The Seattle Kraken just captured six out of a possible eight points on what, at least on paper, looked like one of the most challenging road trips on the schedule. This comes right after we were all searching for answers following three straight losses to Anaheim and San Jose. How did this turnaround happen?
Starting on time
I’ve always considered “starting on time” part of the coaches’ and players’ cliché vocabulary—something they break out to essentially say nothing to the media. However, the Kraken’s slow starts were a big factor in those three losses against Anaheim and San Jose. They trailed in all three of those games, but on this road trip, they scored the first goal in three out of four games.
The Kraken still lead the league in allowing the first goal, trailing first in 62.1 percent of their games. But it’s more than just scoring first—they looked engaged from the start in all four games. There were early stretches against the Devils and Rangers where they were being outshot, but it wasn’t the same sloppy affair we saw against San Jose.
Power play comes alive
Prior to this road trip, the Kraken were a brutal 2-for-28 on power play opportunities over the previous eight games, including a six-game drought without a power-play goal. On this road trip, they went 4-for-8 on the power play.
It doesn’t seem like the team is doing anything drastically different other than successfully entering the zone and setting up in the offensive zone. Vince Dunn is obviously a valuable addition to the power play unit, but he only had one point on the four power-play goals scored during the trip. Still, Seattle seems to be getting more zone time than before, and you can tell he’s very comfortable quarterbacking that top unit.
The Shane Wright ‘line’
One recent line adjustment made by Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma was putting Shane Wright with Oliver Bjorkstrand and Eeli Tolvanen. The three were productive before the road trip, but they contributed eight goals over the four-game trip, including four in the game against the Rangers.
It’s not entirely fair to credit that line for all eight goals since several came on the power play when they weren’t on the ice together. However, the trio is clearly clicking, both at even strength and with the manpower advantage.
I’m not going to pop any champagne bottles proclaiming Shane Wright is living up to his draft position just yet, but his play over the last few weeks has been very encouraging. He’s still just 20 years old.
Bylsma talked about Wright’s progression following the game on Sunday. “He’s matured as a player over the last year and a half. But in training camp, he was playing his best hockey that he’s played as a Kraken, and he just needed to reset and get focused on playing that way again.”
I’m sure these guys are tired of being asked about it, but how about the performances of Bjorkstrand and Wright since they were healthy scratched? While it’s a small sample size, Andre Burakovsky is showing some early signs that he might follow a similar path.
Here’s how the guys performed before and after their healthy scratches:
They still have work to do
As great as the past week has been, the Kraken still hold a .500 record, which projects to just 82 points by season’s end. That obviously won’t cut it for a playoff spot. However, their adjusted goal differential has hovered right around zero for most of the season, which suggests they are better than an 82-point team.
Other Musings
Philipp Grubauer’s surprise start did not begin well, as he allowed a soft goal just 3:38 into the game. I can’t imagine the mental challenge of going to bed as the backup and waking up as the starter for an early afternoon game. He looked a little shaky for the rest of the first period but settled in nicely over the final two.
Grubauer came up huge during a critical stretch midway through the second period, making several key saves to keep the deficit at two.
This goal sparked Sunday’s comeback, and I love everything about it:
The Kraken overcame a two-goal deficit on Sunday for the fourth time this season. I’ve mentioned this before, but last season they never came back from a two-goal deficit. This team is different.
The Kraken allowed two response goals to the Rangers on Sunday, bringing their total to 10 this season. That’s the third most in the league, trailing only Colorado and San Jose. (Response goals are goals allowed within two minutes of scoring.)
The Kraken’s victory over the Rangers was their first at Madison Square Garden in franchise history. The only road arenas they haven’t won in? The Prudential Center against the Devils and, of course, the Utah Hockey Club’s rink.
Due to Joey Daccord’s last-minute illness, the Kraken signed Michael Matyas to an Amateur Tryout Agreement (ATO) to back up Grubauer. The full story and logistics will emerge soon, but Matyas played on a U16 AAA team with Kraken director of team services Brennan Baxandall, who was instrumental in securing the emergency goalie.
Speaking of being winless, the Kraken have never beaten the Tampa Bay Lightning at Climate Pledge Arena. They’ll get another shot on Saturday.
Shane Wright is averaging the most goals per game (.29) of anyone in his draft class.
Offense heating up: The Kraken have scored six or more goals in a game five times this season. That matches their entire total from last season.
Jared McCann has just one goal in his last 10 games, but don’t expect that to last much longer. He’s due.
Jakub Fibigr was named to Czechia’s World Junior Championship team invite roster. Last week, I mentioned him as a dark horse to make the final squad, but after talking to a few well-connected folks, it sounds like he’s all but locked in for the tournament in Ottawa.
Joining Fibigr on Team Czechia is Eduard Sale, who’s had a strong first season in the AHL. That said, he’s hit a rough patch, with no points in his last six games—his longest pointless streak of the season.
Finland hasn’t announced its pre-tournament roster yet, but expect Kraken prospects Julius Miettinen (center) and Kim Saarinen (goalie) to make the squad, with Visa Vedenpaa (goalie) having an outside chance.
Seattle Kraken goalie prospect Victor Ostman got into a goalie fight over the weekend in the Mavericks’ win against the Utah Grizzlies, and I would say he held his own.
WE HAVE A GOALIE FIGHT PEOPLE THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!
Tyson Jugnauth (POR/SEA): The unsigned Kraken defenseman prospect had six assists in the Portland Winterhawks’ 7-2 win over the Vancouver Giants. My only question—where was he on the seventh goal? Jaden Schwartz (SEA): Schwartz tallied two goals and two assists over the four-game road trip. We don’t talk about Schwartz nearly enough—when healthy, he’s been a steady, reliable forward for the Kraken. Vince Dunn (SEA): Dunn notched six points on the road trip, including a goal and two assists in the Kraken’s 5-2 win over the Islanders.
