Surely, the Seattle Kraken would find a way to defeat the Nashville Predators this time, right? Considering the situation entering the game—with the Kraken barely grasping the last wild-card spot and holding a two-point lead over these same Preds, who overcame a two-goal deficit to defeat Seattle just nine days prior—there was just no way the Kraken could lose this one.
But lose it they did.
It wasn’t because they didn’t try hard. They tried. Coach Lane Lambert was complimentary of the effort, in fact. It wasn’t because they didn’t stick to their structure. They defended well in a lot of ways. The Kraken lost, and have continued to lose this month, because they simply don’t have a talented enough group to elevate their game when it matters most. They can’t score when they need a goal, and with their lack of offensive prowess comes close losses to teams they can beat and drubbings by the league’s upper echelon.
Instead, the Predators again rose to the occasion more than the Kraken, drew level in the standings, and knocked Seattle back out of the playoff picture.
Ryan Ufko—who now has two career NHL goals, both against the Kraken—scored first. Freddy Gaudreau tied it, but then a power-play goal by Ryan O’Reilly in the second and an empty-netter from Filip Forsberg were all Nashville needed against Seattle’s paltry offense.
Here are Three Takeaways from an infuriating 3-1 Kraken loss to the Predators in a critical, must-win game.
Takeaway 1: Not good enough
With this latest loss to the Predators, the Kraken—who entered the Olympic break in third place in the Pacific Division and seemed to be riding high toward their second playoff berth in franchise history—have sunk to 4-8-0 in 12 games since returning to action on Feb. 25. Of those four wins, two have come against the last-place-in-the-entire-NHL Vancouver Canucks.
So what’s the problem? Why can’t they start rattling off wins and taking advantage of the fact that they “control their own destiny,” as Lambert has said?
Plain and simple, this team just doesn’t have the players. Sure, there are guys who can put the puck in the net here and there, and Bobby McMann has been a nice addition so far in that area. And when they’re at their best and staying within Lambert’s system, they’re a staunch defensive unit that can steal wins. But if they aren’t at their best, they seem to have no chance—and this team has not been at its best since January.
The lack of top-end players who can generate goals when the Kraken desperately need them—even against what figures to be a non-playoff team like the Predators (well, they were a non-playoff team until they had the good fortune of facing the Kraken twice in nine days)—has plagued this franchise since Day 1.
They must play borderline perfect hockey to win, and now that teams are playing with more emotion and desperation, Seattle’s imperfections are being magnified even more.
By the way, Nashville had its starting goalie get injured in morning skate and was forced to turn to Justus Annunen at the last second. So with their season effectively on the line, what did the Kraken do? They scored one goal against the Nashville backup with a .894 save percentage.
Takeaway 2: Freddy gets off the schneid
This game brought one (1) moment of joy, when Chandler Stephenson set up Freddy Gaudreau for a beautiful goal. It was Gaudreau’s first since Jan. 5, snapping a 25-game goalless drought.
It was a slick play, too. Gaudreau fought his way into the offensive zone and dropped the puck off at the blue line to Kaapo Kakko, then drove to the net. Kakko passed to Stephenson in the left circle. Stephenson delayed, drew two defenders toward him, then threaded the needle back to Gaudreau, who had an open net.
It was a rare glimpse of creativity that tied the game 1-1 at 18:40 of the first period and gave Seattle fans hope that the Kraken could come up with a desperately needed win. That hope was dashed when the Kraken took two penalties in quick succession in the second.
The Gaudreau goal was a nice moment for good guy Freddy, but one goal is not enough to win in the NHL.
Takeaway 3: Rest of division also stinks
What continues to be maddening about this slide is that if the Kraken had just taken a couple more of these winnable games, they’d be in a prime playoff position. But they keep losing and making fans tear their hair out.
Maybe there is something in the universe keeping this team alive, though, because the Pacific Division continues to stink and keep Seattle on life support.
On a night when the Kraken lost their “must-win” game in Nashville, the Vegas Golden Knights lost 4-0 to Utah, the San Jose Sharks lost 5-0 to Buffalo, and the Edmonton Oilers lost 4-0 to the Florida Panthers.
THE KRAKEN PRODUCED MORE OFFENSE THAN THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS, SHARKS, AND OILERS COMBINED?!
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Kings lost 4-3 in a shootout to the Philadelphia Flyers, so Seattle fell one point out of the playoff bubble.
