After a big 5-1 win over the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, the Seattle Kraken had a light day Wednesday, with only Cale Fleury, Josh Mahura, Tye Kartye, Joey Daccord, and Matt Murray taking part in a very optional practice.
Sound Of Hockey took the opportunity to catch up with a couple of players who were not on the ice: defenseman Ryan Lindgren and forward Jacob Melanson.
What happened between Brandon Duhaime and Jacob Melanson?
Apparently, Capitals forward Brandon Duhaime is not a fan of Jacob Melanson’s physical style of play. We all saw Tuesday night that Duhaime did everything he could to get Melanson to drop the gloves, a request to which Melanson finally acquiesced in the closing minutes of the contest, when the score was well out of reach for Washington.
“I don’t know [what I did to him], but I mean, if I got that guy that mad at me, then I must be doing my job the right way,” Melanson said. “So, I mean, obviously, he wanted it the whole night, and he finally got it.”
What we didn’t catch live during the game was that Duhaime—apparently intentionally—stuck the butt end of his stick over the boards from inside Washington’s bench and poked Melanson in the face as Melanson rushed up the ice during the second period.
Wait… this replay is better. What was Duhaime thinking?!
Melanson said he didn’t realize during the game that it was Duhaime’s stick that caught him in the face, nor that the poke was apparently intentional.
“I didn’t [know it was him], and I feel like that would have made things a little different, but I mean, it’s just part of the game. He’s trying to get under my skin, and I respect it.”
Melanson got the last laugh several times over, with his team winning the game convincingly and Duhaime taking an extra penalty during the end-of-game melee. Duhaime was also handed a $2,500 fine from the NHL’s Department of Player Safety on Wednesday morning for unsportsmanlike conduct (the poke from the bench).
“Obviously, it’s a 5-1 hockey game, one minute left, it’s not really the time to have a fight. But I mean, he wouldn’t back down,” Melanson said. “I tried to skate away from it a few times, but I’m also not going to show that I’m just going to skate away every time and that I will answer the bell.”
One storyline that flew under the radar in Tuesday’s game against Washington was that Ryan Lindgren was facing his brother Charlie in the 2026 Lindgren Bowl. Unfortunately, Charlie—a goaltender for the Capitals—did not play, backing up Logan Thompson in this particular contest.
Still, it was a chance for Ryan Lindgren to reflect on how unique it is to face his brother in NHL competition.
“Yeah, it really is the coolest thing,” Ryan said. “It’s something we both dreamed of growing up was playing the NHL, and any time we get to play against each other is… I mean, it’s incredible. Obviously, it’s a little more fun when he’s in net, but, yeah, it’s really special.”
The two teams meeting is always a unique moment for the Lindgren family, which has been known to convene whenever the brothers’ respective teams square off.
“It’s always fun to see [Charlie], and my parents come into town, my grandpa, my other brother,” Ryan said. “And I think more so for them, too, they really, really love it and really enjoy seeing us out there together. So, yeah, it’s incredible.
“We’re both very fortunate that our parents and family supported us through everything, and for them to come out and watch and enjoy it as well is really cool.”
So what did the Lindgren family do when they all gathered in Seattle? Pretty much what any family would do when visiting from out of town.
“We were able to watch the Seahawks game with them and spent a lot of time together. And then Monday, we had breakfast in the morning and then kind of spent the day in Seattle, went to Pike Place, and then got dinner again after. So, we just tried to spend as much time together as we can.”
Of course, this was not the first time the brothers’ teams had faced each other, and in previous matchups, Charlie has even tended goal for the Capitals instead of riding the pine.
In fact, they first faced each other in the AHL, when Ryan was in the Rangers’ farm system playing for the Hartford Wolf Pack and Charlie was in the Canadiens’ system with the Laval Rocket. Most notably, they also squared off in the 2024 playoffs, when Ryan’s Rangers faced Charlie’s Capitals, with Charlie playing the entire series for Washington.