The week ahead
The boys may be coming home, but the schedule doesn’t get any easier with matchups against Florida, Boston, and Tampa Bay—three teams playing excellent hockey heading into the week.
Tuesday: Florida Panthers. They’re 5-0-1 over their last six games and are averaging more than five goals per game in that stretch.
Thursday: Boston Bruins on Thursday. The Bruins are 7-2-0 since firing head coach Jim Montgomery and naming Joe Sacco as interim bench boss.
Saturday: Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning’s power play is on fire, operating at 38 percent efficiency over their last 10 games.
Capturing three out of a possible six points this next week would be a solid result, but the Kraken need to keep clawing back points to reinsert themselves into the playoff picture.
The margins in the NHL are razor-thin. The Seattle Kraken headed home Sunday after a challenging four-game road trip with every reason to feel good about themselves. They took six of a possible eight points and—frankly—just missed an even better result had they found an equalizer Friday against the Devils.
But the Kraken capped off the East Coast journey with a… ahem… no-doubter (wink wink): a 7-5 victory over the New York Rangers. The win marked their first-ever triumph at Madison Square Garden and brought them back to .500 on the season.
“The significance of the three wins and how we got them, just a little change in mindset in how we play and how we compete and where we compete,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “This was a tough road trip; Carolina, the Islanders, Devils, and the Rangers here tonight, and we had success in all those games a certain way, and I think that should be pretty evident.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a 7-5 Kraken win over the Rangers.
Takeaway #1: Last-minute goalie chaos
In Bylsma’s pre-game press conference, he announced that Joey Daccord—projected to be the starting goalie Sunday after Philipp Grubauer played Friday—was battling an illness that left him struggling to “keep food down.”
With Daccord out and no time to call someone up from AHL Coachella Valley, Bylsma said, “We will see a name on our backup that I’m not quite sure of yet.”
When the Kraken took the ice for warm-ups, an unfamiliar netminder in yellow and green gear appeared, giving Grubauer breaks and taking shots from his new teammates.
That fill-in backup was Michael Matyas, 33, who played for the University of Alaska-Anchorage during his college days. According to Kraken radio color commentator Al Kinisky, Matyas—friends with Director of Team Services Brennan Baxandall—received a surprise call just hours before puck drop. Matyas’ LinkedIn page shows that he is a Sales Associate for a financial services company in Manhattan, where he will surely have a fun story to tell his coworkers on Monday morning.
Joey Daccord out sick today. Michael Mayas @31Matyas warming up to backup Phillip Grubauer on an ATO (Amateur Try Out) with the #SeaKraken. He’s a childhood teammate of @BBaxy18 from Calgary, AB. He was at the grocery store buying baby formula 2hrs ago. Living his dream! pic.twitter.com/XLGjQqdvc4
Grubauer, playing his second game in a row, had mixed results: big saves at key moments but also five goals allowed on 37 shots with a couple squeakers.
The first period featured some EBUG-related drama when Filip Chytil skated through the crease and collided with Grubauer, sending the goalie sprawling (perhaps selling it a bit) and earning Chytil a two-minute minor.
Kraken fans held their collective breath, while Matyas was shown nervously chomping gum on the bench on the MSG broadcast. Grubauer ultimately continued, stopping just enough shots to secure his second win of the season.
“I was actually wondering what Michael was thinking, the EBUG, what he was thinking when Grubauer went down there,” Bylsma said. “Because, obviously, live, I didn’t see exactly the guy go through the crease, just Grubauer going down, and I think the EBUG’s heart probably went to 180 immediately.”
Takeaway #2: Bjorkstrand/Wright/Tolvanen line was cooking
This matchup between the Kraken and Rangers showcased the Oliver Bjorkstrand, Shane Wright, and Eeli Tolvanen line. Bjorkstrand (2-2=4) and Tolvanen (1-2=3) posted season-best point production, with Wright adding a goal and an assist. (It’s worth noting that Bjorkstrand’s first goal came on the power play, thanks to a slick pass from Chandler Stephenson.)
This trio was instrumental throughout the road trip, combining for 15 points over the four games, including several highlight-reel moments against the Rangers.
“Really the whole line, I think they were… you know Carolina, the Island, and again tonight, they were our best line,” Bylsma said. “And Oliver has an outstanding game with two and two, and big goals at big times when we needed it.”
Wright and Bjorkstrand have been excellent since their return from Healthy Scratch Land, and their success has been well documented. But what about Tolvanen? He wasn’t having the most impressive season either before the other two landed in the doghouse, but he too has come on strong of late and has started racking up some points.
His goal against the Rangers came at a pivotal moment, 1:28 after Brandon Tanev brought Seattle within one. Tolvanen’s quick movement into the slot left Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider scrambling, allowing Bjorkstrand’s pinpoint pass to tee him up for a blast that ricocheted off Jonathan Quick’s mask and in at 15:34 of the second.
Bjorkstrand followed that up by tipping in a Brandon Montour shot at 19:24 for his second of the game, giving Seattle a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
Takeaway #3: Resilient game, impressive road trip
This road trip was critical for the Kraken’s playoff hopes. After a dismal 1-3-0 record against the Ducks and Sharks, the Kraken faced a make-or-break stretch against tough opponents and in difficult buildings. A poor showing could have spelled disaster for the season, but instead, Seattle went 3-1-0, earning six points to get back within three of a playoff spot.
“This was a huge trip for us,” Tolvanen said. “Everybody knew that coming into this trip, [the games before were] disappointing, and we knew that we needed to make a statement on this trip. And I think we did a really good job with that.”