It is still possible that the Kraken could get hot and win the division. That’s insane. How are they even in the playoff conversation at this point?
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.
The effort wasn’t bad, but the execution was horrendous for the Kraken in a 6-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning that took yet another little nibble out of Seattle’s continuously declining playoff chances.
After handing the Lightning a three spot in the first 21 minutes, the Kraken came alive in the second period and made a game of it heading into the third after goals by Bobby McMann (his fourth goal and sixth point in three games as a Kraken) and Jared McCann.
But the class of the Lightning was too much for a Seattle roster that has to play a borderline perfect game to beat top teams in the NHL, and the Kraken were far from that on this night. Tampa Bay ultimately pulled away, riding massive nights from Nikita Kucherov (three goals, two assists), Brandon Hagel (one goal, three assists), and Anthony Cirelli (one goal, two assists) to what proved to be an easy win.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 6-2 Kraken drubbing by the Lightning.
Takeaway 1: “Catastrophic” mistakes
I’m going to first give the Lightning credit, because there’s a reason that Jon Cooper has lasted as long as he has and had the success he’s had as Tampa Bay’s coach. Sure, there’s a ton of talent on the Lightning roster, but in the five years I’ve watched this team beat up on the Kraken, they have consistently swarmed to pucks as well as any team in the league.
In the first period especially, it felt like every time Seattle got control of the puck in its zone, there would be two or three Bolts on the puck carrier, either forcing a turnover or pressuring the Kraken player into making a loose play and handing it to Tampa Bay.
Case in point: the first goal against, which was ultimately scored by former Everett Silvertip Gage Goncalves. On this one, Seattle won the puck away, and it landed on McCann’s stick at the top of the defensive zone. He initially made a good play to cut to his right and gain some space, but then he should have chipped it off the glass and simply gotten it out of harm’s way.
Instead, McCann tried to do too much and painted himself into a corner. He looked to gain ground up the boards but ran right into Darren Raddysh, so he instead tried to go backward and ran into Goncalves. The puck came right back down the Kraken’s throats and ended up in their net to put them into chase mode at 5:45 of the first period.
#SeaKraken having a hard time getting out of their zone when they've gotten the puck.
Here, McCann tried escaping a few different directions instead of chipping it off the glass. Ran out of space and turned it over in a dangerous spot.
“It started with me. Obviously, the first goal [against] there, I turned the puck over at the blue line, and they scored. So, that’s on me,” McCann said.
The second goal against—Kucherov’s first of three on the night—came when Ryan Lindgren tried to push the play up ice quickly but misconnected with Ben Meyers, and Meyers ended up handing it to Kucherov. He and Hagel came back on a quick-developing 2-on-1, and Philipp Grubauer was hung completely out to dry after a nifty give-and-go play, a theme throughout the evening.
While the #SeaKraken failed to generate much of anything in that 1st period, they were also extremely inefficient at getting the puck out of their zone.
“For the most part, it was a fairly even game,” coach Lane Lambert said. “Our mistakes were really catastrophic, obviously some really, really poor decisions… The turnovers, going backwards in our own zone, the second goal, we can just… we’re changing. We should just stay behind the net, get organized. So we’re making some mistakes here that you can’t make. I’m not even going to say they’re uncharacteristic, because apparently they are at the moment, but you can’t make these mistakes.”
Those plays in the first period, a bad change early in the second that created a 3-on-1, and another turnover by Matty Beniers early in the third were enough to do in Seattle in this game. The Lightning tacked on a couple more just for good measure and pulled away for a lopsided result.
Takeaway 2: Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand make their returns
Former Kraken forwards Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand made their returns to Climate Pledge Arena for the first time since being traded away at last season’s trade deadline.
Both players got brief welcome-back videos and gave cordial waves to the home crowd.
While Bjorkstrand had a quiet night, Gourde showed a couple of flashes of what endeared him to fans during the course of his four seasons in the Pacific Northwest.
In the first minute of the third period, Jacob Melanson—who has, in a way, replaced Gourde as Seattle’s resident pest—laid a heavy hit on Gourde along the half wall. Gourde popped back up, and from the way he was looking around, you could tell he was incensed and out for a pound of flesh.
He got his revenge within seconds, catching Meyers with a high hit and sending him flying. Meyers then chased down Gourde and challenged him to a fight, which Gourde definitely won.
“Just a hit, just kind of heat of the moment,” Meyers said. “I didn’t really see him coming, so it just happened quick.”