“We were lucky enough to sweep them, too,” Ryan said with a smirk. “So, I kind of got that over him, which is nice. But yeah, like I said, it’s really special just getting to play against him.”
Odds and ends
Despite the win Tuesday, the Kraken did not gain any ground in the standings and instead just held serve with the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks. All three teams remain deadlocked at 57 points, but San Jose currently occupies the final wild-card spot. The target for Seattle has to be the third-place position ahead of the Kings, Sharks, and Anaheim Ducks; the top three spots are the only ones where you’re not also battling desperate teams from the Central Division.
On Thursday, coach Lane Lambert will face the team for whom he served as an associate head coach last season, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Seattle is 1-0-0 against the Leafs this season, thanks to Josh Mahura’s dazzling overtime goal in Toronto on Oct. 18.
With nine goals in January, Matty Beniers is now tied with Jordan Eberle (November 2021) for the most goals in a month by a Kraken player. One more either Thursday or Saturday, and he will set a new record.
Thanks to the impending Olympic break being bookended by road games, Thursday marks Seattle’s last home game until Feb. 28.
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.
What a night for the Seattle Kraken’s first line, which produced nearly all the offense in a 5-1 drubbing of a reeling Washington Capitals team.
Seattle got off on a better foot than it has in recent games, going through the first period tied 0-0, then rode Jared McCann’s impressive night to a convincing victory.
“They had an outstanding game,” coach Lane Lambert said of Seattle’s first line. “And it’s very important to have those guys do that. And we look forward to more of that.”
McCann finished with two goals and two assists, Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle each had a goal and an assist, and Philipp Grubauer was solid again (when he had to be), stopping 19 shots.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 5-1 Kraken win over the Capitals.
Takeaway 1: Better start
After going 10 straight games giving up a goal in the first 10 minutes, it was refreshing to see Seattle get through the opening frame with a 0-0 tie. There were a couple of hairy moments in that first period, including a Jacob Chychrun shot that slid behind Grubauer but missed wide of the far post, and another chance in which Vince Dunn stepped in front of an open net to save a sure goal.
Aside from those two scares, Seattle controlled almost the entire period and came away with a 13-4 shots-on-goal advantage and a clean slate heading to the second.
“We’ve addressed [our starts]. We’ve talked about it many times,” Eberle said. “I mean, obviously we know the stats on giving up the first goal. I mean, just a collective mindset of being ready, and that just means, maybe getting it in deep and trying to establish a forecheck. You’re not going to score the first goal every game, that’s the reality of this league. It’s a good league, other teams are good, but you can try and— especially at home, put your will and establish your game early. So good start tonight and [we’ve got to] keep it going.”
Seattle then got on the board with a power-play goal early in the second period, and things got on the rails quickly.
Takeaway 2: Jared McCann gets robbed of the hat trick
It was McCann who opened the scoring, converting on the power play to make it 1-0 at 1:15 of the second period by one-timing Eberle’s pass from the top of the right circle against the grain and past Logan Thompson.
MCCANN CAN! 🚨
Really nifty shot here by Jared McCann, back against the grain on Thompson. Power-play goal.
He followed that up with his second of the game at 10:09, cleaning up a Beniers rebound that landed right on his stick with a yawning cage in front of him.
“On the first one, Ebs found me through the slot there,” McCann said. “I just tried to get it on net as quick as possible, and kind of— I didn’t get all of it, but it was a good-placed shot, I guess. And the second one there, I just tried to battle my way to the net, and it kind of kicked off the pad there, right to me, backdoor.”
From there—once McCann officially landed on hat-trick watch—things started to get weird. First, with a chance at a natural hat trick, he rang a shot hard off the left post, which Eberle swept into the net to make it 3-0 at 17:54 of the second. There went the natty hatty.
O CAPTAIN! 🫡 🚨
How rude of Jordan Eberle to steal the natural hat trick opportunity from Jared McCann.
