When we heard Thursday’s Kraken game at Boston was jersey retirement night for Bruins legend Zdeno Chara, we knew it would be an uphill battle for Seattle, facing an emotional team and playing its second game of a back-to-back with travel. What we didn’t necessarily expect (and maybe we should have) was just how early into the game the hill to climb would turn into a mountain.
With the Bruins riding the Chara wave, the Kraken fell behind very early yet again and then spent the entire game trying to dig their way out. They pushed hard in the closing minutes but came up short in the end.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-2 Kraken loss to the Bruins.
Takeaway 1: Another bad start and other similarities to Wednesday at NJ
After Wednesday’s game in New Jersey, I started ringing alarm bells about Seattle conceding early goals after it had given up the icebreaker in four straight games. That trend turned into a clear and present danger Thursday—and one that needs to be addressed.
On Wednesday against the Devils, the Kraken gave up the opener 54 seconds in when Cody Glass found a rebound for an easy tap-in goal. On Thursday, Marat Khusnutdinov burned around Cale Fleury and then deked past Joey Daccord, who had dropped to his butterfly far too early and had no chance of recovering. Daccord, by the way, was just OK in this one, stopping 20 of 23 shots.
The time of Khusnutdinov’s goal? 54 seconds… AGAIN! What are the chances of that?!
The Kraken continued to drag a$$ for the next three minutes, and although they had numbers back on a rush, Jaden Schwartz and Fleury seemed to get crossed up momentarily in coverage. Schwartz recovered and got his stick on Viktor Arvidsson’s shot-pass to Casey Mittelstadt, but Schwartz poked the puck right into an open net, giving Arvidsson the goal and Boston a 2-0 lead.
To Lane Lambert’s credit, he immediately used his timeout. He was demonstrative and stern in his address to the team, and from the next face-off on, Seattle controlled the rest of the first period.
Another similarity to the night before: Seattle did get on the board within eight minutes, scoring five seconds into a power play drawn by Kaapo Kakko—the exact same amount of time that elapsed before Jared McCann scored a power-play goal Wednesday.
The problem this time, though, was that the Kraken didn’t get themselves sorted as quickly as they had the night before and allowed a second goal in between their opponent’s first goal and their own. That second one against came back to bite Seattle and meant chasing for the entire game.
Takeaway 2: Some good, some bad from power play
The Kraken power play converted twice in this game, improving to seventh in the entire NHL at 23.7 percent on the season, which accounted for all of Seattle’s offense. As mentioned in Takeaway 1, Chandler Stephenson cut the deficit to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 7:29 of the first period. Stephenson won the draw to Matty Beniers and then headed toward the net. Beniers poked it up to Vince Dunn, who sent it across to McCann at the top of the right circle. McCann then rifled a shot-pass to Stephenson at the top of the crease, who redirected it into an open net.
They made that one look easy.
Seattle added its second power-play goal at 12:27 of the second period, after Brandon Montour’s shot off the end wall skipped right to Eeli Tolvanen in the right circle. Tolvanen quickly sniped it over Jeremy Swayman’s left shoulder to pull the Kraken within 3-2.
Sandwiched between those two power-play goals, though, was a lackadaisical play by Beniers four minutes into the second period. He slowly drifted back to retrieve a puck in Seattle’s zone and, rather than turning on the jets to create separation from Mark Kastelic, tried a little shimmy-and-escape move. He was moving so slowly that it was an easy read for Kastelic, who picked Beniers’ pocket, went in on a breakaway, and scored a short-handed goal to put Boston up 3-1 at the time.
Despite a strong push late in the third, Tolvanen’s goal stood as Seattle’s final tally of the night, meaning Kastelic’s shorty ended up as the game-winner.
It was a rare misstep by Beniers, but a critical one nonetheless.
As I wrote earlier in the week, we knew the Kraken had difficult lineup and roster decisions coming with Brandon Montour nearing a return from a hand injury that sidelined him for a month. In that article, I predicted Ryan Winterton—one of just three players, along with Jacob Melanson and Shane Wright, eligible for assignment to the AHL without having to clear waivers—would be sent down to the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
Instead, the Kraken scratched Melanson Wednesday, then reassigned him to CV on Thursday when they activated Montour from injured reserve.