The outing against the Rangers demonstrated resilience from the Kraken. Despite dealing with goalie chaos, playing a desperate Rangers team fresh off a loud-and-clear message from management, and facing a tough building where they’d never won, the Kraken rallied from a 3-1 deficit with five unanswered goals.
“I definitely think we could have been doing more [at the beginning], and I think we did more in the latter half of the game,” Tanev said. “We didn’t like our start… but we got a timely goal, a big save by Grubi, and we understood what we needed to do to get back in the game.
“We played hard, we played physical, and when we got our opportunities, we capitalized.”
Even with the nervy finish, the Kraken deserved their victory over the Rangers and a very successful road trip.
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.
Heading into the third period on Friday, it looked like the Seattle Kraken were poised to pull off an unexpected win over the New Jersey Devils, one of the NHL’s top teams, under challenging circumstances. Seattle was on the second night of back-to-back games, had Philipp Grubauer in net for the first time since his worst performance as a Kraken, and got outshot by a 2-to-1 margin by a high-flying New Jersey team. Still, Seattle had a chance to win.
Despite a big push from the Kraken late in the game, the 3-2 loss came down to two killer plays in the third period.
Andre Burakovsky remarked that the puck just wasn’t bouncing Seattle’s way, and Eeli Tolvanen added, “That’s part of hockey. There’s nothing you can do about it.”
Here are three takeaways from this 3-2 Kraken loss to the Devils.
Takeaway #1: The first killer play
With the game tied 2-2 in the opening minute of the third period, a calamitous miscue unfolded in front of the Seattle goal. On a night when Grubauer bounced back, stopping 33 of 36 shots and looking sharper than he has in quite some time, he still had a hand in a goal coach Dan Bylsma described as “just unfortunate.”
I won’t hang the entire goal on Grubauer, because Chandler Stephenson threw a pizza to the blue line a few seconds earlier, and Vince Dunn could have helped by sweeping the puck out of danger rather than fumbling it off his own post, which set Timo Meier up for the easiest goal of his career. Plus, Grubauer had just made a strong save on Brenden Dillon, looking around a screen and appearing ready to melt it down for a whistle.
However, when Grubauer swept the puck with his stick toward his glove to clamp down on it, he somehow pushed it under his own glove and out the other side. Dunn was clearly caught off guard to have the puck land on his stick and reacted accordingly.
Oh, man.
Brutal goal to give up. Grubauer mishandles it, Dunn gets surprised and pushes it toward the net, and Timo Meier gets a gift of a goal.
Just like that, the Kraken were trailing for the first time on the entire road trip.
“It’s just unfortunate, the third goal, especially the timing of it,” Bylsma said. “Because the start of the third period—we knew it was going to be a difficult game, we knew it was going to be a game against a good opponent. We had the mindset we were going to come in and dig one out.”
Takeaway #2: The second killer play
To their credit, the Kraken didn’t fold after that deflating goal. They battled hard down the stretch and generated outstanding chances against Jacob Markstrom, only to come up short. Then came the moment with six minutes left—you know the one.
Burakovsky carried the puck over the blue line and found Jaden Schwartz in the slot, who made a quick pass to Brandon Montour. Montour had driven wide, gained speed, and gotten behind New Jersey’s defense. With momentum, he deked Markstrom out of his jock and had him dead to rights.
But when Montour pulled the puck back toward the gaping cage, he inexplicably hooked it through the crease, past the far post, and out the other side.
That was the tying goal, and somehow, it stayed out.
When I asked Bylsma about that play after the game, he literally crossed his eyes and said, “We were all scratching our heads a little bit on how that one doesn’t go in.”
Seattle continued pressing and created several strong opportunities in the closing minutes but couldn’t solve Markstrom again.
Takeaway #3: An impactful return for Burakovsky
The healthy scratch bump appears to have worked again. After Oliver Bjorkstrand and Shane Wright each spent time in the press box before returning to play their best hockey of the season, Burakovsky became the latest recipient of this not-so-subtle messaging from Bylsma. Benched against the Hurricanes and Islanders to start the road trip, Burakovsky returned Friday when Yanni Gourde was sidelined with a minor injury.
Burakovsky responded in style, scoring a pretty goal at 10:16 of the first period to give Seattle a 1-0 lead for the third consecutive game. He also led a 3-on-1 rush, kept a play alive along the wall that directly led to Shane Wright’s power-play goal, and made the first of the tic-tac-toe passes that set up Montour’s painful miss.
THE HEALTHY SCRATCH BUMP! 🚨
You cannot make it up. Andre Burakovsky takes a quick-up pass from Vince Dunn, carries it 120 feet, and snipes.
Speaking with Burakovsky after the game, it was clear the healthy scratch treatment hit him hard.
“You don’t want to be in that situation when you’re playing your 11th year in the league,” Burakovsky said. “I mean, there’s been a lot of games that have been good, and there’s been games where I haven’t felt my best and the puck hasn’t really bounced my way.
“I think three games ago at home, I had maybe five shots from the middle that just hit a stick or something. But, I mean, you’ve got to stick with it, and yeah, I mean, it’s not fun to sit out.”
Bylsma said Burakovsky’s performance was “a good response.” So is he out of Bylsma’s doghouse? I’m not convinced, but this was a promising step. It will be interesting to see if Burakovsky can sustain this momentum and achieve results similar to Bjorkstrand and Wright in their respective post-scratch eras.
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.
Welcome to “Down on the Farm,” your weekly update on all things Seattle Kraken prospects. This week we’ll take a look at the progress of Seattle’s goaltending prospects, highlight two standout performance from Brampton Steelheads teammates, and, as always, get you all the data you can handle. Let’s dive in.