Things got really weird early in the final period, when McCann appeared to score his third goal, making it 4-0 at 1:27. As he celebrated, hats rained down onto the ice. Only after every fan who wanted to throw a hat had done so did the officials make it clear that they were considering wiping the goal off the board.
“The linesman called the high-sticking penalty, and when a linesman sees a high stick, he can’t blow it down right away,” coach Lane Lambert said. “So the play went on for quite a while, obviously, and then they reviewed it, and that was the rule, and that’s the way it goes. So, we couldn’t change it. We just had to buckle down and get through it.”
Replay showed that Matty Beniers had clipped Justin Sourdif nearly a full minute before McCann summoned the barrage of hats from the crowd. The linesman properly reported the penalty at the next stoppage, which just so happened be McCann’s goal.
“I’ve never seen— I didn’t even know that was an option,” Eberle said, dumbfounded. “I’ve never seen that. I mean, obviously, massive momentum swing when you get the fourth and put them away, and they take it away, give you a four-minute penalty.”
Added McCann: “I just feel bad for people who threw their hats on the ice, to be honest.”
The officials ultimately got it right, but it was a bizarre circumstance. Alex Ovechkin capitalized on the four-minute power play with career goal No. 919, briefly giving the Capitals a pulse.
Credit to the Kraken for sticking with it, though, killing off the remainder of that penalty and then adding goals from Beniers and Ryker Evans down the stretch to put the game away.
Takeaway 3: Melanson’s first NHL fight
The legend of Jacob Melanson continued to grow Tuesday. He delivered seven more hits and is now averaging just under five hits per game in his brief NHL career. He also drove hard to the net and was the target of a Ryker Evans pass that caromed in off Tom Wilson.
RYKER STRIKER! 🚨
Two straight games with a goal for Ryker Evans, who gets a good bounce of Tom Wilson's skate.
But he brought the crowd to its feet one last time late in the game after Brandon Duhaime wrestled him to the ice in the corner and then laid on him. When the two finally got up, Melanson gave Duhaime a shot, and they jostled all the way up the ice. Once Duhaime cross-checked Melanson up high, the gloves finally came off.
FISTICUFFS! 🥊
Saw that one coming. Jacob Melanson gets his first NHL fight with Brandon Duhaime.
It was one of those fights you could see coming from a mile away. What I loved about it is that Melanson is clearly trying to play a physical game at all times without putting his team at a disadvantage. He got some licks in on Duhaime but tried several times to skate away. When he finally accepted the fight, Duhaime ended up with the extra penalty.
How can you not love this kid?
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.
It was another roller‑coaster week for the Seattle Kraken, who traded off losses and wins to finish 2–2–0. Things opened with a 6–3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in which the Kraken started late, battled back, but ultimately came up short. Two days later, they skated to a convincing, though not dominant, 4–1 win over the New York Islanders, and it briefly felt like things were back on track heading into a very important Friday night matchup with the Anaheim Ducks.
I don’t have much desire to relive the Ducks game, but as poorly as the Kraken played for the first two periods, they were within one goal for most of the third. They had their chances, too. Look at the Kraken’s shot attempts by period, excluding blocked shots.
I’m not trying to spin that loss, but even in one of their worst games of the season, they were somehow still in it. Then they rebounded Sunday at got a needed 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils.
As of Monday morning, they sit four points back of Anaheim for third in the Pacific Division and are tied with the Sharks and Kings for the final wild‑card spot. San Jose and Los Angeles hold the advantage because they’ve each played one fewer game than Seattle.
Even with all that swirling around, it’s worth zooming out for a second and taking stock of where this team actually sits in the bigger picture.
Sticking around
I wasn’t feeling great about this team after either the Penguins game or the Ducks game, but despite the poor results, the Kraken remain firmly in the playoff mix. Even I need to remind myself that this is all I asked for at the start of the season, and I probably shouldn’t get too emotional after a loss. They’ve had their share of stinkers, but they can beat anyone, which makes tuning in easy. The team is healthy and, believe it or not, starting to score some goals. If they can lock down the defensive structure that defined their early‑season success, they have a decent chance of making the playoffs.
