Oh, there you are, Kraken!
After looking rather poor in their first two games out of the break, the Seattle Kraken were more like themselves against a weaker opponent Saturday and rolled to a comfortable 5-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.
Jordan Eberle scored twice and even tricked the home faithful into throwing their hats on the ice—the second time that’s happened to Seattle fans this season. Chandler Stephenson had a goal and two assists, Matty Beniers stole Eberle’s second goal, and Vince Dunn scored in his 600th career game.
“I thought we were consistent, really from the drop of the puck,” coach Lane Lambert said. “In my mind, we were all business, and I say that—I don’t think we’re not all business other nights, but I think from a leadership standpoint, our leadership group, I thought we were all business this morning in morning skate, and I think it carried over. So I liked our consistency from start to finish.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a 5-1 Kraken win over the Canucks.
Takeaway 1: Beniers steals a hat trick from Eberle
The game came almost a month to the day after Jared McCann appeared to score a hat trick in a 5-1 win over the Washington Capitals. In that Jan. 27 game, McCann’s third goal was wiped out after a linesman spotted a high-sticking penalty by Matty Beniers prior to the score. That left a lot of fans at Climate Pledge Arena newly hatless for no reason.
Saturday featured a similar twist.
With Seattle holding a 2-1 lead late in the second period, Eberle stepped up and blocked a shot by defenseman Elias Pettersson at the point, springing himself on a breakaway. He showed good speed for a 35-year-old winger and even better hands, bobbling the puck before regaining control and chipping a backhander off Kevin Lankinen and in to make it 3-1.
O, CAPTAIN! 🫡 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) March 1, 2026
Great speed from Eberle. He nearly loses it, but regains control and sneaks a backhander under Lankinen's arm.
3-1 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/rCcBLQaREt
Eberle appeared to follow that up with a power-play goal at 11:56 of the third. Taking Stephenson’s high-to-low feed near the bottom of the left circle, he drove into the crease and jammed the puck around Lankinen with Beniers crashing the far post.
Then, when Eberle scored into an empty net at 17:00 of the third to seal the 5-1 win, hats rained down on CPA ice.
BUT WAIT.
Much like the Jan. 27 game, there was a late change that erased the hat trick. This time, it was a scoring change on Eberle’s second goal—the power-play “jam job.” The official scorer ruled well after the fact that the puck hit off Beniers and went in, crediting Beniers with his 15th goal of the season and dropping Eberle back to 22 on the year.
O, CAPTAIN AGAIN! 🫡 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) March 1, 2026
Eberle jams it in for his second goal of the game. PPG.
4-1 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/fTvC3MwQsl
“I felt bad for the fans,” Eberle said with a laugh. “I think that’s the second time that’s happened this season, too, with Jared McCann when they disallowed it and gave us a penalty. So I think we owe the fans some hats.”
Takeaway 2: Solid team effort
After lacking their pre-Olympic mojo in the first two games out of the break, the Kraken looked far more dynamic against Vancouver. Yes, part of that is because the Canucks are bad. But in the NHL, you still have to execute to win, regardless of opponent—and Seattle executed.
The defensive structure was there. The offensive opportunities were there. And Joey Daccord was sharp in net, stopping 27 of 28 shots. He also narrowly missed the elusive goalie goal, firing just wide of the empty net late.
OHHHHH! 😱
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) March 1, 2026
Joey "Shooters Shoot" Daccord goes for it again and JUST misses. Believe this is the closest he's ever come to the elusive goalie goal. #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/25i7jUdsTc
Everyone did their part to create offensive opportunities in this one.
Seattle had more jump early and a much clearer scoring mentality throughout the game. After jumping out to a 2-0 lead but seeing it cut to 2-1 at 8:28 of the second, there was no panic. They simply kept playing, and once Eberle made it 3-1, it felt like Vancouver wasn’t getting back in.
Just a steady, professional effort from the goalie out.
Takeaway 3: Important win
Getting back into rhythm after a long break is difficult, especially for teams that don’t rely on high-end superstars to bail them out. The Kraken had built momentum before the hiatus, but they needed to rebuild it.
Against Dallas and St. Louis, they didn’t look close to playing their game. Against Vancouver, they looked much closer.
“Every game’s huge, but… you can’t let two [losses] become three,” Lambert said. “You have to stop the bad before it gets really bad, and we knew that we didn’t play as good as we can in the first two games back from the break. So we got that one, and now we’ve got to move on. We’ve got Carolina on Monday, and they’re a very, very good hockey team.”
It’s worth remembering that in the 2022-23 playoff season, Seattle came out of the break and immediately lost three straight to the Islanders, Devils, and Rangers, ultimately dropping four of five on that road trip before eventually righting the ship.
Still, with the standings as tight as they are, this version of the Kraken can’t afford many prolonged slides. Getting the two points Saturday was massive.
Still clinging to the final wild-card spot, the win gave Seattle a three-point cushion over Nashville and Los Angeles and moved them back within one point of the all-important third spot in the Pacific Division.
Believe it or not, Seattle now has a better points percentage than the third-place Edmonton Oilers.
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.
Go Kraken!!!
We need to stop talking standings tank and using pts. Switch to pts percent because it’s the only meaningful number.
Not sure how much of it was the Kraken finding their game and how much was facing a truly horrible Canucks team, but at least they took care of business. The real test comes tomorrow.
The Catton-Wright-Kakko line was their best of the night, even though they didn’t score.
Second game in a row for us with the hat trick fake out! I watched the replay and don’t see how it could’ve hit Beniers’ skate or stick. It looked like it hit the Canucks D-man’s stick. Whatever.
SO CLOSE to a Joey goal!
I read over the break they have installed ultra high definition (UHD) 10K+ cameras in all 32 arenas at the bluelines and behind the nets. I do wonder if there was a shot from there that was clearer than what they showed on the replay.
As much as every game counts right now, the Wednesday game against St. Louis is, to me, the real test. Even if this is a playoff team, I don’t think Carolina is the measuring stick for them. A bounce back against the Blues would definitely help put that return to play mini-roadtrip behind them.
Curious week for the Kraken.
Thanks for the report, Darren! I missed the goal reassignment to Beniers who had established great position on the pipe.
All I know is my hat collection is down 2 in the last month….
I learned my lesson and did not throw my hat the 2nd time. I did note that, this time, there was no “HAT TRICK!” graphic playing on the Twins, and thought, hmm, something is amiss! Then sure enough… What are the chances that this happens twice in three home games???
The true test comes tonight vs. Canes.