The Kardiac Kraken™️ (that’s what I’m calling them now) did it again! After rallying back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 on Thursday, Seattle again faced an uphill climb Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. In this one, they entered the third period tied 1-1, but going shorthanded for the fourth time in the game against the NHL’s best power play proved to be one too many rounds of playing with fire.
Evgeni Malkin made it 2-1 with the manpower advantage at 5:56 of the third, but Matty Beniers forced overtime, and Brandon Montour won it in the extra frame. The win gives the Kraken a big opportunity to take six of eight points on the road trip, as they head to Long Island to face the Islanders on Sunday.
“We defended as hard as we could,” coach Lane Lambert said. “I thought our goaltender played a great game, and there’s no question we’re going to be right back at here in not too many hours, so we just have to make sure that we focus in and be good with our structure tomorrow.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a 3-2 Kraken win over the Penguins in OT.
Takeaway #1: Mason Marchment gets the monkey off his back… then faceplants
The start of Mason Marchment’s Kraken tenure has been far from perfect. Since he scored in Seattle’s first game of the season, we’ve frequently noticed him fumbling pucks, missing passes, and deferring to teammates instead of letting it rip in obvious shooting situations.
But since Lambert elevated him onto the top line with Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle, Marchment has seemed to be finding his way in deep sea blue. He made a massive impact against the Penguins with a goal, a primary assist, and a hilarious fall.
His goal and high-comedy tumble opened the scoring in a tight-checking game at 1:24 of the second period. Marchment actually turned the puck over to 18-year-old Ben Kindel, but then Kindel handed the puck right back to him and took himself out of the play at the Pittsburgh blue line. Marchment, finding himself with an open lane down the slot, took a few steps north and let his big shot go, sneaking it under the left arm of Sergei Murashov. As he pumped his fist and took a huge sigh of relief, the boards jumped out at Marchment and took him down in a heavy way.
IT'S A MUSH PUSH! 🚨
Marchment gets a gift handed to him by Kindel, then rips it through Murashov for his first goal since Game 1 of the season!
He absolutely bites it on the celebration, though. 😂
“Classic him, falling on his face with a big smile on his face,” Brandon Montour told Piper Shaw on the Kraken broadcast.
Marchment also factored into the critical game-tying goal in the third period. The top line had been buzzing for the better part of a minute, spending most of that stretch in Pittsburgh’s zone. After some perimeter passing, Marchment handed it to Ryker Evans, who began walking down the left half wall. The two traded places, and Evans dished it back to Marchment. Marchment wasted no time in finding Matty Beniers through the seam. Beniers dusted it off and slung a perfect shot under the bar.
MATTY MAGIC! 🚨
At the end of an outstanding shift by the top line, Mason Marchment makes a perfect seam pass to Beniers, who goes top cheddar. Beautiful goal.
We were thrilled when the Kraken traded for Marchment in the offseason, but early returns have been limited. It’s great to see him get rewarded with two points in this one, and Kraken fans have to feel encouraged that this could be a turning point for him.
“[Marchment] has played very well for at least a couple of weeks now,” Lambert said. “He’s been a force out there, he’s making plays, he’s using his body. He’s playing well for us.”
By the way, on Beniers’ goal, Lambert said: “That was a snipe.”
Takeaway #2: Grubauer shines again
The last couple of games have been the most confident Philipp Grubauer has looked in a long… long time. One could argue it’s the most confident he’s looked at any point during his tenure with the Seattle Kraken.
In a way, Grubauer is making general manager Jason Botterill look brilliant for not buying him out over the summer, because he has been razor-sharp in his last two appearances and has earned two straight wins—at a time when fellow backup Matt Murray has landed on the shelf for an extended period with a lower-body injury.
Grubauer came up with 30 saves in this one, his highest total of the season, and improved to 4-0-1 with a 2.14 goals-against average and .912 save percentage in six appearances, far and away his best numbers as a Kraken (though still in a relatively limited sample size).