Sabotage returns
For those who haven’t been to a game lately, Kraken game ops brought back “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys as the player‑intro song. The switch happened for the Islanders game, and based on what I saw online, fans had been clamoring for its return. The Kraken were 10–8–5 with “Cochise” by Audioslave as the intro and are 2–1–0 with “Sabotage” this season. I genuinely wonder what went into the decision to insert “Cochise” in the first place and how “Sabotage” made its way back. My guess is fan feedback drove the return, which is nice to think about.
I’ve had no fewer than 20 people ask me what’s going on with the Shane Wright narrative, so I feel obligated to share my perspective. We spent a good chunk of time on it in the latest Sound Of Hockey Podcast, and Curtis Isacke brought the heat with some data on Wright’s season to date, so I highly recommend checking that out (the Wright discussion starts around the 31:40 mark).
Are the Kraken “shopping” Shane Wright? No. Are they listening to offers? Yes, just as they should for every player.
You don’t need to be an insider to see that roughly 20 NHL teams are looking for a center, while the Kraken have five or six centers playing in their lineup every night. Center is where Seattle’s depth lies, and to acquire a top‑six, high‑end, goal‑scoring winger, you have to give up something of value.
Theoretically, any center could be available, but only a few would fetch the return Seattle needs, which is where Wright enters the conversation. It really is that simple. I’m not disputing that discussions are happening, but I am not sure Wright will be traded this season.
Other musings
Sunday’s win was their first against the Devils since January 2023. They have still never won in New Jersey. The only other team they haven’t beaten on the road is Utah.
For the ninth time in the last 10 games, the Kraken gave up the first goal. It’s a trend that has been all too common after they opened the season so strong in scoring first. They’re 16–6–3 when scoring first and 7–13–6 when allowing the first goal.
Naturally, after I just posted about how good the Kraken’s special teams have been lately, they went 0‑for‑4 on the power play and allowed two goals on the penalty kill.
After going 27 games without a goal, Berkly Catton now has five in his last 11. He’s tied with Matty Beniers and Jared McCann for the most goals in that span despite playing significantly fewer minutes.
One small thing I picked up on Sunday was the “face-off and change” pattern in the third period. Several times, Chandler Stephenson took a defensive‑zone draw with Freddy Gaudreau on the wing. They aren’t on the same line, but more than a couple of times I noticed head coach Lane Lambert sending them out together for the face-off, and once the puck was cleared, one of them would change.
It’s been 16 years since I started the NHLtoSeattle grassroots movement, and 13 years since the Seahawks won the Super Bowl. I mention them together because I remember feeling emboldened by that run to back‑to‑back Super Bowls and the civic pride that washed over the city. It validated what I was doing and reminded me of the value sports bring to a community. Sports bring people together, and I think we need more of that in the world right now. Go Hawks.
Goal of the week
This was an easy one…
Player performances
Carson Rehkopf (CVF) – Rehkopf is no stranger to this section of Monday Musings, but it has been a while since we mentioned him. He recorded his first professional hat trick on Wednesday night.
🧢 CARSON REHKOPF WITH HIS FIRST PRO HAT TRICK!!!!! 🧢 4-2 FIIIIREEEEBIRDDSSSSS! pic.twitter.com/pIktElzQdC
Jake O’Brien (BRA/SEA) – The Kraken’s 2025 first‑round pick returned to the Brantford Bulldogs lineup last Sunday and has 10 points in four games.
Logan Morrison (CVF) – Morrison has points in eight of his last 10 games and has quietly put up strong numbers for the Firebirds. He has 20 goals in 39 games this season and is on pace for 37.
The week ahead
I’m sure I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but with six points on the table this week, the Kraken should aim for three. They host the Washington Capitals and Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively, before hitting the road for a Saturday matchup with the Vegas Golden Knights.