Kraken prospect question of the week: Checking in on the goalie prospects
Many of the comments on last week’s prospect update focused on the team’s goaltending prospects. Even though I’m not responding to a specific question posed there, I took that discussion as inspiration to check in on the progress of Seattle’s prospects who make a living getting hit by short cylinders of vulcanized rubber.
This past week was a tough one for Seattle’s netminders at the NHL level—and it was only slightly better for the team’s prospects. Big picture, it’s impressive that the Kraken have relatively young goaltending prospects taking regular starts in Liiga, the KHL, and the AHL. But the goalies in the system faced a lot of adversity this week.
Let’s start with a positive. Victor Ostman, 24, started a pair of games for the ECHL Kansas City Mavericks and posted two wins, one of which was a 23-save shutout. Overall, he stopped 44 of 45 shots, raising his season save percentage to .909. That mark is 10th best in the ECHL among goalies with at least 10 appearances. Ostman faced questions after a rough senior year at the University of Maine and an up-and-down NHL camp, but he has settled in well for Kansas City. Even if that’s where he spends the balance of the year—and we’re beginning to suspect that will be the case—there is still an NHL trajectory for him if he can continue stacking success. His stellar week earns him Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week.
For his part, Nikke Kokko, 20, took hard contact from a Texas Stars skater at 8:32 in the second period of the Firebirds’ game Thursday night, forcing him to depart. There was no definitive update postgame, but the team recalled Jack LaFontaine from Kansas City today, with two weekend games in San Jose on the horizon. That transaction suggests Kokko’s short-term availability is in doubt. On the bright side, the Firebirds came back to win Thursday’s game, so Kokko still does not have a North American professional regulation loss.
Jack LaFontaine has been recalled to the @Firebirds.
Ales Stezka, 27, was solid on Thursday, but struggled a bit in two losses earlier the week, allowing eight goals on 70 shots overall. Stezka’s play had been trending well in recent weeks and the Firebirds will likely be leaning on him even more heavily with Kokko out. While Stezka has been solid, he hasn’t given the Kraken strong reason to consider a promotion even following a few poor NHL starts by Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer.
Kim Saarinen, 18, continues to pile up starts at the Liiga level, which is good, but the production hasn’t been particularly strong. Saarinen’s .891 save percentage ranks 15th among goalies with at least 10 starts (in a 16-team league). One of Saarinen’s weakest starts came Thursday when he gave up five goals on 35 shots. To be fair, though, Saarinen’s team, HPK, has struggled overall and is currently 14th in the standings. Saarinen’s goalie tandem partner, Sami Rajaniemi, is right next to him on the save percentage leaderboard with a .890 mark.
Semyon Vyazovoy, 21, got off to a strong start in the KHL but has recently slid into true backup status for his club, drawing a start every week or two. He didn’t get into a game in the last seven days. It’s a disappointing development for the young goalie, who has posted above-average results at every step of his development path. His .919 save percentage is roughly league average for a regular KHL starter and is fourth best among KHL goalies under 22.
Visa Vedenpaa, 19, still hasn’t seen the ice since playing one period in a game on October 15. He is likely dealing with a long-term injury.
Notes on three Kraken prospects
Jakub Fibigr
Brampton Steelheads (OHL) | D | 18 years old | 25 games played | 2 goals | 11 assists | 0.52 PPG
2024 draft pick Jakub Fibigr opened eyes at Kraken training camp with his skating skill, prompting some commentary that he could be a seventh-round “steal.” If you’ve followed Sound Of Hockey’s draft coverage, though, you already knew that Fibigr was anything but a typical seventh-round pick. He slipped in the draft, but he was No. 98 overall in our consensus scouting ranking, and his draft-year scoring data would have had him even higher (No. 37 overall).
That said, Fibigr had a very slow scoring start for the high-flying Steelheads this year. He finally broke through on the offensive end last Saturday when he registered four assists in a 5-3 Steelheads win over Saginaw. He kept that momentum going with two more assists Wednesday against Guelph. He still trails his 2023-24 scoring pace by a wide margin, but if the last two games signal a hot streak, it shouldn’t take long to make his quiet start a distant memory. The talent is there to pile up points in a hurry.
Carson Rehkopf
Brampton Steelheads (OHL) | F | 19 years old | 25 games played | 18 goals | 26 assists | 1.76 PPG
Fibigr’s Steelheads teammate Carson Rehkopf had a great week both on and off the ice. As expected, he was named to Team Canada’s selection camp for the World Junior Championship—along with fellow Kraken prospects Berkly Catton and Caden Price. Fourth in the OHL in points and a natural shooter, Rehkopf is almost certain to make the final team (Catton is very likely to make it too). Rehkopf also has a strong chance to be named a team leader, given that he’s an alumnus of the 2024 team and one of Canada’s oldest eligible players.
For Brampton, Rehkopf poured in three goals and added four assists in three games this week. The Steelheads were a borderline ludicrous +9 with Rehkopf on the ice at 5-on-5. Needless to say, Brampton’s top line continues to dominate. (This is now the third time Rehkopf has put up production worthy of “Prospect of the Week” status, only to miss out due to another Kraken prospect’s performance. I’m sure he’ll be able to console himself with the World Juniors invite.)
Ben Meyers
Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL) | F | 26 years old | 15 games played | 7 goals | 7 assists | 0.93 PPG
Ben Meyers had a leviathan week for the Coachella Valley Firebirds, punctuated by a hat trick Thursday night that fueled a comeback win against the Texas Stars. Overall, he had five goals and an assist in three games. Mentally, I deemed him ineligible for the Prospect of the Week award since he’s over 25 years old, but it probably should have gone his way but for that.
Seattle’s prospects scored a lot over the last seven days. 20 different players had multi-point weeks. In addition to strong performances from Rehkopf, Meyers, and Fibigr, Clarke Caswell had three goals and three assists in three games.