What I liked most was the way he bounced back after his miscue with Ryan Lindgren gave Sidney Crosby an easy goal at 16:16 to tie the game 1-1. Sometimes a misplay like that—whether it was his fault or Lindgren’s or a combination of the two—can rattle a goalie. But Grubi went right back to work after that and continued looking calm and collected in the crease.
The Kraken are managing the duo of Grubauer and Joey Daccord a little differently than how they’ve historically handled them in back-to-back scenarios, running Grubauer out in the first game and saving Daccord for the second. So far, that plan has paid off. Sunday on Long Island, let’s see if Daccord can get them to their first win in the second of back-to-backs since the 2023-24 season and their first win in both games of a back-to-back since 2022-23.
Takeaway #3: Rallying back again
The Kardiac Kraken™️ aren’t making things easy on themselves. For a team starved for offense, you’d think they’d push a little harder to generate offense earlier in the game. But as we’ve heard from Lambert throughout the season, they need to be comfortable in tight games. And what’s really impressive is that it doesn’t seem to matter whether they’re ahead or behind by a goal (or two, as was the case Thursday in Chicago); they show good patience and composure either way, and when it feels like they need a goal, they’re getting it.
In the end, it was Montour who played the overtime hero in this one. After four minutes of struggling to even get possession and Kris Letang ringing one loudly off the post, Evans finally grabbed hold of the puck and retreated behind his own net to allow for a forward change. Evans began a controlled breakout with Freddy Gaudreau and Berkly Catton, then headed to the bench himself. On came Montour.
Gaudreau made a great play to gain the offensive zone with speed and hit the brakes at the top of the left circle, drawing two of the three Penguins defenders to him. He laid it back to the blue line, where Montour skated right into it, walked down Broadway, and ripped it past Murashov.
The Kraken couldn't get sustained control for the first four minutes of OT. But they finally got a chance here, Freddy Gaudreau drew two defenders and laid it back for Brandon Montour to walk down Broadway.
Of course, it would be nice to see the Kraken win in easier fashion every now and then, but what they’re doing is working. With the victory, they improved to 11-5-5 on the season, good for 27 standings points and a very temporary tie with the Anaheim Ducks for first in the Pacific Division.
Are the Kraken nasty wasty?
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.
We’ve hit another 10-game checkpoint in the season, which means it’s time for the next installment of 10 for 10: a quick look at 10 stats from the last 10 games that help show how the Kraken are trending.
The first stretch of the season saw the Kraken pick up 13 out of 20 points. Over Games 11 through 20, they grabbed 12 points. The output wasn’t identical, but pretty darn close, and surprisingly consistent for a team still searching for its identity.
Let’s dig into what stood out.
Data Point 1: Goals scored
The Kraken keep banking points, but the goal scoring drought is still very real, and somehow, it’s actually gotten worse over the last 10 games.
Data Point 2: Shots for and against
If it feels like the coaching staff has been hammering the “shoot more” message lately, it’s because they have. Lane Lambert brings it up almost every night, and the emphasis on generating more offense has been clear.
That said, over the last 10 games, the Kraken still rank just 24th in shots on goal. On the flip side, the defensive structure is holding strong: they rank 11th in fewest shots against per game.
Data Point 3: The penalty kill
The Kraken have allowed a power-play goal in eight straight games, but oddly enough, their overall penalty-kill percentage over the last 10 games is better than it was in the first 10.
Data Point 4: Crowded standings
This is more of a leaguewide trend, but it affects Seattle directly. The standings are extremely tight right now, with only Colorado really separating from the pack. Traditionally, roughly 80 percent of teams holding a playoff spot at U.S. Thanksgiving go on to qualify, but with the standings so jammed, that old rule might face a real stress test this year.
Data Point 5: Scoring from the defense
With Ryker Evans back in the lineup, the Kraken now have three defensemen who can legitimately drive offense. That’s a rare luxury, and it’s reflected in the percentage of team goals coming from the blue line.
Of course, the flip side is that the forwards aren’t scoring nearly enough, which ties back into the bigger goal-scoring issue.