The home games will be a challenge, but they’re catching both the Capitals and Leafs at a good time because neither team is playing its best hockey right now. Vegas has lost three of its last four but still has seven wins in its last 10. If nothing else, this season keeps giving us reasons to stay plugged in and see where the next twist in the ride takes us.
In a tough-sledding, tight-checking game, the Seattle Kraken broke through to muster just enough offense and earn a MUCH-needed 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils on Sunday.
Seattle got through the first six minutes without giving up a goal for the first time in 10 games, but the Devils broke through on a power play at 8:11 to make it 1-0. So, still an early goal against, but not as early as they’ve been giving up recently. The Kraken overcame the goal against and broke a 1-1 tie with two goals in quick succession in the third period, then held on in the closing minutes to rebound from what coach Lane Lambert had called a “terrible” game Friday against the Anaheim Ducks.
Ryker Evans, Matty Beniers, Berkly Catton, and Jordan Eberle scored the goals, and Joey Daccord looked more like himself than in his previous outing.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-2 Kraken win over the Devils.
Takeaway 1: Two quick third-period goals
At practice on Saturday, Lane Lambert talked vaguely about Beniers spending time this season working behind the scenes on his offensive game with skills coach Justin Rai and assistant coach Chris Taylor. He called it “pretty intriguing stuff,” but declined to elaborate further.
Beniers, playing his 300th game, made an outstanding offensive play Sunday to break the tie, taking a low feed from Jordan Eberle, dragging the puck across the slot, and chipping a perfectly placed backhander under the bar at 7:04 of the third.
MATTY MAGIC! 🚨 WHAT A GOAL!
The drag, the top-cheese backhander, the celly. Beautiful!
“300 games for Matty, and he scored an all-world goal,” Lambert said. “He had great patience to hold onto it and then keep holding onto it while their goalie went down. So, really good job by him.”
So maybe that’s the kind of thing he’s been working on with Rai and Taylor?
“Matty, nasty goal, outrageous celly. I absolutely loved it,” Daccord said. “I loved every second of it.”
Just 18 seconds later, the Kraken added an insurance goal to make it 3-1—a goal that proved critical, as Jack Hughes pulled New Jersey back within one with a power-play goal less than a minute after that.
The insurance marker was credited to Berkly Catton, though it required a fortunate bounce to get over the line. An Eeli Tolvanen shot from the left hashmarks didn’t make it through to Jacob Markstrom, instead dropping onto Chandler Stephenson’s stick. Stephenson made an elite no-look pass across the crease to his tenant, who had an open net. Catton actually missed with his shot, but the puck hit the outside of the goal, popped up, struck his body, and dropped in behind Markstrom.
THE L'IL CAT! 🐱 🚨
Berkly gets a good bounce after actually missing the net and gives the #SeaKraken some insurance.
“I mean, I went what? 27 games without a goal? That’s a long time,” Catton said. “It’s nice that they’re kind of starting to go in here… I have no clue how it went in. I had it, I shot it on net, and it hit the side of the net, and then I don’t know what happened after that.”
Takeaway 2: Joey found his mojo
After Joey’s last start—a 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday—Lambert indicated he thought there were some goals the Kraken would have liked their goalie to stop. Philipp Grubauer then started the next two games.
Daccord returned to the net Sunday and looked like his old self, stopping 27 of 29 shots and improving to a .901 save percentage and 2.89 goals-against average on the season.
His biggest saves came during a frantic sequence on a Devils power play midway through the second period, a few minutes after Evans had tied the game.
Daccord appeared down and out as the puck found its way to Nico Hischier in the crease with an open net. While Hischier tried to corral a bouncing puck amid a bevy of bodies, Daccord came sprawling back to the right post in a full split, denying Hischier’s first whack on the goal line before rejecting a follow-up attempt by Jesper Bratt and barely keeping the puck out.
Unbelievable pair of saves by Joey Daccord on the goal line. Not sure how he kept that out.