The decision was a “six in one, half-dozen in the other” situation, because the front office surely didn’t want to lose a player to waivers, but also likely didn’t want to send either Melanson or Winterton down. Something had to give, though, with the lineup fully healthy for the first time all season, and this was the call they made.
Interestingly, on the same day the grittiest player on the team was sent down, Winterton had his first NHL fight after taking a nasty hit from Alex Steeves and then standing up for himself instead of letting Vince Dunn do his bidding.
I wouldn’t have liked the call to send Winterton down either, but I especially don’t like the decision to reassign Melanson. The team turned things around when he arrived in the NHL, and since he’s come out of the lineup, the Kraken have put together two straight uninspiring performances and gone 0-1-1. I’ll reiterate what I wrote in my previous article: I’d like to see the team make a trade to clear out its logjam, improve offensively, and get Melanson a permanent spot on the fourth line.
For as effective as Tye Kartye and Freddy Gaudreau can be as fourth-line players, the Kraken need to do what they can to reunite Winterton with Ben Meyers and Melanson. When those three played together, they looked like one of the best fourth lines in the NHL. Any other combination just doesn’t seem to work as well.
By the way, with Montour back in, Ryker Evans was healthy scratched. It wasn’t a bad call, given that Evans has had some tough outings lately, but Fleury also did not have a great game against the Bruins. I’m curious to see if things look different Saturday in Utah, as Lambert tries to salvage the final two points from an otherwise disappointing road trip on which the Kraken currently sit at 1-2-1.
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.
Although the Kraken are just a Brandon Montour (and a Matt Murray) away from having their full lineup available for the first time all season, they did not have their best performance in a 3-2 overtime loss to the reeling New Jersey Devils on Wednesday.
In a tough-sledding affair, Seattle didn’t get much going offensively in regulation—though the Kraken were buoyed by an opportunistic Adam Larsson goal and a power-play goal from Jared McCann—and then bungled the 3-on-3 OT period, as they did against the Minnesota Wild last week (the last time they went to OT).
The point is valuable and puts the Kraken two points clear of the idle San Jose Sharks for third place in the Pacific Division. But as coach Lane Lambert said after the game, Seattle left “something on the table” in this one.
Here are Three Takeaways from a low-energy, low-event 3-2 Kraken loss to the Devils.
Takeaway 1: Another early goal against
The Kraken have seen an uncomfortable trend emerge recently, giving up the first goal early in games. In fact, it has happened in each of the last four contests—three times with Philipp Grubauer in net and once with Joey Daccord.
Against Minnesota on Thursday, Ryan Hartman scored first at the 5:00 mark. At Carolina on Saturday, Logan Stankoven scored at 3:23. Against the New York Rangers on Monday, Mika Zibanejad scored at 3:08, followed by Sam Carrick at 5:31.
And on Wednesday in New Jersey, a Dougie Hamilton shot from the point was tipped on the way in, leaving an easy tap-in for Cody Glass on the rebound. That goal came immediately following a defensive-zone face-off and put the Kraken back to chasing just 54 seconds into the game.
#SeaKraken trailing early, yet again. Dougie Hamilton's shot got deflected, which led to an easy Cody Glass rebound goal.
While the Kraken have consistently rallied back in each of these games, they’re still just 1-1-2 over that stretch. Zooming out, they’ve done a pretty good job of scoring first this season, but they need to nip this recent early-goal trend in the bud before it turns into a larger—and more damaging—issue.
Takeaway 2: Another bad OT period
After what was easily Seattle’s worst overtime performance of the season against the Wild on Thursday, the Kraken looked only marginally better in the extra frame this time and came away with the same result.
New Jersey controlled the puck for almost the entire 3:42 of overtime, leading up to Nico Hischier’s second goal of the game and the game-winner. Jordan Eberle did have two looks after a fortunate bounce deep in the Devils’ end but couldn’t convert, and Vince Dunn also had a chance just before the deciding goal against.