Data Point 6: High-danger shots
The Kraken may not be filling the net, but they are generating more high-danger chances lately. If they keep trending upward here, goals should eventually follow.
Data Point 7: The “old guys” are leading the way
For a team that’s fighting for every goal, it’s notable that the two oldest skaters on the roster, Jordan Eberle and Jaden Schwartz, are tied for the team lead with eight goals each and collectively off to one of their strongest collective starts.
And right behind them? Shane Wright, sitting third on the team with five goals.
Data Point 8: The return of Freddy Gaudreau
Freddy Gaudreau’s addition this summer looked like a clear upgrade for the penalty kill. The penalty kill dipped while he was out, and although it hasn’t fully rebounded, the Kraken coaches seem to like what he brings to the PK based on the minutes he’s getting since coming back from injured reserve.
Data Point 9: Time spent leading
The Kraken have scored first in 12 of their 20 games so far and earned 16 out of 24 possible points in those situations. Still, they haven’t actually held the lead for long stretches this season.
Spending a lot of time leading isn’t a requirement considering their overtime win in St. Louis, which never actually included a second where they were leading in the game.
Data Point 10: Overtime games
One big driver of the Kraken’s early success has been their ability to get games to overtime. Some fans think the record is being “propped up” by all the OT points, but to me, that speaks more to how competitive this team has been and how comfortable they are in tight games.
For context: yes, Seattle has had a lot of overtime appearances, but four teams have had even more. Edmonton leads the league with 10.
Closing thoughts
That wraps up this edition of 10 for 10. As before, the numbers paint both promise and frustration: strong structure, better high-danger chances, solid defensive play… but still waiting for the goal scoring to catch up.
Now, I’d love to hear from you.
What stats or trends would you like to see included in future 10 for 10 breakdowns? Are there areas of the game you want a deeper dive on—special teams, matchups, advanced metrics, anything else? Let me know, and I’ll work them into the next installment.
“Down on the Farm” is your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. This week we’ll highlight Blake Fiddler’s early-season performance in the WHL before handicapping his chances at playing in the 2026 World Junior Championship. After that, we’ll have notes, video, and data from all corners of the Kraken organization, plus a preview of the schedule ahead, as always.
If you have a Kraken prospect-related question you’d like to see featured in a future column, drop us a note below or on X or BlueSky @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey. Let’s dive in.
Blake Fiddler continues to flash difference-making skill
Blake Fiddler offers a rare collection of tools. On defense, he flashes an active and skilled stick that can disrupt opponents at the blue line and net front. He engages any offensive player who gets close to the blue paint, often pushing them entirely clear of his goaltender. For goalies, clear eyes and clean feet can’t lose. Fiddler is a big help in this regard.
Offensively, he starts the play with pinpoint breakout passes and finds teammates moving through the neutral zone for clean entries. He also shows the ability to transport the puck with strong speed and puck-protection skill. Once he has speed moving forward, he is a freight train. Junior players are often afraid to challenge him for fear that he will physically defeat the check and have a clear line to the goal. This creates space for him to operate and find his teammates on the rush.
Once established in the offensive zone, he is not content to deaden his feet at the points. He stays in motion, looking for soft spots where he can receive a pass and set up a shot on goal. He usually makes good reads in this part of the ice, vacating the blue line only when a forward is available to cycle up and cover for him. His movement generated several good chances, including a goal and a deflected-in primary assist, in his Nov. 15 game excerpted below.
On the flip side, his skating—particularly his four-way mobility defensively—needs a good deal of work. There are more awkward moments and possession giveaways than there should be, and his processing on breakout passes and other defensive reads can be frustratingly slow at times. It may be that the looser defensive structures at the junior level hurt his ability to anticipate, or he may just need more repetitions. He has the tools to dominate defensively, but he is often a step slow (or out of place entirely) right now.