“I just turned around with full splits and hoped it didn’t go in,” Daccord said. “And I felt it hit my pad. I don’t know if it was a stick or the puck, but I thought I felt the puck hit my pad, and I was just hoping my pad wasn’t in the net. They didn’t review it or challenge it, and no one said anything.”
Jaden Schwartz followed up that save with a goal-saving shot block seconds after that sequence, helping Seattle earn a critical penalty kill at a key moment in the game.
As Grubauer has experienced a renaissance this season, Daccord hasn’t always looked at his best. It was good to see him deliver a properly solid outing Sunday and backstop his team to a much-needed win.
“He played great,” Lambert said. “I thought we defended pretty well 5-on-5, for the most part. There was some scrambling stuff around the net, but when we needed him to make a save—and we did—he made it. So, I’m very happy for him.”
In classic Joey fashion, he even took a shot at the empty net late in the game, only to have his attempt blocked by Brett Pesce.
After the horrendous performance against the Ducks on Friday, there was a real sense of doom and gloom, with Seattle having fallen out of the playoff bubble and four points back of Anaheim. While the Kraken have now played one more game than both San Jose and Los Angeles, Sunday’s win pulled them level on points with both teams and back within two points of the Ducks, who still hold the all-important third spot in the Pacific Division.
The last 10 games haven’t been great for the Kraken, but they remain right in the thick of the playoff race. With the Olympic break just five games away, now would be an incredible time to get back on a winning streak.
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.
It is time for another edition of 10‑for‑10, where we identify 10 metrics that tell the story of the Seattle Kraken’s last 10 games and how they relate to their current position in the standings. The Kraken remain in the mix for a Pacific Division or wild card playoff spot, but they didn’t do themselves any favors over the last 10 games, going 3‑5‑2 in that span. They also dropped two critical matchups to teams in a similar position, while every other playoff contender in the Pacific Division outperformed them. That leads us to our first data point.
Data point 1: Losing ground
From a points‑percentage standpoint, the Kraken have only outperformed the Vancouver Canucks in the Pacific Division, while every other team either gained ground or created separation.
When this 10‑game stretch started on Dec. 6, the Kraken were third in the Pacific and within one point of the division‑leading Vegas Golden Knights. As of Sunday, Jan. 25, the Kraken are now sixth in the Pacific and nine points back of the Golden Knights. That doesn’t even account for the Utah Mammoth jumping them in the wild card race, or the Nashville Predators surging to just one point behind the Kraken.
Data point 2: Goals for and against, minus empty‑net goals
Some positive news: the Kraken scored more goals, excluding empty‑netters, over the last 10 games than they did in any prior 10‑game segment. The negative: they also allowed the most goals against in that same window.
I don’t think it’s totally sincere to look at the increase in goal scoring and assume this is all good, because some of it might be a byproduct of playing from behind. We’ve talked about it all season: this team is comfortable playing tight games, and when holding a lead, they prioritize preventing offense over generating it. That suppresses their scoring. When they’re chasing, they don’t have that luxury.
Data point 3: Game time spent by goal differential
The last 10 games featured the highest percentage of time the Kraken have spent playing from behind. They were down 2‑0 in five of the 10 games. They clawed back in several of them, but allowing the first two goals is a recipe for disaster, and it showed in the results.
And in order to be down 2‑0, you first have to be down 1‑0.
Data point 4: Trailing first
The Kraken have a .700 points percentage when scoring the first goal and a .360 points percentage when allowing the first goal. They allowed the first goal in eight of the last 10 games, the most in any 10‑game segment this season.
In six of those eight games, they allowed the opening goal within the first five minutes. That kind of behavior can be demoralizing, and at home, it can suck the energy right out of the building.
Data point 5: Special teams
One positive area for the Kraken has been their special teams. Since Jan. 6, when this 10‑game segment started, they have the second‑best power‑play conversion rate in the league and a slightly better‑than‑league‑average penalty kill.