Catton and Rehkopf continue their battle for Kraken junior scoring supremacy. Last week Catton held the lead, but he relinquished that spot to Rehkopf this week after the Steelheads forward recorded seven points.
Forward Justin Janicke is now second on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in scoring, following a two-goal, one-assist week. Defenseman Kaden Hammell’s +35 plus-minus is the best in the entire CHL (though he is closely trailed by several Silvertips teammates).
As detailed above, Ostman was the organization’s highlight in goal over the last seven days. Stezka played in all three games for the Firebirds after appearing as an injury replacement for Kokko on Thursday.
Saarinen’s Liiga numbers aren’t stellar but his continued usage in that top-level pro league as an 18-year-old is reason for continued optimism.
2024-25 Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
Clarke Caswell: 2
Berkly Catton: 2
Alexis Bernier: 1
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard: 1
Victor Östman: 1
Caden Price: 1
Previewing the week ahead
Hammell, Julius Miettinen, and the Everett Silvertips host Caden Price and the Kelowna Rockets on Friday, and then square off against the rival Seattle Thunderbirds on Saturday night at Angel of the Winds Arena. Next Wednesday, Everett welcomes Tyson Jugnauth and the Portland Winterhawks.
The Coachella Valley Firebirds have three straight contests against the San Jose Barracuda over the next seven days (two in San Jose and one in Palm Desert). With a weekend back-to-back scheduled, I’d expect Jack LaFontaine to get an AHL start (assuming Kokko doesn’t bounce back rapidly). On the ECHL side of things, I expect Ostman to carry the load for the Mavericks.
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.
After snapping their three-game losing streak Tuesday in Carolina, the Seattle Kraken followed it up with another impressive performance on Long Island Thursday, defeating the Islanders 5-2 and earning the home team several choruses of boos throughout the night.
In his third game back from injury, Vince Dunn was the undisputed No. 1 star of the game, contributing a goal and two primary assists. His partner, Adam Larsson, also tallied three assists, while Shane Wright, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Tye Kartye each scored a goal. Joey Daccord also returned to form with 27 of 29 saves and came close to recording his second shutout of the season.
After jumping out to a 4-0 lead, the Kraken caused some late undue stress by allowing two goals in the third but ultimately secured a convincing top-to-bottom victory.
“I think you can see, the last six periods, we really focused on making sure that we’re skating the right way with the puck, not bringing it back all that often, and making life a little bit harder on goalies too,” Dunn said. “I think you see a lot of guys just getting to the net, being already at the net, so that creates a lot better odds to get goals.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a 5-2 Kraken win over the Islanders.
Takeaway #1: Vince Dunn is good
Dunn reminded us Thursday why the Kraken have historically been much better with him in the lineup than without him. Two shot-passes from the point—one on the power play and one at 5-on-5—created Seattle’s first two goals and helped put his team in the driver’s seat for the second game in a row.
“I think definitely the first one I have no shot angle,” Dunn said of his thought process on Kartye’s tip-in goal that made it 1-0 at 2:48 of the first period. “It’s kind of bobbling on me a little bit. And defenders are so good now in tying guys up that sometimes you’ve got to move away from the net to get sticks on pucks to deflect them in.”
KARTYE PARTYE! 🚨
For the second game in a row, the #SeaKraken strike first, this one a Tye Kartye tip off a Vince Dunn shot. Kartye’s first goal since Nov. 12.
Bjorkstrand was the beneficiary on the second one and scored the first of two power-play goals for the Kraken on the night (Wright had the other PPG).
“I think it’s smart for the defensemen to look for sticks,” Bjorkstrand said. “It’s not always easy shooting from the point and beating the goalie clean, so you need a screen or a direction sometimes. And [Dunn’s] obviously a really good player, so I try to present the stick, and it’s on him to at least try to get it in the area to try to hit it, so I can react to it.”
BJORK-JAM! 🚨
Power-play goal. #SeaKraken has the puck in the offensive zone against a very passive kill almost the full two minutes.
Another shot-pass by Dunn, Bjorkstrand gets the tip to extend his point streak to 7 games.
Dunn’s best offensive play of the game came immediately after what he called “the worst play I could have made,” when he tried to pass to Larsson at the point but handcuffed him. Dunn got it back, juked around Pierre Engvall, and sniped it past Ilya Sorokin from the top of the slot.
GREAT shift by Vince Dunn, and he caps it off by walking Pierre Engvall and sniping it past Sorokin for his third point of the game.
Notably, Dunn also said he thought he played much better in Seattle’s game against the Hurricanes.
“I thought I defended a lot better, made a lot better reads with the puck. So some nights it just goes your way a little better than others.”
I sure thought he played well on this night, and coach Dan Bylsma seems pretty happy to have the offensive defenseman back in the lineup.
“It’s just… You get to play with the puck a lot more,” Bylsma said. “That’s both offensively, coming out of the D zone, breaking out, he just has a ton of poise with the puck and usually makes a great and smart play with the puck. And when you can do that, it’s a game changer.”
Takeaway #2: Past healthy scratches working wonders
A curious phenomenon has happened over the last few weeks.
Two players that were struggling mightily for stretches of the season, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Shane Wright, were made healthy scratches by Bylsma, and the results have been undeniably positive. Bjorkstrand was out of the lineup for one game, Nov. 5, against the Colorado Avalanche, and Wright sat for three games between Nov. 17 and Nov. 23.
Since returning, both players have been on respective heaters. Bjorkstrand has 11 points in 13 games since his one-game absence, including his current seven-game point streak, and Wright has six points in six games.
