Last week I mentioned that three out of six points in a challenging week of games would be a great target for the Seattle Kraken. They ended up with four points, which is great, but it’s hard to feel good about the team when they finished the week with a dud against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night, losing 5-1 at home. That, my friends, is recency bias. We tend to weigh the most recent events more heavily than the ones that came before them.

Recapping the week, the Kraken recovered from two third-period collapses against the Red Wings and Mammoth. Against Detroit, Seattle dominated for two periods before relinquishing a 3-0 lead, then bounced back to win in a shootout. Against Utah, the Kraken carried a 3-1 lead into the third period, only to see the Mammoth score twice in the first 10 minutes and tie the game. Seattle eventually regained its footing and scored the game-winner with roughly five minutes remaining.

The Red Wings and Mammoth games felt similar, but in my opinion were very different. Against Detroit, the Kraken were clearly the better team and controlled most of the game until penalty trouble gave the Red Wings life in the third period. The Mammoth game felt much more evenly matched. Utah is one of the better teams in the league and is loaded with talent, but the Kraken matched up well and gave us a good glimpse of how they stack up against stronger competition.

Not so wild on Saturday night

Then there was the Wild game in front of a packed Climate Pledge Arena crowd on Saturday night.

It was a rough start for the Kraken when an Adam Larsson pinch created a breakaway opportunity for one of the league’s best goal scorers, Kirill Kaprizov. Kaprizov is pretty much automatic in those situations, and he buried it just 26 seconds into the game. The Kraken tied things up about 10 minutes later when Kaapo Kakko found Berkly Catton with a beautiful cross-crease pass, and it looked like we were in for one heck of a game.

Wild forward Blake Coleman committed a penalty as time expired in the first period, giving the Kraken a power play to open the second. Overall, I thought the Kraken power play looked good, but as the penalty expired, Seattle was in the middle of a line change. An unfortunate turnover ultimately led to Wild defenseman Matt Kiersted finding Coleman behind the Kraken defense for another Minnesota breakaway goal.

That goal seemed to deflate the Kraken. The Wild controlled the remaining 18 minutes of the second period, carried a 4-1 lead into the second intermission, and later added an empty-net goal.

Minnesota is a very talented team, and while the Coleman goal wasn’t “lucky,” it was the result of a mistake, and the Wild made the Kraken pay for it. After the first period, Seattle looked good, and I was excited to see how competitive they could be against another of the better teams in the league. Without that Coleman goal, I think we would have been treated to a much more interesting battle.

Don’t lose sight of the big picture

Despite the loss to the Wild, let’s not lose sight of the Kraken taking care of business against the Red Wings and earning an impressive win over the Utah Mammoth. Through 12 games, the Kraken have the most wins in franchise history at this point in a season and continue to be a fun team to watch.

It was a week-long test, and they passed. That said, they’ll face a different kind of challenge over the next few months.

The injury bug

In case you missed it, the Kraken placed all-time franchise leading scorer Jared McCann on injured reserve Saturday, with an estimated return timeline of 10 weeks.

Before the season began, we noted that one of the things that needed to go right was avoiding the injury bug that nagged this team last season. McCann played through injuries during parts of each of the last two seasons, but replacing his production won’t be easy.

Enter Jani Nyman.

Nyman has been knocking on the door for a while, and McCann’s absence may create the perfect opportunity. Technically, McCann plays left wing and Nyman plays right wing, so there will need to be some adjustments. My guess is that Nyman starts higher in the lineup while Ryan Winterton shifts back to that productive fourth line with Ben Meyers and Freddy Gaudreau.

McCann led Kraken forwards in power-play ice time through Thursday’s game against Utah, which now leaves an opening on the top unit. Mackie Samoskevich got that opportunity Saturday night, but I’d imagine Lane Lambert will want to see what Nyman’s shot can do on the power play.

Of course, he won’t simply be handed the job. He’ll have to show he can handle NHL speed and be reliable when the Kraken don’t have the puck. That was the challenge for him in his 28 NHL games last season.

Other Musings

• The Kraken are 6-0-1 when scoring first and 1-4-0 when allowing the first goal.
• The Kraken remain undefeated when holding a three-goal lead, though they certainly made it interesting Tuesday by blowing a 3-0 advantage against Detroit before eventually winning in a shootout.
• The Kraken have not beaten the Minnesota Wild in Seattle since Oct. 28, 2021.
• Mackie Samoskevich scored his fifth goal of the season against Utah on Thursday. Last season, he didn’t score his fifth goal until late January. He’s averaging only about 45 more seconds of ice time per game than he did a year ago. His shooting percentage sits at 26.3 percent, which may not be sustainable.
• Speaking of shooting percentage, Freddy Gaudreau is shooting 42.9 percent.
• A Kraken second-round selection from the 2025 NHL Draft, Blake Fiddler logged his first NCAA goal for the Denver Pioneers over the weekend.

Performances of the Week

Brandon Montour (SEA) – Two goals and two assists on the week. He also set a franchise record for time on ice in a regular-season game, logging 30:44 against Detroit on Saturday.

Philipp Grubauer (SEA) – Grubauer continues his steady play, picking up two wins in two starts.

Clarke Caswell (DU/SEA) – Seattle’s fifth-round selection in the 2024 NHL Draft recorded four assists in Denver’s two-game series against Boston College over the weekend.

Goal of the Week

I love this sequence at a crucial time in the game that ended up being the game winner against Utah.

McMann streaks down the left side and nearly beats Vejmelka short side. The #SeaKraken stick with it, and McMann slides the puck over to Samoskevich for his fifth goal of the season.

Kraken lead 4-3 with 4:26 remaining. https://t.co/RnGnmgOKkL

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) October 23, 2026

I also loved this one, so just casually dropping it in here.

MATTY MAGIC! 🚨

But also, Berkly Magic and Kaapo Magic.

Catton breaks Lawson Crouse’s ankles, then finds Kakko at the net front. Kakko sets up Beniers for a tap-in. Power-play goal.

2-1 #SeaKraken through 20 minutes. https://t.co/ViAKbn7BNt

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) October 23, 2026

The road ahead

It’s a light schedule for the Kraken over the next two weeks, with only four games before the trip to Helsinki.

Seattle welcomes the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday. Toronto is riding a four-game winning streak, most recently pounding the Edmonton Oilers 7-2 on Saturday. The Leafs sit third in the Atlantic Division with a 7-4-2 record and are the only team in the league with five players who have already scored at least five goals this season.

The Kraken swept the season series last year, but Toronto looks deeper, healthier, and much more dangerous this time around. This will be a challenge.

In the week’s only other game, Seattle heads to Calgary on Friday for what will be the Kraken’s final visit to the Saddledome. The Kraken rolled the Flames during opening week, outscoring them 12-2 across two games.

However, Calgary has won four of its last five games, with victories over Carolina, Minnesota, Anaheim, and Detroit. Three of those wins came with Devin Cooley in goal. Cooley has been one of the hottest goaltenders in the league and did not face the Kraken in either of the teams’ first two meetings. I don’t think we can consider Calgary an easy out anymore, at least not right now.

Two out of four available points would be perfectly acceptable, but it sure would be nice to grab three.

It’s a small sample size, but the Kraken have consistently responded well after losses this season, so Wednesday’s game against Toronto will be interesting. Another storyline to watch is whether Jani Nyman makes his 2026-27 debut. My guess is that he appears in at least one of these games, which means the lines will almost certainly shift as a result.