Fiddler has been a stalwart for Team USA at U18 and U20 precursor tournaments to the World Junior Championship. There is little doubt in my mind that Fiddler is on track to play an important role for Team USA at the 2027 event, when he will be 19 years old. The question is: Does he have a place on Team USA’s blue line this year at 18 years old (a.k.a. an “underager”)?
Over the summer I had Fiddler on the outside looking in. I’m slightly more optimistic about his chances now because his offensive production has ticked up in the WHL. (Fiddler had 33 points in 64 WHL games last season, a .52 point-per-game pace. He’s at 18 points through just 23 games so far this year, a .78 point-per-game pace.) Team USA projects as a sound team, but one that may struggle to score compared with recent years after an exodus of high-end skill. Fiddler’s offensive traits may be too intriguing to leave at home.
Right now, I’d project Fiddler as the No. 7 defenseman for Team USA at the 2026 WJC.
Notes on three more Kraken prospects
Loke Krantz | F | Linköping HC (SHL)
Loke Krantz, an 18-year-old, 2025 seventh-round pick, continues to earn SHL playing time. His last three games have been with Linköping HC of the top-level Swedish professional league. On Thursday, Nov. 20, he scored his first SHL goal—a beautiful sequence where he handled the puck into the slot and finished with a pinpoint wrist shot into the top corner.
Karl Annborn | D | Västerås IK (HockeyAllsvenskan)
Fellow Swede and 2025 draft pick Karl Annborn tallied his first goal in the second-tier Swedish professional league this past week as well. It came on a sequence where he carried the puck into the zone, took a wrist shot, collected his own rebound, and knocked it past the goaltender at the net front. It was an impressive offensive sequence from the 18-year-old blueliner.
Julius Miettinen | F | Everett Silvertips (WHL)
Miettinen missed the Everett Silvertips’ last three WHL games. Everett dropped two of three in that stretch. He is listed as day-to-day with an illness.
Highlights of the Week
Jake O’Brien returns with another highlight this week, setting up Marek Vanacker on a sweet centering pass around a close defensive challenge.
The good news from the Coachella Valley Firebirds’ Saturday, Nov. 15, game against the Bakersfield Condors was that Jagger Firkus had a hat trick. The bad news was that those were the Firebirds’ only goals in a 6-3 loss. Luckily, Firkus kept the scoring going the next day, adding another goal in a 5-2 win over the Abbotsford Canucks.
Jagger Firkus’s scoring binge contributed to him winning the AHL Player of the Week, announced on Monday, Nov. 17. Four goals in two games is enough to make Firkus your Sound Of Hockey Player of the Week too. That’s two in a row for Firkus. One more and we’ll call it a streak.
Despite being inactive since last Sunday, the 21-year-old Firkus remains tied for the AHL lead in total points. The only other AHL player with 18 points, Brett Seney, is 29 years old and has played three more games than Firkus.
At the other end of the spectrum, spark-plug defensive specialist Zeb Forsfjall still doesn’t have a point yet this season in 19 SHL games.
Visa Vedenpaa turned in perhaps his best Liiga start to date last week, turning away 30 of 32 shots on goal en route to a win.
We cautioned that the raw numbers for Nikke Kokko and Victor Ostman may look a bit weaker this season due to the inexperience on the blue line in front of them. That has been true so far, with both taking a step back in save percentage and goals-against average. I haven’t been too concerned by their play in the games I have watched, though. The numbers should get better as the season goes along and the Firebirds’ young defenders tighten things up.
The Deep Sea Hockey Game of the Week is a Sunday 11:00 am PT matchup between Nathan Villeneuve’s Sudbury Wolves and Jakub Fibigr’s Brampton Steelheads. Warm up for the 2:00 pm PT Seattle Kraken game against the New York Islanders with some junior hockey.
Tracking 2026 NHL Draft prospects: Vladimír Dravecký
Each season I put together a preseason NHL Draft watchlist based on scoring data, and each year there are a handful of players who catapult themselves into early-round conversation by taking a large statistical leap in their draft seasons. Defenseman Vladimir Dravecky is one such example from this season. After averaging less than half a point per game in the Swedish U20 league in the 2024-25 season, Dravecky came over to the OHL and has taken over as a key defensive play-driving force for O’Brien’s Brantford Bulldogs. His 15 points in 22 games rank third among first-time eligible OHL defensemen. At this point, he figures to be a top-50 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
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.