I asked Bylsma why this can have a positive impact on players, and here’s what he said: “I don’t know. We used the term ‘reset’ with Wrighter when he sat out, and I think it just can bring a little more attention to focusing on your game and what you bring and how you bring it on a nightly basis.
“Oliver’s a really good player, and he has a lot of strong attributes that he brings to the table. And you see it happening on a night-to-night basis now. And you see that with Wrighter, the same thing. [He had] the time off, just took a chance to get refocused and re-energized.”
Both players again were impactful in this one, and the line of Bjorkstrand, Wright, and Eeli Tolvanen looked dangerous and creative throughout the night. Bjorkstrand joked that his linemates were “showing off” against the Islanders, making slick little passes to one another and (in Tolvanen’s case) even trying for a between-the-legs goal in the third.
“I wouldn’t say, watching a game, I necessarily learned anything, but sometimes you need a wake-up call, maybe,” Bjorkstrand said. “Obviously, before that, I’m trying to go out and play well. You don’t try to play not your best, but you don’t want to be scratched. And I feel like I’m able to help the team produce, so I want to be a part of that, and trying to do better. And I think I’ve been more consistent since.”
Here’s hoping the healthy scratch treatment has a similar effect on Andre Burakovsky whenever he returns to action…
Takeaway #3: Heckuva start to the road trip
Hockey is such a bizarre game. One day, you see a team lose its third in a row to bottom-feeder teams, and you think things can’t get worse and the season is over. Then that same team goes out and starts a difficult East Coast road trip with two straight impressive wins, and suddenly the belief that same team can compete for a playoff spot comes rushing right back.
Friday presents perhaps the hardest test of this trip against an outstanding New Jersey Devils team, on the second of back-to-backs, and surely with Philipp Grubauer in net for the first time since his worst performance ever as a Kraken.
Can Seattle do something in that game to reinforce that belief?
—
One last note: Yanni Gourde, who helped create two goals by screening Sorokin Thursday, did not play the last 17 minutes of the game but remained on the bench. Bylsma called it precautionary after the game and said it would give Gourde the best chance to play Friday.
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 vibes are great! This team is unstoppable! The Kraken may never lose again!
Forget about all the negative things I said on Saturday after the Seattle Kraken lost their third in a row and second in two days to the Sharks, because they bounced back Tuesday with a convincing 4-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in their barn.
“I think it takes a 60-minute effort to beat a Carolina team, something we haven’t done in this building [since] a long time ago,” head coach Dan Bylsma said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but just the battle and the compete all game long… Giving that team 16 shots in a game, five in the first, two in the second, that’s not something that happens very often.”
Here are Three Takeaways from the Kraken’s impressive win over the Hurricanes.
Takeaway #1: A rare early strike
As John Barr pointed out in Monday Musings, Seattle has been the worst team in the NHL this season at giving up the first goal, falling behind a staggering 68 percent of the time. But against the Hurricanes, Seattle came out firing and immediately got on the board on its first possession.
With speed through the neutral zone, Yanni Gourde made a simple pass to Jaden Schwartz as he crossed over the blue line. Schwartz executed a subtle yet brilliant one-touch pass to himself between defenders Jalen Chatfield and Dmitry Orlov, then used his speed to split through the two players. He chipped it past Pyotr Kochetkov, and just like that, the Kraken had liftoff.
“It was massive, I think,” said Bylsma. “We’ve talked a lot, we’re not happy with how we were playing, and we wanted to make it right. We wanted to make a difference, and when you step over the boards and you get a great play by one of your leaders to get off on a good note in the game, it was massive for the group.”
The Kraken gave up tying goals later in the first period and again in the third, but playing with the lead for a change was refreshing. Aside from fleeting moments when it appeared Seattle had fallen behind (more on that in Takeaway #2), the Kraken controlled the game throughout. The tone was set by Schwartz’s goal just 19 seconds in.
Takeaway #2: Goalie interference goes Seattle’s way
The hockey gods taketh away; the hockey gods giveth back. One game after the Kraken were denied a late Matty Beniers goal (which likely wouldn’t have changed the outcome of their 4-2 loss to the Sharks), they caught a break with a favorable goalie interference call against the Hurricanes.
Martin Necas had scored a power-play goal at 5:43 of the third to tie the game 2-2. A few minutes later, Jack Drury appeared to give the Hurricanes their first lead of the night with a goal from a bad angle.
To the naked eye, something seemed off, as Joey Daccord was way late moving to the correct post. Replay confirmed contact between Daccord and Eric Robinson, clearly impeding the goalie’s ability to make the save. Bylsma challenged and won, overturning the goal.
Phew! 😅
Canes scored, but #SeaKraken successfully challenged for goalie interference.
Initially, I worried the contact might have occurred just outside the crease, which could have led the Situation Room to uphold the goal. Fortunately, they made the right call, keeping the score tied and setting the stage for late-game heroics from the Kraken.
This was a pivotal moment, and Seattle seized the opportunity (more on that in Takeaway #3).
Takeaway #3: Is Schwartz/Beniers/Gourde a Thing?
One intriguing storyline entering the game was Bylsma’s decision to shake up his lines, even making Andre Burakovsky a healthy scratch for the first time since his arrival in Seattle in 2022.
The newly assembled trio of Jaden Schwartz, Matty Beniers, and Yanni Gourde turned heads, especially with Gourde moving from center to wing. But the experiment worked spectacularly, as the line dominated, controlling 96 percent of the shot quality during their 12:40 on ice together, per Natural Stat Trick.
Their most significant contribution came 46 seconds after the overturned Drury goal. On what looked like a broken zone entry, Beniers and Schwartz kept the play alive. Beniers poked the puck to Schwartz, who shoveled a pass toward the front of the net. Although Orlov deflected it, the puck landed perfectly for Gourde, who buried it at the far post.