Unfortunately for Dunn—who also assisted on both Kraken goals in this game—he picked exactly the wrong time to go for a line change.
#SeaKraken lose 3-2 after another very sloppy overtime period.
Vince Dunn picked a bad time to change here, which sent Nico Hischier on a partial breakaway. Second goal of the game for Hischier.
You can see how he made the decision. Eberle appeared to have Hischier covered, and Matty Beniers was also back, so from Dunn’s perspective there was sufficient coverage for a quick change. But the timing was off, with New Jersey having just gotten possession. Making matters worse, just as Dunn headed for the bench, Eberle switched sides to chase Jack Hughes, leaving a clear lane for Hischier up the ice. Hughes hit Hischier with a cross-ice pass, and he was off to the races, deking and beating Grubauer for the 3-2 final.
Takeaway 3: McCann/Wright/Catton line is cooking
The only line that produced anything on this night was the third line of Jared McCann, Shane Wright, and Berkly Catton. That trio has really been humming lately, and on Catton’s 20th birthday, they connected once again.
Eight minutes after Glass gave the Devils an early lead, McCann took a perfect stretch pass from Dunn that put New Jersey’s defenders on their heels. Wright drove to the net and pushed New Jersey back, and McCann tried a quick feed to Catton racing down the opposite wing but fanned on the puck. Instead of panicking or forcing the issue, McCann reset and laid it back for a trailing Adam Larsson, who skated into it and ripped a shot over Jacob Markstrom to tie the game 1-1 at 8:55 of the first period.
THE BIG CAT! 🦁
Jared McCann whiffed on his initial pass to Berkly Catton, so Catton went to the net, and McCann passed to a trailing Adam Larsson instead. Larsson rips it home with Catton at the goalmouth.
McCann also scored a power-play goal, cleaning up a Dunn rebound just five seconds into a man-advantage opportunity to tie the game 2-2 at 5:06 of the second. With his goal and assist Wednesday, McCann now has 10 points (5-5—10) in 10 games since returning from injury on Dec. 28.
He’s been a nice, steadying presence for the young players he’s skating with, and they seem to be working off each other well. Catton, in particular, was especially good in this game and seems to be gaining more and more confidence with every outing alongside McCann.
With Chandler Stephenson returning to the lineup Wednesday after the birth of his third child, I was surprised that Jacob Melanson was the player Lambert chose to scratch. After all, he had seemed to be a catalyst in getting this team moving back in the right direction when he was inserted onto the fourth line a few weeks ago.
Given that they played what Lambert called a “slow” game against the Devils, one has to imagine Melanson will be back in the lineup Thursday in Boston, on a night when the Bruins will be highly motivated and Seattle will have to wait around for Zdeno Chara’s No. 33 to be lifted to the rafters in a pregame ceremony.
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 Seattle Torrent joining the fold here in the Pacific Northwest is a move that quickly made history in the sports community, both locally and beyond. For a city whose hockey culture has been steadily growing since the introduction of the Kraken, a professional women’s team has the potential to grow the fanbase even more. The Torrent have had some ups and downs in the early stages of their first season, but they’ve received unwavering support so far, which will hopefully only grow with on-ice improvement over time.
The expansion into the Seattle sports market was a smart one – when you combine the die-hard loyalty of Seattle sports fans with the excitement of a new franchise, you start to see some sports magic happen. This excitement was present when the Kraken were introduced, and the city rallied behind them. That magic continued when the Torrent started off their inaugural season. In their first regular-season game, the fans here in Seattle broke the attendance record for the PWHL, drawing 16,014. They haven’t reached that number in games since, but home attendance has remained strong, giving an early indication that the city’s support of the team is sustainable.
The fact that the Torrent have had three of their four wins come on home ice has definitely helped draw in more fans in the area. But, they are starting to make some progress on the road too, as just last Saturday they got their first win away from Climate Pledge Arena, a 3-2 victory against the Toronto Sceptres in Hamilton, Ont.
