The Seattle Kraken played a decent game against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday but didn’t take advantage of their opportunities and—as we’ve seen so many times with this team in its five years of existence—made the opposing goalie, in this case Connor Ingram, look like a star.
It wasn’t so much that Ingram was standing on his head; it was just that the 27 shots Seattle took against him never looked all that dangerous. He simply had to be solid, not dazzling, to earn his second shutout of the season.
“We had some, not a lot, but we had some good enough chances to score,” coach Lane Lambert said. “It was a low-scoring game, and we did not convert on our opportunities.”
The Nashville Predators and Los Angeles Kings were both idle on Tuesday, so Seattle remained two points out of the last wild-card spot. But two more teams—the San Jose Sharks and Winnipeg Jets—have crowded their way into the field with two straight wins each. The Sharks are level with the Kraken at 75 points but have played one fewer game, putting them above Seattle in the standings.
Ostensibly, that looks like a *lot* of teams for the Kraken to jump to sneak into the playoffs. With just nine games left, the playoff picture will get murkier for the Kraken every time they lose from here on out.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 3-0 Kraken loss to the Oilers.
Takeaway 1: Bad first period dooms Seattle
Typically, if you can hold the high-flying Edmonton Oilers to two goals on 23 shots in a game (Connor McDavid did get on the scoresheet with an empty-netter that made it 3-0 at 17:34 of the third), then you’ve given yourself a chance to win.
Seattle did just that, showing a solid defensive structure and getting another strong game from Philipp Grubauer, who stopped 21 of 23 shots.
But more than half the shots Grubauer faced came in the first period, when the Oilers tilted the ice for much of the frame. A bad break and a costly mistake ended up in Seattle’s net, and those two goals were all the Oilers would need against the Kraken’s ineffective offense.
Edmonton’s first goal came off a point “shot” by Jake Walman that looked like it was sailing well wide of the net, but it hit Max Jones in the shoulder and pinballed in to make it 1-0 at 5:28 of the first.
#SeaKraken fall behind early. Bad break. Jake Walman's shot looked like it was going wide, but it hit Max Jones up around the shoulder and pinballed in.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) April 1, 2026
1-0 Oil. pic.twitter.com/lql2kCmWhz
Then Adam Larsson and Vince Dunn were playing catch at the offensive blue line, and when Larsson tried to return it to Dunn, he clearly didn’t see that Kasperi Kapanen had crept high in the zone, anticipating the pass. Larsson got baited into it, Kapanen stole it and took off on a partial breakaway, and put a perfect shot between Grubauer’s blocker and right pad, just inside the far post. That made it 2-0 at 12:43 of the first.
Uh oh. #SeaKraken don't want to get into a track meet with the Oilers, but if they're going to be in this game, they may have to do that.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) April 1, 2026
Bad D-to-D pass by Adam Larsson leads to a partial breakaway by Kasperi Kapanen.
2-0 EDM pic.twitter.com/EY4j2myLND
“Clearly, it wasn’t the start we wanted in terms of, they dump the puck in, it’s going eight feet wide, and it goes in off their back. That’s kind of the way it’s going right now,” Lambert said. “It certainly wasn’t anything necessarily structural, but a fortunate break for them. And we make a mistake at the offensive blue line when we’ve got complete control of the puck, that ends up in the back of the net.”
The Kraken should have been able to overcome those two goals, but the lack of finishing ability on this roster once again reared its ugly head.
Takeaway 2: Better second and third
The Kraken looked much better in the second and third periods, to the point that one could argue they were the better team in those frames. But as mentioned earlier, Ingram simply wasn’t tested the way the Kraken needed to test him. They had solid shot volume the rest of the way—firing 13 pucks at Ingram in the second and eight in the third—but it’s hard to recall many moments where Seattle truly had the middling goalie scrambling.
“A little bit more desperation in our game [in the second period],” Matty Beniers said. “Getting more pucks to the bottom, we had success there. We didn’t do it enough in the first, and we started getting to that, started getting more shots on net, more chaos. And we had our opportunities, we just didn’t put any in.”