GOURDE GOAL! 🚨
Jaden Schwartz (who is having a GREAT game), doesn’t connect on the pass, but it drops right in the paint for Yanni.
It’s fascinating how line combinations can click unexpectedly. When I first saw this group, I didn’t think it made any sense. Now, I think Bylsma should stick with them forever and ever (or at least until Seattle’s next ugly three-game losing streak).
Bonus Takeaway: Impressive defense
Seattle’s defensive effort deserves recognition. Against a Carolina team known for high shot volume, the Kraken limited the Hurricanes to just 19 shots on goal. Bylsma noted 16 in his press conference, but the official count was 19—still an impressively low total.
Remarkably, the Hurricanes managed only two shots in the second period. With Seattle’s starting goalie having a few off nights recently, it’s encouraging to see the skaters step up and play suffocating defense in front of him. Even though Daccord again was not at his sharpest, the Kraken’s strong defensive performance made it a non-issue.
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.
December is here, and after the way November ended, it couldn’t have come soon enough. The Seattle Kraken dropped three straight games to teams they should consistently beat, making those final November matchups tough to watch. However, it’s time to leave that behind and look forward as the Kraken strive to reach that 95-point mark—historically significant because teams with 95 points have made the playoffs 80 percent of the time over the last 10 full NHL seasons.
Another key benchmark is Thanksgiving. Historically, teams in playoff positions by Thanksgiving go on to make the postseason around 80 percent of the time. Kraken fans know all too well about the other 20 percent. Last season, Seattle held a playoff spot at Thanksgiving but ultimately fell short by season’s end.
Now, with the season progressing, the NHL playoff picture is beginning to take shape. For December, Sound Of Hockey updated its team tiers: Playoff Bound, Bubble, and Tankers. As the Kraken continue their push, this month will be crucial in determining where they truly stand.
November’s bomb cyclone
Last month, we targeted 18 points for November, but the Kraken managed to earn only 12. The biggest hurdle continues to be Playoff Bound teams, as the Kraken went winless in all three games against this tier. They fared better against Bubble teams, earning six points with a 3-2-0 record. In fact, the Kraken have had the most success against this group, taking 66.7 percent of available points this season. While the sting of those last three losses is still fresh, Seattle did manage a .500 point percentage against Tanker teams, going 3-3-0.
The recent three-game skid can be attributed (at least partially) to goaltending issues. Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer both had their worst performances of the season during this stretch. According to expected goals data from MoneyPuck, the Kraken actually outperformed their opponents in each of those losses. They generated more offense and created better chances, but expected goals don’t count on the scoreboard. The takeaway? If the Kraken continue to generate more offense than their opponents, wins should follow.
While it would have been nice to secure those easier wins to close the month, the bigger concern is their performance against Playoff Bound teams. Scoring has been the primary issue in these matchups—they managed just three goals total and were shutout twice. Now sitting six points off the pace for a 95-point season, the Kraken need to pick up an extra point or two each month for the rest of the season to get back on track.
Kraken struggling – quick hits
Each of these issues could be an article on its own, so I’ll keep it concise and just list the key concerns.
Injuries piling up
Jordan Eberle is out for at least three months, a significant blow to the Kraken’s top-six forward depth. Vince Dunn’s extended absence also hurt, but there’s good news—he returned to the lineup on Nov. 30. However, injury concerns remain, with a new one popping up this week. On Dec. 2, Ryker Evans wasn’t a full participant in practice. Coach Dan Bylsma confirmed that Evans sustained an injury in the Nov. 30 game against the Sharks. He did briefly leave that game after blocking a shot, so the injury could be related to that.
Dan Bylsma said on Monday at Carolina that defenseman Ryker Evans wasn't a full participant in practice due to injury. His update:
Since Eberle’s injury, the top line of Andre Burakovsky, Matty Beniers, and Jared McCann has struggled, managing just two goals in seven games. According to MoneyPuck, they’ve produced only 1.67 goals per 60 minutes—the lowest rate of any Kraken forward line. Matty Beniers, in particular, has been held pointless during this stretch. On the positive side, this line has been defensively sound and hasn’t allowed any goals against, but their primary role is to score. In the Nov. 30 loss to the San Jose Sharks, Chandler Stephenson missed the game due to illness, prompting a shakeup to the forward lines. Beniers, Jaden Schwartz, and Oliver Bjorkstrand were grouped together and combined for three points. Stephenson should not be out long and will return, but some more future line shuffling seems necessary.
Andre Burakovsky
Matty Beniers
Jared McCann
Backup goaltending
There’s no sugarcoating it—Philipp Grubauer put up a stinker in the Nov. 29 loss to the Sharks. It was an inopportune time for a bad game, especially at the start of a back-to-back with Joey Daccord needing rest. Overall, Grubauer has been mediocre at best this season. While he hasn’t been the main reason for the Kraken’s struggles (except in that last outing), he hasn’t inspired much confidence either. With just one win this season, Grubauer tends to let in a “soft” goal each game. Combine that with the Kraken’s lack of goal support when he is in net, and it’s tough to come out victorious. The team needs to find a way to boost his confidence and help him settle into a reliable backup role.
Updated team tiers
This season has brought plenty of surprises, and the competition for wild card spots is fierce. Unexpected teams like the Buffalo Sabres, Columbus Blue Jackets, Anaheim Ducks, and Philadelphia Flyers are all at or above .500 as of Dec. 1. In a surprising twist, the Minnesota Wild currently hold the top spot in the NHL by points percentage.
With that, let’s dive into the updated team tiers. The Tanker tier is shrinking, as most teams now have a legitimate path to a playoff spot. This past month reinforced a key lesson: NHL games are never easy, and you can’t overlook any opponent.