Plus, they started off the new calendar year on a good note, which always helps.
The Torrent have a star-studded roster that should continue to bring excitement into the arena as they start to straighten out some of the bumps they have run into in the past few games. The top line will be something to continue to watch, specifically. It includes Captain Hilary Knight, Alex Carpenter, and Julia Gosling who together have scored 10 of the Torrent’s 20 goals this season, with Knight also leading the team in assists. The Torrent’s roster is set up for success (and some exciting hockey) once they solidify their consistency throughout the three periods on the ice.
This success won’t just come from the top lines though, as the Torrent have proven to have some depth to their roster. Young players like Hannah Bilka have shown up in critical moments. The team also has some versatile goaltending options between young Hannah Murphy and veteran Corinne Schroeder. Seattle is set up to grow into a tough competitor, and their strong start with the fans proves that the city is ready for it.
Captain Hilary Knight skates towards the puck. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
The challenge lying ahead…
While everyone hopes that the team will continue to win and improve its chemistry together, the fans will have to take a short break from watching the Torrent to turn their attention towards the Olympics. Luckily for Seattle fans, the Torrent has six players that are set to play at those Games. The USA lineup will include Alex Carpenter, Cayla Barnes, Hannah Bilka, and USA captain Hilary Knight, whose appearance will make this her fifth Olympics. Julia Gosling will join Team Canada’s roster, and Aneta Tejralová will be playing for Czechia.
The Olympic break has the potential to spotlight some of the Torrent players while also giving them some time to play with the most elite in the game. Hopefully the scale of attention and level of play that will be placed on them will follow them back to Seattle for the rest of the regular season and bring added interest in the women’s game. The Olympics coinciding with the start of the Torrent’s introduction to the league makes for an incredibly entertaining first season for Seattle fans.
The Torrent are just at the beginning of their story here in Seattle. Establishing themselves within the Seattle market has already been accomplished with their impressive first turnout of the season, but the next step is to continuing to grow their identity within that space. The Torrent’s performance and fan engagement post Olympics will be the next big step in building up that team identity to further solidify themselves as both a strong competitor in the PWHL and within the market here in Seattle.
[Knock on wood, knock on wood, knock on wood.] At the risk of jinxing them, the Seattle Kraken seem to be getting healthier with every passing day.
Jaden Schwartz returned to the lineup Saturday in Carolina after missing 19 games with a lower-body injury. His return coincided with Chandler Stephenson exiting and being designated as a non-roster player due to the birth of his third child. Stephenson missed two games and is expected to return Wednesday when the Kraken visit the New Jersey Devils. On Monday, captain Jordan Eberle returned from a two-game absence related to an upper-body injury.
Meanwhile, defenseman Brandon Montour—who has been out with a Mason Marchment-related hand injury since Dec. 16—has returned to practice and skated with the team again on Tuesday. Based on this and his original timeline, Montour could be nearing a return within the next few games.
If nobody else gets sick or injured in the next two contests, difficult decisions will have to be made by the Kraken brass as they decide who to scratch—and eventually who to send down to the Coachella Valley Firebirds—to make room for returning regulars.
The immediate conundrum – who to scratch against the Devils?
Stephenson will almost certainly slot back into his second-line center role Wednesday. Without Stephenson, the forward lines for a 4-2 win at the New York Rangers on Monday looked like this:
Kaapo Kakko // Matty Beniers // Jordan Eberle Jaden Schwartz // Freddy Gaudreau // Eeli Tolvanen Berkly Catton // Shane Wright // Jared McCann Jacob Melanson // Ben Meyers // Ryan Winterton
With Stephenson back, who do you scratch if you’re Lane Lambert? Even that is a tough question to answer because the fourth line of Melanson/Meyers/Winterton has been the lynchpin for this team’s turnaround over the last month. But I would be surprised to see any player from the top three lines come out, especially after all three of those lines contributed to the comeback win at Madison Square Garden on Monday.