Did that sequence reignite Tampa Bay after they lost momentum in the second? It’s hard to say, but plays like that by Gourde certainly made him a fun player to watch at times with the Kraken.
Takeaway 3: Pillow fight to the finish?
It’s wild that the Kraken are still in the last wild-card spot in the Western Conference, despite having won just four games out of 11 since the Olympic break. But that’s the conference they’re in, and while they continue making it harder and harder on themselves, they’re somehow still alive and well, holding on by the hair on their chinny-chin-chins.
They now head out on a two-week road trip through Nashville, Columbus, Florida, Tampa Bay (to face these same Lightning… yikes!), and Buffalo. Then they’ll come home for an off day and go back on the road for one more game in Edmonton.
With the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings continuing to do their part, the Kraken just need to string a run of wins together, and they can still (somehow) set themselves right back up as a surefire playoff team.
Losses like the one on Tuesday don’t help their cause, though.
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.
Some weeks in the NHL feel like they hinge entirely on the final game, and this was absolutely one of them. The tone of everything that happened over the last seven days: the frustration, the missed chances, the brief flashes of competence, all came down to what the Kraken did on Sunday. A win would salvage what had otherwise been a brutal stretch in the middle of a playoff race. A loss would have cemented the week as another squandered opportunity at a time when the margin for error is shrinking by the day.
The week started with a maddening 4–2 regulation loss to a desperate Nashville Predators team. The most frustrating part from that game was that the Kraken came out flying, something we hadn’t seen since they returned from the Olympic break. They outshot Nashville 19–7 in the first period and 16–11 in the second, controlling play and dictating pace. But uncharacteristic breakdowns in the second period gifted the Predators three goals, and that was essentially that. Steven Stamkos added an empty‑netter with five seconds left to twist the knife.
That one stung more than a typical regulation loss because of what was at stake. A Kraken win would have pushed Nashville to the brink of irrelevance in the wild‑card race. Instead, for a brief moment, the Predators climbed within two points behind Seattle and three points out of the final playoff spot. In a season defined by razor‑thin margins, that’s the kind of swing you could have felt for weeks.
From there, the Kraken had to rebound against the best team in the league, the Colorado Avalanche. Expectations were low, as they should be when facing a juggernaut, but you still hope for a gutsy effort that maybe steals a point. That didn’t happen. The Kraken fell behind 3–0 in the first period, and coming back from that against Colorado is pretty much impossible. The Avalanche are 37–0 when leading by two or more goals this season. Seattle did manage their first non‑empty‑net shorthanded goal of the year to pull within two, but outside of that moment, there wasn’t much to cheer for. I wasn’t expecting a win, but I expected more compete from a team that’s been spiraling.
That set the stage for a critical Saturday matchup against the lowly Canucks in a game that carried some uncomfortable déjà vu. Leading up to that game, I couldn’t help but think back to last season, when the Canucks were the ones fighting for their playoff lives, and the Kraken marched into Vancouver with a hammer and nails to finish the job. This time, the roles were reversed. Would the Canucks return the favor and drive a dagger into Seattle’s season?
Thankfully, the Kraken showed up. They played on their toes for most of the night and never looked back after Bobby McMann scored his first goal as a Kraken on a soft one given up by Nikita Tolopilo late in the first that give Seattle a 2–1 lead after one.
It was our first real look at McMann since the trade, and he came exactly as advertised, and then some. Two goals, an assist, and a handful of plays where his speed was noticeable either chasing down a puck or catching a rush on the backcheck. I’m not saying he’s going to be a season‑saving difference‑maker, but he clearly makes this team better at a time when they desperately need players to step up.
And that brought us to Sunday, with an even bigger game against the Florida Panthers. With a win, the Kraken could salvage the week and walk away with four of eight possible points. With a loss, the slide would continue, and the playoff picture would get even murkier.
The Sunday game couldn’t have played out much better. The Kraken cruised to a 6–2 win over the Panthers with contributions up and down the lineup, a perfect four‑for‑four night on the penalty kill, and a rock‑solid performance from Joey Daccord. Florida briefly pushed back with an immediate response goal after Seattle went up 2–0 in the first, but the Kraken restored the two‑goal lead before the period ended and coasted from there. It was one of the more stress‑free games this team has played in a long while. Earlier in the evening, the San Jose Sharks lost in regulation to Ottawa, allowing the Kraken to slide back into the second wild‑card spot.
