and Beniers would be reliable threats to improve the scoring depth. It took a while for them to really get clicking, but with Kakko in the mix, it is becoming easier to imagine the team evolving toward a younger, impactful core for the future.

Takeaway #3: Jared McCann gets off the schneid

McCann hasn’t had a bad season; he leads the Kraken in scoring with 43 points and even remains within striking distance of the team’s goal-scoring lead. Unlike his previous campaigns with Seattle, though, finding the back of the net has been a challenge for the skilled winger, especially since the beginning of December.

McCann has notched a few tallies here and there, but coming into Saturday’s game at Florida, he had scored just two goals in his previous 21 games. Believe it or not, both of those goals had come with the opposing net empty, so McCann hadn’t scored against a goalie since a 5-2 loss at the Colorado Avalanche on Dec. 22, exactly two months before beating Bobrovsky on Saturday.

It was so obvious he was squeezing the stick prior to the break, too. He would get looks that—in past seasons—were automatic goals for McCann, only to fire it over the net or get robbed by the netminder. Thanks to a beautiful buildup by Wright and Adam Larsson against the Cats, McCann got the monkey off his back with a pivotal goal at 7:03 of the third period.

Wright made the play happen, running out of space inside the offensive blue line, but still finding a trailing Larsson with a cheeky backhand pass. Larsson sauced it over a stick to McCann, who ripped a quick snap shot. Even that one didn’t go in cleanly, but it hit off Bobrovsky’s blocker and finally bounced the right direction for McCann.

Hockey is a game of confidence. Even the best scorers go through dry spells, and perhaps a two-week layoff was just what McCann needed to break out of his.