Entering a back-to-back with travel against the Devils and Bruins, Lambert was unsurprisingly vague on his plans when asked about this so-called “good problem” by Bob Condor on Tuesday in New Jersey. “You take it one [game] at a time, so we’ll see where we’re at and set our lineup for tomorrow and deal with the Boston game when that comes. But certainly, there are some healthy bodies, and we have some numbers and some people that maybe we can put in some fresh legs.”
If it were my decision, I’d probably put Stephenson at 2C, Gaudreau at 4C, and scratch Meyers—only because that feels like the least disruptive option. My second choice would be to move Gaudreau to fourth-line wing and scratch Winterton.
I don’t particularly like either option, but something will have to give.
What happens when Montour returns?
The bigger question—and again, this is all mooted if somebody gets sick or injured in the next couple of days—is what happens when Montour returns. The Kraken are currently at their 23-man roster limit, and that doesn’t include goaltender Matt Murray, who is still on injured reserve.
Once Montour is activated, Seattle will have to make a corresponding move. There are only three players who can be sent to the Coachella Valley Firebirds without being exposed to waivers: Wright, Winterton, and Melanson. Any other candidates—like Kartye, Meyers, Cale Fleury, or even Josh Mahura (yes, I think Mahura could be a candidate)—would have to be exposed to a claim from another team before they could be sent to the AHL. One could imagine a world in which any of those waivers-eligible players gets snatched up by a banged-up team looking for depth.
My preference would be for the Kraken to make a trade or two to clear out their multiple logjams of middle-to-bottom-six forwards and depth defensemen. But if that doesn’t happen, then my pick—and I really hate this call—would be to send Winterton to CV with the expectation that he comes back as soon as a spot opens up.
If that happens (or if Melanson gets sent down), the reasoning surely wouldn’t be because the Kraken front office thinks the player deserves a demotion. Instead, it would be done purely from an asset-management perspective. I do think this is the right approach, because the second the Kraken lose one of their depth guys to waivers, another player will get hurt, and they’ll be kicking themselves for losing a useful replacement.
This is also the exact reason that waivers exist; to protect the more veteran players from being sent haphazardly to the AHL.
The curious case of Matt Murray
Adding another curious wrinkle to all this is the fact that the Kraken still have a third goalie waiting in the wings in Matt Murray. Murray has been on injured reserve since coming up lame against the San Jose Sharks way back on Nov. 15. He’s been practicing in full for quite some time now and is being slow-played by the Kraken, who are no doubt hesitant to activate him and use up a scarce roster spot.
At some point, they’ll have no choice but to activate Murray because according to the collective bargaining agreement, once a player is healthy enough to play, he must come off IR.
One has to wonder whether Murray gets sent to CV for a conditioning stint, which could buy a little more time before another roster decision has to be made. Murray would have to agree to such a loan, however, and may not want to go to the minors.
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These things have had a way of working themselves out so far this season. Every time Seattle has appeared to be getting healthy, somebody else has gone down with yet another injury, and the decisions have made themselves.
But if that doesn’t happen this time, and everyone ends up available at once, how would you solve these conundrums?
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.
Those were two very large points for the Seattle Kraken, who overcame an early 2-0 deficit to escape from New York with a 4-2 win over the Rangers.
After Seattle saw its 10-game point streak snapped with a regulation loss Saturday in Carolina, getting back in the win column against a recently struggling team felt crucial. It wasn’t easy, but the Kraken figured it out.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-2 Kraken win over the Rangers.
Takeaway 1: Grubauer and Kraken recover after sketchy start
There are probably some in the Kraken fanbase who still feel spikes in their blood pressure when the Kraken give up an early goal with Philipp Grubauer in net. In a previous version of Grubi, it was something we saw all too often, and the current version of Grubauer—Renaissance Grubi, as we’re calling him—has now given up early goals in his last two starts. The big difference between Renaissance Grubi and the old version of Grubi, though, is that he doesn’t seem to get rattled by early goals anymore.
Just as Grubauer did against Minnesota on Thursday—when the Kraken also rallied back from a 2-0 deficit and forced overtime—he settled into his game as it went on and once again gave his team a chance to complete the comeback, which they did this time.