One thing to monitor from this game, Eeli Tolvanen cut his last shift short and went down the tunnel. We’ll see if he’s available on Tuesday when the Tampa Bay Lightning visit.
Overall, the week wasn’t bad, but it came on the heels of the St. Louis and Ottawa losses from the week prior, which made the first two losses feel that much heavier. Four out of eight points, capped by back‑to‑back games where the Kraken scored five or more goals, looks pretty fine on paper, but they need to keep stacking results. The runway is getting shorter, and “fine” won’t be enough for much longer.
How the Pacific fared
As far as the rest of the Pacific went over the last week, the Kraken only lost a tiny bit of ground to the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings.
One of these teams is going to put together a run eventually, and with so many Pacific matchups down the stretch, the race is only going to get more chaotic.
The goaltending rotation
One thing that has been perplexing since the Olympic break is the goaltending rotation. Head coaches tend to get a little cagey or prickly when asked about it, but Joey Daccord has been getting most of the starts since the team returned.
I’m not second‑guessing the decision to lean on Daccord more, but I do wonder about the logic behind the recent over‑reliance on him. It could be Lane Lambert wanting to establish a clearer No. 1 goalie, or it might simply be a matter of giving Philipp Grubauer some rest after he played four games during the Olympic break.
Other musings
Tuesday’s game against Tampa Bay will be the first time Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand return to Seattle after being traded at the deadline last season. They were both fan favorites, and I might shed a tear during the tribute video(s).
The Kraken have the best record among Pacific and wild‑card teams since the Mason Marchment trade on Dec. 19.
According to NaturalStatTrick.com, the Kraken’s expected goals in the Florida game were 2.92, while expected goals against were 3.87. Conversely, their expected goals in the Nashville game were 5.0 compared to 3.07 expected goals against. So, they “deserved” to win the Nashville game and “deserved” to lose the Florida game. I just find that funny.
For most of the season, the Kraken had one of the worst penalty kills in the league. Since the Olympic break, they have the best, killing 90 percent of their penalties.
Considering how valuable he has been, it’s wild to think Ben Meyers started the season in Coachella Valley. His 41 NHL games this year are already a career high. He’s one of the team’s top penalty killers and has contributed offensively on that solid fourth line.
It was an ugly goal, but I just love how Meyers celebrated this one.
#SeaKraken strike first. Great work by Evans to take the puck away at the blue line and then the fourth line gets to work – Meyers taps in the Winterton tip of Gaudreau's shot pic.twitter.com/x3EWyqm5jS
One of the few blemishes in the 6–2 win over Florida was the response goal allowed after Seattle took a 2–0 lead. It was the seventh time this season the Kraken have allowed a goal within 60 seconds of scoring. They allowed only six such goals all of last season. I don’t think it’s a major issue, but it’s something to monitor.
The Kraken continue to be nasty on the second night of back‑to‑backs. They have two more back‑to‑back sets remaining this season.
If you haven’t checked out a Seattle Torrent game, you should. Wednesday’s win over the first‑place Boston Fleet was unreal, with an atmosphere to match.
The very next night, Alex Carpenter of the Seattle Torrent saw Matty’s goal and said, “…but can you do it backhand?”
The two goals were pretty much scored from the exact same spot, 24 hours apart.
Player performances
Tye Kartye (NYR) – Remember this guy? The former Kraken had two goals and four assists over his last four games, the exact same point line as Artemi Panarin over his last four. I think the Rangers found their replacement for Panarin [wink!].
Bobby McMann (SEA) – Since the team finally got his immigration paperwork sorted, McMann has three goals and two assists in his two games over the weekend.
MCMANN CAN! 🚨
Three goals in two games for the new #SeaKraken. Kaapo Kakko picks up his third point of the night on the power play.
Kaapo Kakko (SEA) – Two goals and two assists over his last four games despite playing under 10 minutes in the 5–2 win against Vancouver. It would be nice to see the Kakko–Wright–Catton line get going now.
The week ahead
As of Monday morning, it feels like every Pacific playoff position is up for grabs, as none of the teams are making a run to separate themselves from the pack. Despite playing the Tampa Bay Lightning at home on Tuesday, this might be the easiest week remaining on the Kraken’s schedule. It’s not an easy week by any means, but compared to what’s coming, it’s one of their better opportunities to bank points.
After the home game against Tampa Bay, they hit the road for a big one Thursday in Nashville, then face Columbus on Saturday. Grabbing four of six points would be huge, especially with a particularly daunting week looming right after.