Takeaway 3: Jaden Schwartz returns
It was good to see Jaden Schwartz return to the lineup after being inadvertently kicked in the face by Nick Cousins in a 7-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators on March 7. That injury led to Schwartz being labeled “out indefinitely,” a timetable that can sometimes mean months or even years.
Considering how horrific that injury could have been, Schwartz’s return after about three weeks was a big sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, Shane Wright missed the game Tuesday after getting blasted with a high hit by Logan Stanley on Saturday in Buffalo. He did practice on Monday, so I’m guessing his absence will be relatively short-term.
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.
Kraken playoff odds now lower than Nashville, LA, SJ, and Winnipeg. Time to shut off the lights?
They’ve been realistically cooked already for weeks.
Does this team have a mini streak left in them?
That still could be enough.
I thought we did a fantastic job on McDavid all night and we played incredible team defense in the third period. We gave them almost nothing in the third, they barely had a sniff on net… were we reading the scoreboard wrong? Did we think we were ahead two goals? LL coaching at its finest. Who gets shut out by the oilers!!!!! Especially when you’re desperate for a playoff spot, we simply need more offense and have all season, LL should have been playing a more balanced offense/defense system.
Grubauer played well enough but was not the best goalkeeper on the ice, we simply almost never win if we don’t have the best goalkeeper on the ice.
Very thorough road ahead we have to be the best of 5 teams and we’re not. Maybe our goalies get hot and pack the team on their back? Wouldn’t it be fun to play Colorado in the first round 😭.
They’re one win out of a playoff spot with a game in hand.
It seems to me where they’re at right now… if you want to root for them you can, if you want to root against them you can.
I’d like to see them play hockey like they want to win, not like they want to go into overtime with a 0-0 tie and hope for the best. That’s just me though I guess. We are not a good team and call it coaching or call it the work of RF but I personally don’t think it matters if we make the playoffs or not we have a ton of work to do to this team and it doesn’t appear we have the talent making the decisions.
I’m not qualified to second guess an NHL coaching staff. I do think some ideas like “shooters mentality” may be a little simplistic and outdated, but beyond generalities, I can’t legitimately analyze the impact of a staffs systems and deployments… there’s simply too much complexity and too much undisclosed information. On top of that, I simply don’t know, just like Jim Mora said.
It “looks” to me like one big problem for the Kraken is they’re simply not skilled enough. This may be obvious, but the puck handling and passing seems to really undermine them time and time again. It seems to me – and I could be totally wrong here – most of their mistakes that lead to goals arise out of poor puck management rather than poor decision making. It seems to me the “skilled” players like Beniers and Catton handle the puck well but are still developing. I think Wright seems to be treading water (and was never considered “highly skilled). I think Stephenson is asked to do too much. I think Eberle is skilled, but his age is maybe sometimes showing.
I think the “moves” they need to make would be a lot easier if they were a playoff team rather than not. I’m not convinced the decision making at the front office level is a cure all or even the problem.
Regardless of all this, for the next nine games – and yes, they’ve got a tough schedule – I’m going to be a fan and save the armchair GM nonsense for the offseason.
Go Kraken!!!
I can’t completely disagree with you but we do have to call a spade a spade. We see the hockey that LL is playing and we see the roster that RF has built. Maybe it’s time to give another “GM” a shot. I’d really hate to see us keep around RF for another two years and then finally admit he can’t build a roster. I feel there is more risk in keeping RF at this point than there is moving on from him, shouldn’t we make our path based on risk reward moving forward.
A spade is unambiguously and without debate… a spade. That’s not the situation here.
I understand your opinion and I even appreciate it. It is not, however, fact. I see the hockey they play and the roster they’ve built as something different than what you see. No, I’m not saying they’re contenders, but my view of the franchise building process is different than yours. You can call it a spade, but I think it’s a bit soon to be that conclusive.