The Rangers’ first goal was an odd one. Soon after an ineffective early power play ended, Mika Zibanejad missed the net with a shot, then beat Vince Dunn to the loose puck and chipped it toward Grubauer from below the goal line. Grubauer was sliding back toward the net and looking the wrong direction, and he dragged the puck into the net behind him. Give credit to Zibanejad, because it’s a smart play to quickly chip that toward the goalie, but it’s also a strange goal to give up.
The next one was certainly not on Grubauer, but it came just 2:23 later, which made me wonder briefly if the netminder was off his game. Jared McCann tried to one-touch a breakout pass off the wall in the neutral zone backward toward Dunn, but inadvertently fired a missile six inches off the ice that was far too hot for Dunn to handle. That handed the Rangers a quick-developing 2-on-1, and Sam Carrick beat Grubauer from point-blank range.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Quick looked like a world-beater at the other end of the ice, stopping three Grade A Seattle chances in the first period, including a breakaway from Ryan Winterton.
Despite a few good chances, the vibes after that opening frame were not good, especially when the Kraken Hockey Network flashed the stat that the Rangers entered the game 12-0-0 on the season when leading after the first period.
BUT…
Grubauer and his teammates recovered and were visibly the better squad from the second period on, owning a 21-10 shots-on-goal advantage over the final 40 minutes. Grubauer made a few sharp saves the rest of the way, but his biggest stop of the night came with the Rangers pushing for the equalizer in the final 30 seconds, robbing J.T. Miller from about two feet away.
Takeaway 2: Kraken were a different team in the second
The Kraken needed to shake off that first period, and they certainly did, scoring two quick goals to tie the game by the 4:27 mark of the middle frame.
The second line—still without Chandler Stephenson due to the birth of his third child—got things started offensively when Freddy Gaudreau stole a puck in the neutral zone to create a 2-on-1. He made an exquisite backhand saucer pass to Eeli Tolvanen, who chipped the puck up and over Quick to get Seattle on the board.
Three minutes later, the top line of Kaapo Kakko, Matty Beniers, and Jordan Eberle—the captain was back in the lineup after a two-game hiatus—took the baton and went to work. Beniers retrieved a Dunn rebound at the left half wall and worked it low to Kakko. Kakko, making his triumphant return to Madison Square Garden, threaded a perfect pass through three Rangers defenders to Eberle at the top of the slot. Eberle delayed and waited for Quick to drop down, then sniped a perfect shot into the top-right corner to tie the game.
O, CAPTAIN! 🫡 🚨
Kaapo Kakko with a great setup to Jordan Eberle, who dusts it off and snipes the top corner.#SeaKraken have started shooting high on Jonathan Quick, a wise adjustment.
That second line of Schwartz, Gaudreau, and Tolvanen was excellent in this game, by the way, and as BFOP Alison Lukan pointed out on the KHN post-game show, they controlled 98 percent of the shot quality when they were on the ice. That’s especially impressive considering they were deployed heavily against Artemi Panarin, Zibanejad, and Will Cuylle.
Takeaway 3: Third line finishes the comeback
While the top two lines were responsible for pulling Seattle back into the game in the second, it was the third line of Berkly Catton, Shane Wright, and Jared McCann that completed the comeback. Wright carried the puck into the zone and dropped it for McCann just inside the blue line. McCann shoveled it to Ryan Lindgren—also making his triumphant return to MSG—who had activated and was cutting down the slot.
Lindgren made a skilled play to find Berkly Catton open at the backdoor, and although Catton fanned on it, Wright crashed in and helped him poke the puck over the line. The goal was ultimately credited to Catton, though, giving the rookie his fourth goal in four games after being held goalless through his first 27 NHL games. It’s safe to say the floodgates are open for him.
This did get credited to Berkly Catton, so after going 27 games without a goal to start his NHL career, he now has four goals in his last four games. #SeaKrakenhttps://t.co/sZTaYDxa9C
The win was a big one for Seattle. It put things back on track after a brief derailment Saturday and also nudged the Kraken back ahead of the San Jose Sharks for third place in the Pacific Division standings.