Eventually, one of these Pacific teams is going to get hot, and the Kraken will need to keep pace — or set the pace.
Those aren’t the same Florida Panthers that won the last two Stanley Cups. Badly banged up and often lacking the mojo that carried them to hockey’s highest pedestal the last two years, the Panthers have sunk to last place in the hotly contested Atlantic Division.
But… entering this game, the Seattle Kraken and Florida Panthers—two teams with opposite outlooks about making the postseason this year thanks to a massive disparity in divisional makeup—were even in standings points at 69 (nice… we still make that joke, right?).
With that in mind, this game didn’t matter much for the highly injured Panthers, but it meant the world to the Kraken, who came in one point behind the San Jose Sharks for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Seattle had its ‘A’ game in the second of back-to-backs and rolled to a 6-2 win. Here are Three Takeaways.
Takeaway 1: Everyone producing, suddenly
We should have taken the win Saturday at the Vancouver Canucks with a grain of salt, because the Canucks are… well… terrible. So there was probably a little something in the minds of fans going into Sunday’s game that the Kraken could return home to take on a better team and lay an egg similar to the several eggs they had laid in the four games prior to the Vancouver win.
Credit the players, though, because they came out flying in this one and dominated long swaths of the game.
With Bobby McMann inserted into the lineup on Saturday, coach Lane Lambert has made some tweaks to the forward lines, and suddenly the entire team has gone from “can’t buy a goal” mode to asking, “How many goals should I score tonight?”
After the top line of Matty Beniers, Jordan Eberle, and McMann each had three points in Vancouver, it was the third line of Kaapo Kakko, Shane Wright, and Berkly Catton and the fourth line of Ben Meyers, Freddy Gaudreau, and Ryan Winterton that carried the mail in this one.
“We were just talking about it,” Winterton said. “After the break, we weren’t playing the way we wanted to. I think frustration set in, and I think everyone wanted it. So it’s just a full-team effort, and this time of year, that’s what you’ve got to do.”
Kakko led the way against Florida with a goal and two assists.
🎶 HEYYYYY KAAPO KAKKO! 🚨
4-1 #SeaKraken. Dunn works it low, Kakko uses his long reach and waits out Tarasov.
Kraken are up to four players with two points tonight: Meyers, Winterton, Catton, and Kakko. pic.twitter.com/gZDNaRyyrz
His goal to put the game mostly out of reach at 4-1 was nice, taking a pass from Vince Dunn down low, then walking out to the front and using his long reach to wait out Daniil Tarasov and sweep it around the sprawling goaltender. But his play to set up Berkly Catton’s goal was even better.
Jamie Oleksiak had just made a spectacular play to steal the puck at the top of the left circle, stickhandle around two Panthers, and slide it to Kakko slicing down the slot. Kakko dangled through two defenders, then deked to his backhand and got rejected by Tarasov twice before Catton followed it up and scored.
“[Oleksiak and Kakko] made two great plays, and I just shoveled it in, basically,” Catton said. “That was a really great play by Kaapo, and luckily enough, it just popped out in the right spot.”
“[Kakko has] shown a lot more confidence,” Lambert added. “He’s owning pucks, doing things down low. He’s been really, really good, and it’s good to see those guys get rewarded tonight.”
And how about Oleksiak? Aside from that outstanding assist, he also jumped up in the play late in the game and scored for the second night in a row, bringing Seattle to an all-time record of 16-3-2 in games where the Big Rig scores.
Oleksiak joined a group of five players—along with Catton, Winterton, Meyers, and McMann—to have a goal and an assist in the game.
McMann has had plenty of shine lately on Sound Of Hockey, so we won’t focus on him here, but it is worth noting that his two points now put him at five points since joining the team in earnest. That’s quite the impressive start.
Takeaway 2: What a night for the PK
With McMann’s power-play goal late in the game to make it 5-1, and the penalty kill going 4-for-4, the Kraken officially won the special teams battle in this game.
But what’s not immediately obvious in that stat line is what the PK did in the middle of the second period. Chandler Stephenson and Eeli Tolvanen got called for back-to-back high-sticking penalties, giving Florida 57 seconds of 5-on-3 time and three straight minutes of power-play time.
The trio of Gaudreau, Adam Larsson, and Ryan Lindgren came up huge, using a face-off win to get an immediate clear, then maintaining a tight triangular formation to limit the Panthers to just two real looks in the 5-on-3. Joey Daccord made a great save on one of those two, and Anton Lundell missed wide on the other.