Nino,
There is lots of support for you over at the Times comment section. For the Vorel article of 3/28:
“If winning was important to them, Ronald Francis would have been gone a long time ago. Look at what he has done in 5 years… absolutely nothing.”
“Yeah, Francis has a track record of his teams being good once he leaves. And it’s not like the bar is that high in the NHL. HALF the teams make the postseason. Ron Francis became director of hockey operations for Carolina in 2011. In 2014 he became GM. He was fired in 2018. Total number of playoff appearances over that time: 0. Ron Francis has been the GM/President for the Kraken’s now 5 years of existence. 1 playoff appearance. 3 head coaches in the last year. 7 years in Carolina, 5 years in Seattle – 12 years of “building”, 1 total playoff appearance. If you want a team full of just-a-guys that can score 15 goals a year and miss the playoffs, Francis is your guy. If you want to be good, not so much.”
“The lack of success is 100% on Ron Francis.”
“Bribing players with overpriced forever contracts he only way Ron Francis is capable of attract ANY players at all to such a perennially losing team like the kraken the best players of course won’t settle for being bought off like that because they know that they will never get in the playoffs much less win the cup with a loser like Francis in charge.”
“I’m still wondering what Francis and Botterill did to earn their promotions. It definitely wasn’t a reward for putting a winning team on the ice. Shame that none of the reporters who cover the team have asked.”
@Times Reader.
The Ron Francis narrative is well established and one really doesn’t need the authority of the Seattle Times comment section to make the argument. I do think, however, there are a few things missing from that analysis.
Much of what was built in Carolina was put in place by Francis. As soon as he was let go two significant moves were made.
First – and I think most important – Rod Brind’Amour was named head coach. I do not know if this is a move Francis would have pursued so it’s difficult for me to comment on that.
Second, Don Waddel shipped out Noah Hanafin and Elias Lindholm for three seasons of Dougie Hamilton who subsequently walked at the end of his contract for nothing. Would Francis have made that trade?, I don’t know, but ever since the Canes have been rotating in defensemen and looking for a No.2 center. On the latter, they found one in Vincent Trocheck, but it cost them Eetu Luostarinen – another quality center drafted by Francis – and three seasons later Trocheck walked, again, for nothing.
It seems to me it would be difficult to overstate the impact Brind’Amour has had on that franchise, but when you look at the players drafted under Francis and his patient approach: Slavin, Lindholm, Hanifin, Aho, Necas, Luostarinen, and others like Geekie, Roy, Pesce, I think the argument that he was the problem is a little suspect.
Personally, I think the management since his departure has been a disaster. I also think that’s largely on Dundon. I think the Hamilton and Trocheck moves were a mistake and then losing those players compounded it. Their “premier” player, Aho, signed an offer sheet with another team… which led to the disastrous Kotkaniemi offer sheet. Guentzel said they were “exhausting to deal with” and then signed with Tampa Bay. Another of their “superstars”, Necas, forced his way out and brought about the almost comical Rantanen drama – a move that saw a top contender add two first round picks at the deadline. To me, that’s a ton of “head scratchers”.
Hats off to RBA, even if he’s only won a single Conference Final game, he’s a helluva coach, but I’m not buying the “Francis was the problem in Carolina” story.
Daryl W,
Either you are Ron Francis, related to him, paid by him, or are simply delusional. Enjoy your fantasy world.
Well TR, I’m not Ron Francis or related to him. I also don’t rely on the Seattle Times comment section to validate opinions.
You be you… whoever you are today.
I will say this times reader and Daryl. There are more and more and more and more people that are completely done with RF. I play beer league and nobody I play with (people that know hockey) nobody thinks that the kraken should keep RF. Combine that with twitter/x times and Reddit or any other platform that you can find and you will find that the general consensus in Seattle is that RF should be hung from a flag pole. Combined with the fact that he hasn’t done anything how could you possibly think of keeping him moving forward if you own this franchise.
I think ownership would continue with Francis because they knew what they were getting when they hired him. While so many are convinced his track record was a disaster in Carolina, it should be obvious ownership saw something different. Rather than concluding ownership is delusional or lives in some fantasy world, maybe their view is it takes time and patience to build something lasting and the constraints of having a new franchise preclude some of the options that might otherwise be available.