That was a big-time win by the Seattle Kraken, clawing back from a 2-0 deficit in the third period to steal a 3-2 result from the Blackhawks in the Windy City on Thursday.
Seattle didn’t have its best for two periods, but Joey Daccord was sharp and held his mates in the game long enough for them to finally find a late offensive spark.
“We didn’t have enough shot attempts in the first two periods,” coach Lane Lambert said. “Our D did a way better job in the third period.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a big 3-2 Kraken win over the Blackhawks.
Takeaway #1: The Ryan Lindgren game
We always knew Ryan Lindgren would be a guy who flies mostly under the radar, quietly going about his business as a responsible, stay-at-home defenseman. On this night, Lindgren made a couple of massive plays that directly impacted the outcome of the game.
“He’s just all heart, all the time,” Lambert said. “Huge block at the end, that’s what he does for us. He defends hard, and he gives us everything he has.”
First—and this one was unfortunate to see—he made his presence known late in the first period when former Kraken Andre Burakovsky barreled over the blue line and was off balance as he fought for the puck with Jaden Schwartz and Adam Larsson. Lindgren stepped up and lowered his shoulder, and Burakovsky went face-first into Lindgren’s shoulder pad.
Andre Burakovsky got lit up by Ryan Lindgren just before the end of the 1st period and went down the tunnel.
Burakovsky left the game after the hit and did not return. The NHL will surely take a look at this hit, because the main point of contact is Burakovsky’s head. I’m guessing Lindgren avoids any kind of discipline, though, because of the way Burakovsky was leaning forward into the hit, but we shall see.
The next memorable Lindgren play in the game ended up being a game-changer. Although he was the one who created the Chicago opportunity by flubbing a shot at the blue line and handing it to Connor Bedard for a breakaway, his recovery indirectly led to Seattle getting the win in the game.
After turning it over, Lindgren chased down the young superstar, and just as Bedard was about to pull the trigger, Lindgren hit him with a perfect love tap of a slash on the shaft of his stick.
Andre Burakovsky got lit up by Ryan Lindgren just before the end of the 1st period and went down the tunnel.
Now, there are folks out there who thought both of the aforementioned plays should have resulted in penalties, and they may have had a case.
I recognize I may have a slight bias, but watching Lindgren’s defensive play on the Bedard breakaway in slow motion shows it should not have resulted in a penalty or penalty shot. It wasn’t an egregious chop, he got him on the shaft of the stick (not the glove), and it was just enough to disrupt the shot. That said, when a shooter is in alone like that and the stick play comes from a chasing defender, those do get called most of the time. So had it been called, I also would have understood.
Ryan Lindgren thwarts a Connor Bedard breakaway and avoids taking a penalty.
You know who did think it should have been a penalty? Connor Bedard. And he was so sure of this, he screamed at the ref until he earned himself an abuse of officials penalty that ultimately cost the Blackhawks the game (more on that in Takeaway #3).
Lindgren also helped Seattle seal the deal after it had taken a 3-2 lead by blocking a wide-open Bedard look with a minute left in the game. He did so in painful fashion, catching Bedard’s rocket one-timer in the open palm of his glove.
Bedard will be seeing Lindgren in his nightmares for a while.
Takeaway #2: Kraken woke up in the third
Give some credit to the Blackhawks for how the first two periods went; they came into the game red hot, posting a 5-0-1 record over their previous six games. Ironically, the last time they had lost in regulation was a 3-1 loss to the Kraken on Nov. 3, so that streak got bookended by Seattle wins.
All that said, the Kraken didn’t have it for the first 40 minutes of this game, especially in the second period. They stayed relatively close, but like the game Tuesday in Detroit, things went sideways in the middle frame.