The power play has been good all season, ranked ninth in the league as of Sunday morning, and they’re whipping the puck around like I’ve never seen in their brief franchise history. Special teams have been fun to watch lately, apart from one particular issue that keeps popping up…
Data point 6: Short-handed goals against
One of the ugliest parts of the last 10 games has been the Kraken allowing short-handed goals in four of the last five games. All four came at critical times, and they went on to lose all four of those games. Each one seemed to happen in its own unique, maddening way.
Let’s talk about something a little more fun, shall we?
Data point 7: Berkly Catton shot attempts and goals
It was early in this 10‑game segment, but Berkly Catton scored his first four goals of his career in this span and has also been generating more shot attempts per game. He’s playing with confidence and seems to showcase more of his skill with every outing.
Data point 8: Shot attempts on target
A theme that has crept into my mind lately is the feeling that this team has been a bit unlucky shooting the puck. There have been several moments where the Kraken hit the post or crossbar at a critical juncture. I always tend to think these things even out over time and that no team is truly lucky or unlucky over a full season… but the timing can be critical.
There’s no official stat for posts or crossbars, but one potential proxy is “shots on target.” The formula is simple: (goals + shots on goal) / total shot attempts. The theory is that they’re shooting plenty but not putting enough on net. The NHL classifies posts and crossbars as missed shots, not shots on goal.
A lot more research would need to go into this, but the Kraken are not hitting the target at the same rate they were during their little run back into the playoff picture.
Sidenote, the Kraken are 28th in the league in shot attempts per game.
Data point 9: The often‑overlooked contributions from Ben Meyers
I’ve talked about him on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast but haven’t mentioned him here, so I want to shout out Ben Meyers for everything he’s brought this season.
Meyers bounced up and down between Coachella Valley in the first couple months of the year but was a permanent fixture from Dec. 9 until his recent injury.
He has been a critical piece of that fourth line and a key part of the penalty‑kill turnaround. His numbers are modest, but he has posted career highs across all scoring categories and was on pace to surpass his most games played in a single season before landing on injured reserve Friday morning.
His last 10 games have been his most impactful stretch for the Kraken, and likely of his entire career.
Meyers being listed on injured reserve as week‑to‑week is concerning and likely means he’s out until after the Olympic break.
Data point 10: Center depth
Including Meyers, the Kraken have six players on the roster they’ve deployed at center this season, and all have shown they can handle the position regularly, not just out of necessity.
To be clear, this does include Catton, who has been used primarily as a winger lately but did play center for six games earlier in the season. It also doesn’t include Oscar Fisker Mølgaard or John Hayden, both of whom the Kraken have used at center at various points. It’s an area of depth for the team, and one that could come into play at the trade deadline.
Wrapping it up
When you zoom out on these 10 games, the picture is pretty clear: the Kraken are still very much in the hunt, but they’ve made the climb steeper than it needed to be. Slow starts, shorthanded stumbles, and a little bad puck luck have all chipped away at the margin for error, even as bright spots like Catton’s emergence, Meyers’ reliability, and the power play’s contributions offer reasons to stay invested. With the standings tightening, the next 10 games will be critical to figuring out their approach to the trade deadline.
After Lane Lambert was blunt in his assessment of the Seattle Kraken’s performance against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday—calling it, “The worst 40 minutes we played all year,”—I was curious to see what kind of tone Seattle’s practice would take Saturday, as the team prepared for a 12 p.m. game against the New Jersey Devils on Sunday.
After all, Lambert used some of his strongest language to date in describing how his team played, so would they get the bag-skate treatment? Would Lambert scream at them and come down with a heavy hand?
In this case, not exactly. In front of a surprisingly large crowd for the open-to-the-public skate, the practice was a focused, up-tempo session that revolved around transitions, rushes, and special teams. But it wasn’t of the “skate until you puke” variety.
I asked Lambert how he addresses the group the day after a game like the one it played on Friday: does he come at it from an instructional angle, or react heavy-handedly?
“It depends where you’re at in the season,” Lambert said. “It depends where you’re at in the schedule. There’s all kinds of different sorts of scenarios that go into it, and there’s different ways to approach it, just like you said.”