And again, maybe not. Maybe there have been a bunch of “missed opportunities” along the way and it’s been a failing of management. Personally, I’m hard pressed to realistically identify what those might have been and anyone who pretends to know is being disingenuous.
In many ways ownership has been aggressive from the get go and they’ve been willing to make changes along the way, but it seems to me when they hired Ron Francis, they signaled a long, patient approach to building the team on the ice.
You’re cooked Daryl, the Times Comment Section (known bastion of well thought out, rational, and diverse opinions – just ignore the endless calls to fire John Schneider before this year), Nino’s beer league team (I’m sure another go-to source for informed decision making), and the entirety of Reddit and X have created the argumentum ad populum that RF should no longer be the GM of this franchise (he isn’t the GM of the franchise).
Turbo I’m clearly just pointing out that basically any and everywhere you look the city is getting very frustrated with RF and are asking for changes. Making statements to ownership that they are not happy with what RF has done and the direction of their home team. You can take it anyway you want but you can’t possibly be denying that the frustration level is getting very high for RF.
Sure we are not a skilled team. It is enough to look at the statistics and find that the best scoring player in the team is out of the first hundred ranks and the others follow him far behind. They can defend even great way for some time, but winning by defence is in long term impossible. This team is ranked there exactly where it should be. If management will not start to fill the gaps in skills by trade the team will be stuck there for as long as they change their approach.
At this point I’d like to see them play a hard fought game and score at least one goal. That appears to be too much to ask. I don’t think EDM is a great team this year. They’re good but Kraken have been good to. I did not really think they’d get a shut out, but I guess I’m also not surprised.
I had zero expectations for this game and tomorrow night for that matter, so my confidence level has not changed. I was hoping for a collective one point out of those two games and 2 against Chicago. If that happens, they are still in the hunt. If not, it is going to be a challenge.
I was thinking of your Monday Musings math when they lost last night and I completely agree. A win would’ve been nice, but a loss isn’t the end of the road… for me.
I think we are already in the “it’s going to be challenging” department. I don’t know if anyone has looked at the schedule SJ has but they are clearly in control of their own destiny and have a schedule handed down from the hockey gods.
The kraken have a much more challenging schedule and I believe that there is a reason why we have the lowest odds of making the playoffs then all the teams they are fighting with for that last spot.
This is going to be challenging no doubt about it and only achievable if our goalies play Vesna caliber hockey with no letdowns.
We don’t know how to play must win hockey with LL as our coach, everything has to be calculated and slow. Let’s tie hockey is more our game.
But again I don’t think having Colorado destroy us is going to help us in any way or make us more desirable in the FA market or for players resigning. I think what would help most would be having ownership step up and say this isn’t good enough and make changes. That would certainly be a better indicator that we want to be a successful franchise and are not willing to except mediocre hockey.
My spouse and I turned the tables and started yelling, PASS! PASS! during the powerplays! It makes it kind of fun.
As I was watching the game during a kraken power play I suddenly realized that I didn’t know what pass or what play the kraken were trying to set up and that’s a good thing. Last season it was like clock work watching the PP, you knew exactly where the puck was going and what shot they were trying to set up. Although they didn’t score they had some good chances from those passes….
So you’re saying normally you and your spouse are those people that shout “SHOOT!” ?
Maybe Eddie O is rubbing off 😂 old school hockey. The shot is very important if you can get traffic in front or set up a shot that’s dangerous you definitely shoot. If it’s the shots that 90% of the kraken shots were yesterday then I think it’s better to make that pass or at least give it a second to get bodies in front.
This what you get when you play defensive hockey and do not have a backup system. Too many 4th liners on this team
The Kraken is third from bottom in the weakest division in the league. The fact they still have a theoretical shot at making a “wc” playoff spot is risible. 88 pts for a “wc” spot in the East, 77 pts in the West currently.