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The Kraken are getting healthier. Schwartz returned Saturday, Eberle returned Monday, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Stephenson rejoin the team for the back half of this road trip. Meanwhile, Brandon Montour skated with the team in a red non-contact jersey at morning skate Monday.
With depth players making such a massive impact over the last few weeks—guys like Ryan Winterton, Ben Meyers, Jacob Melanson, and Cale Fleury all chipping in—very difficult (and potentially unfair) decisions loom.
The Kraken have been rolling for the better part of a month now, riding a 10‑game point streak that finally snapped Saturday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. It was bound to end eventually; you can only white‑knuckle your way through so many one‑goal games before the good luck you’ve been riding runs out. Seattle is back in the playoff picture, though, clinging to the first wild‑card spot. What’s been interesting about this run is that it didn’t just materialize out of thin air. The seeds were planted a little earlier.
Improved special teams
If you zoom out a bit, the Kraken’s course correction really started before the win streak officially began. Dec. 8 against Minnesota, six games before the point streak kicked off, felt like the moment things began to turn. And the biggest driver of that shift has been special teams suddenly clicking.
Before Dec. 8, the power play was converting at 16.9 percent. Since then, it’s been humming along at 32.6 percent. The penalty kill has followed the same arc, jumping from 64.8 percent pre‑Dec. 8 to 80.4 percent since. When both sides of special teams swing that dramatically, it starts to show up in the standings, especially for a team that leads the league in one‑goal games if you strip out empty‑netters.
When your margins are razor thin every night, you don’t need elite special teams to change your season; you just need them to stop actively hurting you. The Kraken have gone a step further and turned them into a strength.
The tightness of the Pacific Division
Of course, all of this is happening inside the tightest division in the NHL. The Pacific Division remains a tightly packed mess, with just three points separating second and fifth place as of Monday morning. Seattle sits fourth, holding two games in hand on both Edmonton (second) and San Jose (third).
For most of the season, I’ve assumed Edmonton and Vegas would eventually pull away and make this a race for third and a wild-card spot. And they still might. But neither has put together the kind of sustained run that slams the door on the rest of the division. The Kings and Ducks have their own vulnerabilities, and the Sharks, well, the Sharks are scoring goals, but they continue to play a Swiss cheese defense.
All of that is a long way of saying the Pacific is wide open. I’m not predicting the Kraken finish top‑two, but it’s no longer a fantasy‑land scenario. A month ago, that felt impossible. Now it feels… plausible. And that’s a testament to how dramatically this team has stabilized.
Everyone is talking about the fourth line
One of the more delightful subplots of the last few weeks is that everywhere I go, people want to talk about the fourth line. And honestly, that’s cool.
The personnel has shuffled a bit with Ryan Winterton and Tye Kartye rotating in and out, but the heartbeat of the group has been Ben Meyers and Jacob Melanson. Melanson gets most of the attention because he plays with wreckless abandon. His forechecking is relentless, his hits are violent, and his energy is contagious.
But the line works because Meyers is the stabilizer. His positional play is so clean, and his skill level is surprisingly above average for a fourth‑line center. He’s been a key contributor in what the team has needed out of that role—reliable, smart, opportunistic—and has chipped in offensively at key moments. It’s also worth noting that he was the only personnel change on the penalty kill when that unit turned the corner in early December.
The Kraken have been searching for a fourth line with an identity for most of their existence. They might finally have one.
Other musings
Saturday’s loss to Carolina added yet another one-goal game to their tally this season. The Kraken have now played 32 one‑goal games (excluding empty‑netters), after logging 41 all of last season.
Here’s another odd one: Seattle leads the NHL in percentage of game time spent tied, sitting at 49.6 percent. Nearly half their season has been played in a deadlock. No wonder every night feels like a stress test.
The overtime frenzy has cooled a bit since the early-season chaos, but the Kraken still lead their brief franchise history with 14 overtime games already. Their single‑season record is 19 (2023‑24), and they’re well on pace to go over that mark this season.