“It was really good,” Lindgren said. “It seemed like we did a really good job of being connected, we pressured when we could, and obviously Joe made some huge saves when he had to. So yeah, it was a critical point in the game, and we did a good job.”
Seattle was up 4-1 at the time, but who knows how much momentum could have swung if Florida had scored a goal or two in that stretch?
Takeaway 3: Good vibes are back
It’s just crazy what a difference a couple of days can make in the NHL. The Kraken went from riding high heading into the Olympic break to feeling like the sky was falling after losing six of eight after the break and dropping out of the playoff bubble.
Now, suddenly, after two good days, they’re right back in the picture and looking like they can play with anybody.
So… bring on the high-flying Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.
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.
McMann (twice) AND McCann scored?! Of course they did.
The Seattle Kraken did what they had to do against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday and picked up two SORELY needed standings points to keep themselves right in the playoff hunt, though they remain on the outside for now.
In this one, the Kraken got solid goaltending from Philipp Grubauer, who made 32 saves, and a huge performance from their newly assembled top line of Jordan Eberle (three assists), Matty Beniers (one goal, two assists), and the famed savior of the franchise Bobby McMann (two goals, one assist) in his Seattle debut.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 5-2 Kraken win over the Vancouver Canucks.
Takeaway 1: Bobby McMann makes a HUGE impact
In a way, Sound Of Hockey has oddly become the foremost source for all things Bobby McMann over the last week and change, practically publishing a daily article about the new Kraken forward. We promise that won’t be the case moving forward…
Unless he makes an impact in every game he plays.
“It almost resembles, in a way, your first game,” McMann said. “You’ve got an entirely new group, new organization, new fans. You want to make a great first impression. Sometimes things go your way a little bit more than other nights. And luckily, that was tonight for me.”
So far, so good after Game 1 of the Bobby McMann Era. In this one, he was physical early, which surely helped him get involved in the action right away after sitting out for almost two weeks between getting scratched for a couple games due to roster management in Toronto and then the whole visa debacle after his trade.
But the more memorable plays from this game came when McMann got himself on the scoresheet for the first and second time as a Kraken and the 20th and 21st time on aggregate this season.
The first one was a critical goal in the game, too. After Evander Kane had tied the score 1-1 at 11:42 of the first period, it looked like Seattle was headed to the dressing room tied and (probably) again questioning itself. Instead, McMann made a simple play to throw the puck toward the net while Shane Wright crashed toward Nikita Tolopilo.
MCMANN CAN! 🚨
In his first #SeaKraken game, Bobby McMann gets his 20th goal of the season.
Wright disrupted Tolopilo but apparently didn't touch it, and Tolopilo slid himself all the way into the net.
While it initially looked like Wright may have gotten a piece of it, replay showed the puck went straight off McMann’s stick and into Tolopilo, who—in the confusion with Wright barreling down the slot—slid himself right into the net, regaining the lead for the Kraken and building some good feelings heading to the dressing room.
“Yeah, I didn’t know [I scored],” McMann said. “I thought he tipped it maybe, because I didn’t know if that one was going in with the shot that I had. So it was more of a pass to him, but I think it just fooled the goalie, because I think he just missed it.”
McMann followed that up by showing impressive chemistry with his linemates, driving to the net off a 3-on-2 rush with Eberle and Beniers. Eberle threaded a beautiful pass through the legs of Linus Karlsson to McMann for an easy backdoor tap-in to make it 4-1 at 4:14 of the third.
MCMANN CAN (AGAIN!) 🚨🚨
You can't make this stuff up. Bobby McMann gets his second as a #SeaKraken.
Tack on a second assist for McMann on Beniers’ goal to make it 5-1, and that was one heck of a debut.
Takeaway 2: Risk and reward of defense joining the rush
On rush opportunities, the Kraken like activating a defenseman to add an extra passing option. This can lead to prime scoring chances, but it can also expose the team defensively if a pass misconnects or a shot goes wide and rattles out of the zone.
In this game, we saw both the benefit and the cost of having a D-man join the rush. After Jared McCann had broken his 10-game goalless drought and given the Kraken a 1-0 lead 4:12 into the game, it looked like he had another chance brewing seven minutes later. McCann drove into the offensive zone on the left flank but got steered into the boards and stripped of the puck by Zeev Buium.