Two poor plays by Jordan Eberle (a weak dump-in that led to a 3-on-1 the other way) and Jamie Oleksiak (a lackadaisical race for a loose puck in the corner) led to the goals against and meant Seattle would be chasing in the third period.
And chase they did.
“[It was] compete and shooting pucks,” Lambert said. “In the first 40 minutes, I thought that we were slow to do things. Give our players credit. They got the message and took charge and got the job done.”
The second Montour’s one-timer pinballed in off Oscar Fisker Mølgaard and then Tye Kartye, you could sense the floodgates had opened. Lo and behold, Shane Wright tipped a Ryker Evans shot just over two minutes later to tie it 2-2 and set up Jaden Schwartz’s late-game heroics.
WRIGHT AS RAIN! 🚨
Tie game, 2-2. Ryker Evans with the shot, Shane Wright with the tip. Evans currently has credit, but that's Shane's goal. #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/DpuOZIKF4y
While Bedard was sitting in the penalty box for whining, Chicago’s PKers were doing their damndest to bail him out. But as the power play was ticking down, Brandon Montour saw a lane down the left half wall.
As Montour walked down the boards, Schwartz pivoted from the top of the crease and backed himself right onto the far post. Montour threaded a perfectly placed shot-pass through Wyatt Kaiser’s legs and onto the tape of Schwartz, who redirected it through Spencer Knight’s five hole.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE SCHWARTZ! 🚨
With Bedard serving his unsportsmanlike penalty, Brandon Montour finds Jaden Schwartz at the net mouth.
“[Schwartz] shows [younger players] how the game is played, how the game is supposed to be played,” Lambert said. “The importance of the little details and winning battles in hard areas. Great goal by him to cap off the comeback.”
It was a heck of a play by both Montour—who earned his second assist of the night—and Schwartz, and it was an outstanding and unlikely comeback victory for the Kraken.
Bonus Takeaway: Oscar Fisker Mølgaard’s NHL debut
Huge shoutout to friend of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, Oscar Fisker Mølgaard, on making his NHL debut and recording a point on Tye Kartye’s goal that got Seattle on the board at 5:09 of the third period.
“It was pretty surreal,” Mølgaard said. “It’s a childhood dream coming true, so yeah, I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life, and it’s good to get the first one out of the way.”
We are huge Mølgaard fans for a lot of reasons, but mostly because he’s just an incredibly likable young man.
His family made the trek from Denmark to see his first game in the show.
“It’s unreal. It’s a proud moment for all of us. They’ve been there my whole life, and they were just as big a part of it as I was out there. So I’m really proud to have them here, and I’m glad they came.”
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 has officially been one week since the Seattle Torrent took to the ice for the first time at Kraken Community Iceplex. Here’s what we’ve learned and what we’re looking forward to.
Training camp
Torrent training camp was intense. It was three days of high-energy, non-stop drills and hard conditioning. The team spent a lot of time practicing being physical in the corners and transitioning with speed. Coach Steve O’Rourke stood out with his active coaching style and constant encouragement of the players to skate harder and dig deeper.
I have to say, for top-level pro training camp, three days seems like way too short a time for a brand new team to come together. It showed a bit in missed passes and confused looks, but the team seemed to settle in as the week went on. The skaters were never lacking in effort, though. Even players who have a secure spot on the roster looked like they were fighting with all they had, despite many of them having just come off Rivalry Series games.
The players seemed to enjoy themselves, despite the grueling pace. Defender Cayla Barnes said the team was eager to finally take to the ice after what felt like a long and exciting buildup, and that despite the high level of conditioning, “everyone survived.”
Hilary Knight called the intensity level “high,” and she “really liked the way our group hustled out there.” Forward Alex Carpenter was surprised but excited by the level of play on Day 1, saying that “people were throwing bodies around and giving it their all.”
Carpenter also said that learning the new systems is always tough, but after the first practice, she could see that O’Rourke “is an intense guy, but loves to teach, and loves the game… and you can feel that vibe… and it makes you want to skate faster, want to play harder.”