The Kraken finally held a four‑goal lead last Monday against Calgary, their first of the season. It was also the first time my blood pressure dipped below “concerning” since October.
Seattle has also quietly posted a 3-2-2 record and .571 point percentage on the second half of back‑to‑backs. For the first time in franchise history, I no longer feel obligated to type the word “dreaded” before “back‑to‑back.”
A small but interesting wrinkle from Thursday: Berkly Catton logged 51 seconds of TOI in overtime, the most he’s played in OT this season, and notably, it was the first time he started overtime. A tiny detail, but one that suggests growing trust.
Eeli Tolvanen deserves a shoutout as one of this season’s unsung heroes. He leads all Kraken forwards with 46 blocked shots, including three big ones against Minnesota last Thursday. In a season where every game feels like a coin flip, those little moments matter.
The Kraken’s 12 shots on goal against Carolina were the fewest in a single game in franchise history.
Seattle now owns the ninth‑best power play in the NHL. If you had told me in October that this group would crack the top 10 at any point, I would have thought you were crazy. They finished 23rd last season.
Goal(s) of the week
There were simply too many worthy candidates this week, so we’re rolling with three.
The first comes from Anabella Fanale of the Minnesota Gophers, but the real magic is in the setup from Abbey Murphy, who looked like she was screwing around at a Saturday morning stick and puck to make the play happen.
Next up: the two Kraken rookies who scored their first NHL goals this week.
Jacob Melanson gets the nod first. I included the full sequence because it perfectly encapsulates what this fourth line has been doing lately, relentless pressure, smart little plays, and a bit of chaos. Melanson’s skate pass on the entry is delightful, and Winterton’s recovery after Calgary tries to clear the zone is exactly the kind of detail that makes this line so effective.
Then there’s Berkly Catton, who scored three goals this week, all of which could have been goal‑of‑the‑week contenders. This one was my favorite, mostly because he didn’t realize it went in and skated away looking mildly annoyed.
Player performances
Matty Beniers (SEA) – Three goals and two assists across four games. He looks like he’s rediscovering that swagger, and the Kraken need him to keep it going.
Kaapo Kakko (SEA) – Two goals and two assists as he continues to settle back in after missing a big chunk of the season. His confidence is creeping upward shift by shift.
Ben Meyers (SEA) – Not the flashiest stat line of the week, but he’s been a huge part of the fourth line’s recent success and has a knack for scoring at exactly the right moments. One goal, one assist, and a whole lot of impact.
The week ahead
The Kraken have a real opportunity in front of them with a four‑game road swing through the New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins, and finally Utah Mammoth.
There are no easy games in the NHL, but Seattle is catching both the Rangers and Devils at vulnerable moments. New York is 3‑5‑2 in their last 10 and just got thumped 10‑2 by Boston. New Jersey is 2‑7‑1 in their last 10 and recently lost 9‑0 to the Islanders. Historically, the Kraken haven’t fared well in either building—one win ever at MSG, none at Prudential Center—but if there were ever a time to steal points, this is it.
Thursday brings a rematch with the Bruins, who have won five of their last six. The lone blemish? Their 7‑4 loss to the Kraken last week. On paper, that’s the toughest matchup of the trip.
But the biggest game of the week might be Saturday in Utah. The Mammoth are tied with Seattle at 48 points but have played three more games. That’s a classic four‑point swing scenario, and the kind of game that can influence the playoff picture down the stretch.
Four points out of eight would be perfectly acceptable. Six, with one coming against Utah, would go a long way toward keeping this momentum rolling.
And finally…
After that brutal stretch from late November through mid‑December, the Kraken have played themselves back into the playoff picture and may still give us what we asked for back in October: meaningful hockey in mid‑March. Would it be nice to see them create a little breathing room in the standings? Absolutely. Is it required? Not yet.
Even with a couple dents showing in the last two games, I feel better about this team now than I did when they were winning early in the season. They look connected. They look committed. And maybe most importantly, they look like a group that genuinely believes it can win. What say you?