Meanwhile, Brandon Montour had jumped up in the play to give McCann an extra target, but Montour’s partner, Ryan Lindgren, got a few feet too far up ice to cover for Montour. As the Canucks transitioned, Kane got behind both Lindgren and Montour and cruised in for a breakaway goal.
Evander Kane ties it 1-1. #SeaKraken had a rush brewing, but McCann lost it, and Montour and Lindgren were overcommitted offensively. pic.twitter.com/Ny25EPgVd0
But on the other side of the coin, we also saw why it can be a benefit to have a defenseman in the rush. As a 3-on-2 developed for Eberle, Beniers, and Berkly Catton, Jamie Oleksiak hustled to get himself into scoring position in the slot. Now with a 4-on-2 advantage, Beniers found Oleksiak fully uncovered in the middle and dished to the Big Rig, who picked a spot on Tolopilo and ripped it past him.
THE BIG RIG! 🚚 🚨
After the #SeaKraken gave up a goal as a result of a D-man joining the rush earlier, this time, the risk pays off. Beniers sets up Oleksiak, and he rips it home.
“The play at the blue line was the issue,” coach Lane Lambert said about what led to the Kane goal. “What you want to have is… I mean, at the end of the day, you need your defensemen to jump, you need to create outnumbered rushes, but it has to be with some layers. And so if something happens and that puck does get turned over, we need the opposite side defenseman potentially to protect the middle of the ice. They got behind us a couple of times… It’s just something that we’ve got to make sure that we are a little better at.”
Takeaway 3: Kraken stay afloat
The Kraken were incredibly desperate for points coming into this game, and they took care of business against a bad Vancouver team. There was a period of time in the evening when Seattle had fallen three points out of a playoff spot after the San Jose Sharks defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 on the road.
After losing four straight, Seattle had really put itself behind the eight ball. This win over Vancouver stops the bleeding, at least momentarily, and gets them back to one point out of the last wild card.
Because of the team’s recent ineptitude, every game will feel borderline must-win from here on out. Back to work Sunday against the Stanley Cup champs.
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.
Seattle Kraken trade acquisition Bobby McMann is poised to make his team debut Saturday in Vancouver. A protracted visa process (by NHL standards) held him out of three Kraken games since the deal was made.
“It was hard playing the waiting game, trying to be ready…. But I’m happy that’s over with now,” McMann said after morning skate, confirming that his work visa has been approved.
At the time the teams were negotiating the McMann deal, the Kraken’s playoff odds sat at 60 percent, according to MoneyPuck. “[T]his team’s in a playoff position,” GM Jason Botterill said when discussing why the team added McMann.
Unfortunately for the Kraken, all three games McMann “missed” were losses. The team would be outside the playoffs if the season ended today, and its playoff odds have fallen to 32 percent, according to MoneyPuck.
Can Bobby McMann be a difference-maker over the team’s last 18 games? What does he bring to the lineup? We’ll highlight what we saw after reviewing four games in the Bobby McMann film review.
You can follow along below or do your own scouting with all-shifts video from the Maple Leafs’ Feb. 3, 2026, game against the Edmonton Oilers and the Jan. 29, 2026, game against the Kraken.
McMann’s NHL success has been hard-won
McMann, 29, is a 6-foot-2, left-shot winger who took the long route to the NHL. After going undrafted, McMann played four years of college hockey at Colgate University. When his NCAA eligibility was exhausted, he hooked on with the Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs’ AHL affiliate, on an AHL-only deal for the 2020–21 season.
McMann persisted across his first two professional seasons, split between the AHL and ECHL. Eventually, after the 2021–22 season, the Maple Leafs rewarded McMann’s promise with an NHL entry-level contract.
From there, McMann continued to grind in the minor leagues until his NHL debut on Jan. 11, 2023. Fast forward to today, and McMann has amassed 54 goals and 37 assists in exactly 200 NHL games.
“You look at Bobby’s history. He’s worked at every level to get his opportunity to be a successful story at the National Hockey League,” GM Jason Botterill said when introducing the player to the Kraken media.
This profile resonates in Seattle. The Kraken have found success in their history through hard work, not star pedigree. Coach Lane Lambert both exemplifies and demands this mentality.
“He’s worked his way up from, you know, obviously being a free agent in college to the ECHL, to the American Hockey League, to the National Hockey League,” Botterill continued. “[I]t’s a real success story for how hard he’s worked.”