Goalie Corinne Schroeder called bringing women’s hockey to Seattle “huge” and was excited to inspire “not just little girls, but little boys too… they have other role models to root for, not just NHL players.”
Pre-season scrimmages
Photo courtesy of the PWHL.
Unfortunately, the pre-season scrimmages were not available to watch, so we can only pick apart the lines and stats for clues and crumbs.
In the first scrimmage, the Torrent were shut out, but they came out the next day swinging and bested Vancouver 4-2. A couple speculative takeaways from the scrimmage stats:
The team has depth scoring, with the only goals coming from the third and fourth lines, including a goal and an assist from Seattle local Marah Wagner.
All three goaltenders got playing time and put up good numbers, with rookie Hannah Murphy’s lone goal against coming from a penalty shot.
The Torrent looks to be a physical team (and maybe a touch undisciplined in the early going), racking up eight penalties to the Goldeneyes’ two.
The PWHL also reported on the lines that were utilized by each team, and although we haven’t been able to see them skate together, let’s speculate a little, just for fun.
Although scoreless in the one scrimmage they played, a Hannah Bilka – Alex Carpenter – Hilary Knight line is absolutely bonkers. This could be the first line for Team USA at the upcoming Olympics. They aren’t starting from zero with chemistry either. Knight and Bilka played together in Boston, while Carpenter and Knight are close friends, and all three have played together for Team USA.
The Julia Gosling – Danielle Serdachny – Jessie Eldridge line is another interesting group, although they are less familiar with each other. All three players are 5-foot-9 or taller and are known for their physicality.
The defensive pair of Aneta Tejralová and Cayla Barnes is another one to keep your eye on. Those are two high-level defenders who will likely be called upon to shut down the other teams’ stars. They also only played in the first scrimmage but were not on the ice for any of the Vancouver goals.
Roster decisions
Surprising nobody, the Torrent announced Hilary Knight as the team’s first captain. The news came on Friday after the conclusion of training camp and prior to the team’s pre-season scrimmages. Knight is a proven leader, current Team USA captain, and previous Boston Fleet captain.
The Torrent have made two cuts from the training camp roster. They must cut at least three from the training camp roster before final rosters are due on Wednesday. PWHL rules allow for 23 active players on each team. The skaters below are vying for the four roster spots left.
Forwards:
Brooke Bryant – veteran player who won two Walter Cups with Minnesota
Jada Habisch – Fourth-round 2025 draft pick, UConn
Sydney Langseth – Camp invitee, undrafted from Minnesota State – Mankato
Marah Wagner – Camp invite, played last year in Sweden, born in Seattle!
Defenders:
Lyndie Lobdell – Fifth-round round 2025 draft pick, Penn State
Emily Zumwinkle – Camp invite, undrafted from Ohio State, younger sister of Grace Zumwinkle who plays for the Frost
What’s next?
The Torrent will practice Wednesday and Thursday, then head back up to Vancouver to take on the Goldeneyes for their first ever game on Friday, Nov. 21, 7pm at Pacific Coliseum.
If you aren’t catching a bus or train or carpool up to Vancouver for the first game, the PWHL just announced that all Seattle games will be broadcast over the air on Kong and FOX 13. Piper Shaw announced she will be a part of the Torrent broadcast, as will best friend of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, Alison Lukan. That is an exciting thought for us Kraken crossover fans. All games will continue to be free in the US on YouTube, as well.
If you are catching the bus from KCI to Vancouver, come say hi!
After racking up five points in the last three games of their homestand, the Seattle Kraken brought a spirited effort to Detroit on Tuesday but ultimately came up short and started their four-game road trip on the losing side.
Jordan Eberle and Ryker Evans scored for the Kraken, but Detroit did all of its damage in an eventful second period, and it was just enough to slide past Seattle on this night.
“I don’t think we had everyone going,” coach Lane Lambert said. “And we can’t afford to have anybody not going. So, we were ok in the game, but not good enough to win the hockey game. There’s certain things and certain reasons for that, but I thought we could have been better.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-2 Kraken loss to the Red Wings.