My thought is that if the schedule weren’t compressed the way it has been because of the upcoming Olympics, we may have seen a more reprimanding approach employed by Lambert on Saturday. But with another game just 24 hours away, Lambert clearly felt the on-ice portion needed to be more tactical than punitive.
Lambert shared that the team had a morning meeting, and the messaging was, “Just whatever you have to do, from a preparation standpoint, as an individual, you’ve got to do it. We talked about our starts this morning, so it’s clearly an issue, and we just have to be better in that area.”
Following up on the Shane Wright situation
Nothing has changed in the last… oh, 12 hours since I asked Shane Wright how he’s dealing with the “outside noise” of trade rumors about him, and he said, “I don’t really care too much about that. It’s no offense to you guys, reporters, at the end of the day, you can’t really trust too much what they say. And at the end of day, it’s just rumors. I’m not too worried about that.”
Lambert said Friday that the team has been working on a few areas of Shane’s game and that he’s seeing improvement from the 22-year-old center. So I also asked Lambert Saturday to elaborate on what those areas are.
“I think he’s way better in the defensive zone right now,” Lambert said. “I think his positioning, his understanding of his positioning when he comes into the defensive zone, is miles ahead of where it was 20, 25, 30 games ago, and I think that his ability and his confidence—and we’ve talked about this before—to hold onto pucks and make plays has improved throughout the year. And I think all of those things coupled together are making him and will make him a better hockey player.”
Something tells me there are fans who won’t like the next part of what Lambert said, especially in the context that Cutter Gauthier—drafted one spot behind Wright at No. 5 in the 2022 NHL Draft—burned around Vince Dunn on Friday and scored his 23rd goal of the season.
“I think [Wright] is doing a really good job of embracing what we’re coaching into him, and sometimes players—in order to play the right way—sometimes they have to play for the team type of thing. I’m not saying he wasn’t before, but sometimes you have to sacrifice a little bit of your personal statistics in order to embrace the way to play, in order for the team to have success. I think he’s done an amazing job with that, I really do.”
Asked if that’s a straightforward conversation to have with a young player, Lambert said:
“It is. It’s a conversation that, because at the end of the day, you’re young, and you haven’t had all this experience and stuff like that. You’ve been used to getting points and things like that, and I’m not saying we don’t want him to, I’m just saying we want him to learn how to play the right way, and I think he’s doing a great job of that. I just… there’s a certain way to play for an entire hockey team in order to win in the playoffs, and that’s what I’m building towards.”
One thing Lambert didn’t touch on is Wright’s performance in the face-off circle, something that is clearly valued by the Kraken coach. Face-offs are a flawed stat, but after finishing last season at 44.5 percent in the circle in 79 games, Wright has regressed to just 37.5 percent this year. I do believe this is a big reason his starts are almost exclusively in the offensive zone, and also a big reason why Lambert hasn’t yet placed his wholehearted trust in Wright.
Odds and ends
• It looked like the Kraken will go with the same lineup Sunday against the Devils, with Ryan Lindgren being the only question mark (and I’d guess Joey Daccord gets the start). Lindgren did not participate Saturday, but Lambert said it was just a maintenance day. Cale Fleury took Lindgren’s spot in line rushes next to Ryker Evans.
• Philipp Grubauer was breaking in his Team Germany pads at practice. Joey Daccord also donned a brand-new set of pads, though they are the exact same design as the ones he’s been wearing—just with fewer puck marks.
• Ryker Evans, who took a friendly fire high stick from Ben Meyers two games ago and now has a nasty zipper on his lip, played Friday’s game with a visor plus a lower face shield. At practice, he ditched the lower face shield.
• Meyers, week to week with a lower-body injury, was apparently injured blocking a shot in the second period against the New York Islanders on Wednesday. Jacob Melanson replaced him in the lineup Friday, and it appears Melanson will remain in the lineup on Sunday.
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.