McMann’s skating speed is a difference-making element on the forecheck
McMann’s game-changing element is his skating speed. He can create breakaway chances from turnovers high in the defensive zone or off neutral-zone disruptions—or even a lost face-off. (McMann is No. 74 in white in the animations that follow.)
According to NHL Edge, Bobby McMann has the fourth-fastest top skating speed at 24.25 miles per hour (MPH), behind only Connor McDavid, Logan Cooley, and Jake Sanderson.
He also reaches this high gear very frequently. McMann is in the 97th percentile of total 22+ MPH speed bursts and the 98th percentile of 20+ MPH speed bursts. These figures are slightly higher on a per-minute basis.
It makes sense, then, that the first word Botterill used to describe Bobby McMann’s game is “speed.”
McMann’s speed stresses a defense on the forecheck, and he recovers dump-ins by closing gaps faster than anticipated. This makes him a tailor-made winger for Coach Lane Lambert’s system—which, of course, the coach knows from their time together in Toronto last season.
McMann is capable of deploying his speed in neutral-zone transition, but low usage, average puck-possession ability through traffic, and a pass-first mindset limit the overall impact as an ice-tilter. Still, manual tracking from All Three Zones reveals McMann as a highly effective forechecker.
Data and visualization by AllThreeZones
Rather than carry the puck across the blue line, he usually opts for something safer and will look to dump and recover. This conservative approach has resulted in very low “giveaway” numbers, but it has muted his overall transition and offensive play-driving impact.
McMann’s shoot-first mentality is a perfect fit
McMann’s other standout attribute is his shot and shoot-first mentality. If he gets the puck in the circles or below, he rarely turns down a chance. This could mesh well with a lineup of playmaking-inclined forwards.
Beyond that, McMann’s workmanlike approach in transition carries over into the offensive zone. When in doubt, McMann cycles the puck deep and works to recover it in the corners.
Off the puck, he’ll work to the net front, where he is a willing presence despite an average-sized frame. He also rotates into space well for one-timers.
McMann played net front on Toronto’s second-unit power play, though this may have been by default and in deference to the team’s other talented players. Even so, he showed capable hands and instincts in that role. He may be a one-for-one replacement for the injured Jaden Schwartz there.
McMann’s 19 goals would be second on the Kraken and were fourth on the Maple Leafs. “[W]e’re a team that needs to continue to work on getting pucks to the net, increasing our shot totals. That’s what Bobby does,” Botterill said after the trade.
Visualization by HockeyViz
McMann is a committed off-puck, defensive presence
McMann plays with a physical edge on the forecheck and defensively. His 135 hits would be third on the Kraken (behind Tolvanen and Melanson) and were third on the Maple Leafs.
Conversely, he’s only taken 45 hits this season, which likely speaks both to McMann’s speed and his low-possession, support game.
Defensively, McMann will backcheck hard and is engaged and always scanning in the defensive zone. McMann will get low to defend when the coverage dictates, but he is at his best in high coverage, where he uses his instincts and strong first step to create puck pressure at the blue line that stresses opponents.
He uses his skating ability to track (and catch) his player in coverage well and has good length and reach on stick checks.
McMann is a Lambert-style, complementary winger
In sum, McMann is a versatile and hardworking support player. He hasn’t been a primary puck transporter through the neutral zone (though there may be some untapped potential there), nor is he going to dissect an offensive zone from the half wall on the power play. He’s a north-south player who wastes no time getting himself and the puck to the net.
When asked if Botterill saw Bobby McMann as a “top-six” forward, Botterill stressed his versatility to play up and down the lineup. “Look, I think what we’re doing—that’ll be up to Lane on where he puts him into the lineup from that standpoint,” Botterill said. This is what I saw on tape too.
More pregame reading
Looking for other stories on Bobby McMann and the trade? Sound Of Hockey has you covered.
Darren Brown has a pregame report from Vancouver. Darren also had an interview with McMann, introducing you to the player on and off the ice, and Darren analyzed the visa delay in his most recent Three Takeaways.
John Barr added his thoughts on how the lineup could look in Monday Musings. In a Down on the Farm column, I analyzed what the deal meant for Seattle’s remaining trade assets and its pursuit of a star player.
Curtis Isacke
Curtis is a Sound Of Hockey contributor and member of the Kraken press corps. Curtis is an attorney by day, and he has read the NHL collective bargaining agreement and bylaws so you don’t have to. He can be found analyzing the Kraken, NHL Draft, and other hockey topics on Twitter and Bluesky @deepseahockey.