Takeaway #1: Joey Daccord returns, wants one back
Joey Daccord returned to action on Tuesday and stopped 23 of 26 Red Wings shots. His activation from injured reserve—after about a two-week hiatus due to a somewhat mysterious upper-body injury—came at a perfect time. One of Seattle’s goalie trio, Matt Murray, went on the shelf at the end of the first period Saturday and is now expected to miss six weeks with a lower-body injury. So, he goes on IR just as Daccord comes off.
Daccord made some great saves in this game, but he also gave up an uncharacteristic stinker at 1:19 of the second period that erased Seattle’s 1-0 lead. On an innocuous-looking 3-on-2 rush, Lucas Raymond took a pass at the blue line and cruised into the right circle. He took a simple, unscreened wrist shot that squeezed under Daccord’s right arm and trickled over the line.
You could see right away that Daccord was disappointed with himself, swatting the puck out of the net in disgust.
He gave up two more in the period (those were of the “not his fault” variety), which we’ll talk about in the next Takeaway, but he did give his teammates a chance in this game.
Still, that first one stings…
Takeaway #2: Second period was all Detroit needed
The Kraken followed up the aforementioned stinker by allowing two Red Wings players into the middle, with a double-deflection working its way around Daccord and in off rookie Nate Danielson for his first NHL goal. That second goal came 45 seconds after the first.
Soon after that, it looked like Detroit had taken a 3-1 lead again with a nifty dangle by Danielson after a loose defensive play by Adam Larsson. But Tim Ohashi struck for a brilliant offside challenge and what felt like a massive break for the Kraken.
Indeed, Seattle scored the next goal and tied the game 2-2, with a Ryker Evans shot from the point pinballing in off a Red Wings defender.
But a cheesy goalie interference call on Jani Nyman—after he was bumped into Talbot by Simon Edvinsson, then jumped by the entire Red Wings team (none of whom were penalized)—proved costly. We’ll talk more about the Lucas Raymond goal that came on the ensuing power play in Takeaway #3, but Lambert summed up the second period nicely.
“We knew going in, they had like a plus-62 shot differential in the second period before the game. And I think Joey probably wants the first one back, so that’s one. We don’t box out on the second one, which goes into our net. We get a great call from our video coach to overturn the third one and get a goal to tie the game, and then we make a mistake on the penalty kill that we can’t make.”
Takeaway #3: A costly PK mistake
On the play that Lambert called “a mistake on the penalty kill that we can’t make,” Seattle’s PK really did momentarily lose the plot.
“That’s the bottom line,” Lambert continued. “It’s a mistake you can’t make. We’re not asking anything else other than proper positioning.”
Here’s the full sequence that led to the goal.
I believe what happened is that when Emmitt Finnie rimmed the puck around to Andrew Copp, Jamie Oleksiak got a piece of the pass. I think that triggered Oleksiak and Jaden Schwartz to pressure Copp on the halfwall, thinking they had him under duress and could win the puck away with a numerical advantage. Copp maintained control, though, and successfully made a pass to Danielson, which suddenly put Seattle in chase mode.
What I’m really not sure about, though, is why Chandler Stephenson shaded so far left—beyond the left face-off dot—when Oleksiak and Schwartz were already over against the boards. By drifting that far to the left, Evans was left alone in the slot as the last defender, with Finnie now fully unmarked and in a dangerous position.
The only thing Seattle’s PKers could have done to thwart a scoring chance at that point was get a stick on Danielson’s pass through the slot, but neither Stephenson nor Oleksiak could reach it.
Instead, Danielson put it right on the money for Finnie, and Daccord was hung out to dry.
That goal made it 3-2, and then—as Lambert pointed out after the game—Seattle just didn’t get enough pucks toward Talbot in the third period to level the game.
In the end, I liked Seattle’s effort in this game, but there were some costly mistakes from up and down the lineup and a not enough of an offensive push in the third to equalize.
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.