Bolded = teams Kraken play in December, Starred* = moved tiers
The reshuffling of teams between tiers also means adjusted point percentage targets:
Based on these updated percentages, the Kraken are currently on pace for 89 points—six points shy of the 95-point target. To stay on track, they’ll need to pick up an extra one-to-two points each month for the rest of the season.
Here comes Santa Claus
December brings a structured challenge for the Kraken, with the month unfolding in waves of four: a four-game road trip, a four-game homestand, another four-game road trip, and the start of a final four-game homestand. The target for December is 16 points across 13 games—15 points to meet their points percentage target, plus one catch-up point to stay on track for a 95-point season.
Playoff Bound tier
The Kraken face five Playoff Bound opponents this month, with four of those games on the road. The lone home game is against the Florida Panthers on Dec. 10. On their first road trip, they’ll take on the Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils. Later in the month, they’ll face two divisional rivals—the Vegas Golden Knights and Vancouver Canucks—on their second road trip. The goal: earn five points from these tough matchups.
Bubble tier
Seven games fall into the Bubble tier, with a target of nine points. The Kraken will face the New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning, Ottawa Senators, Colorado Avalanche, and Utah Hockey Club. There are some heavy hitters in this list, but despite their reputations, many of these teams have struggled to replicate past success, landing them in the Bubble tier. This stretch will be crucial for Seattle to capitalize on opportunities against playoff hopefuls.
Tanker tier
With the Tanker tier shrinking, the Kraken have just one game in this category—a Dec. 19 road matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks. The target here is clear: secure two points.
“I think you look at the schedule a lot of different ways. But when you look at the schedule and say, ‘This is a team we may believe we can have or should have success against,’ it changes your mindset a little bit. I think I welcome the difficult opponents because that will help us change our mindset and understand how we need to play to have success in the game.”
December’s matchups feature some good, but struggling opponents in the Playoff Bound and Bubble tiers that could provide the mindset shift the Kraken need.
The Kraken face two four-game road trips this month. The second one stretches over the Christmas holiday. They’ll play three games on the road before returning home for the break, then finish the trip with a final game in Vancouver.
Seattle can recover
The sour taste of three straight losses to teams the Kraken should have beaten is still lingering. Just before this rough stretch, the Kraken were on a 6-2-0 run, and the vibes were much better. While December doesn’t promise to be any easier, hockey fortunes can change quickly. With the Kraken only five points out of a playoff spot, there’s still hope.
If the Kraken had won the last two games against the Sharks, they’d be a .500 team and just one point out of a wild card spot. Fans would likely be in a much better mood. But the question is, should we let the results of two games define the season? Those two losses sting, but the Kraken need to move on and start chipping away at the six-point deficit to get back on track toward the 95-point pace.
We’ll continue to track the Kraken’s progress each month throughout the season. If you have any questions, thoughts, or suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments below or reach out to me on my socials. My handle is blaizg on multiple platforms.
Blaiz Grubic
Blaiz Grubic is a contributor at Sound Of Hockey. A passionate hockey fan and player for over 30 years, Blaiz grew up in the Pacific Northwest and is an alumni of Washington State University (Go Cougs!). When he’s not playing, watching, or writing about hockey, he enjoys quality time with his wife and daughter or getting out on a golf course for a quick round. Follow @blaizg on BlueSky or X.
Mathematically, there have been worse weeks in the Kraken’s brief franchise history, but when the schedule was released, this week stood out as a prime opportunity to pick up points, with four games against teams expected to be bottom feeders. Last week, I cautioned everyone not to underestimate the Sharks or the Ducks. Earning four out of a possible eight points would have been acceptable, though not ideal. Instead, the Seattle Kraken managed just two points from those four games, with a come-from-behind win against the Ducks on Monday as their only victory.
There were signs all along
One issue I highlighted early in the season is the Kraken’s tendency to allow the first goal. They lead the league in this category, trailing first in 68 percent of their games. They’ve won just five of the 17 games in which they’ve fallen behind early. Over the past week, they allowed the first goal in all three of their losses. It’s not just the goals; from the start of each game this week, the team seemed in trouble, struggling to find its rhythm.
As rough as that performance was, we might excuse giving up the first goal in the game against San Jose on Friday, which started at 12:30pm. However, even before the Sharks scored first again on Saturday night, the Kraken looked disorganized and unprepared. We’ve seen similar sluggish starts in wins against Columbus, Chicago, and Nashville. Both the coach and players are aware of this issue, yet they continue to struggle with starting on time. Hopefully, these somewhat embarrassing losses will serve as a wake-up call for the team to play with the urgency we’ve seen when they’re trailing.
They are (supposed to be) better than this
We know the Kraken made significant upgrades from last season with the signings of Chandler Stephenson and Brandon Montour, yet so far, the team is on the same pace as last year. The injuries to Vince Dunn and Jordan Eberle have contributed to this underwhelming start, but they faced their share of injuries last season, too. I’ve struggled to pinpoint the root cause this season. Adjustments to a new coach and new players take time, but we’re now more than a quarter of the way through the season, and the Kraken look worse than ever.
Even the best teams go through rough patches, but having already endured two so early in the season is concerning. Although they’re only five points out of a playoff spot, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to believe this team has a realistic chance.
Other musings
Friday’s game against the Sharks was Philipp Grubauer’s worst performance as a Kraken. However, playing in a 12:30 PM game after a 10-day break didn’t help his cause. Like it or not, the team needs him to play more frequently; otherwise, Joey Daccord will become worn out, which has already started to show in recent games.
One positive from the past week was the effectiveness of the line combination featuring Shane Wright, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Eeli Tolvanen. Dan Bylsma broke up this line on Saturday due to Chandler Stephenson’s illness, but hopefully they reconnect for more success on this road trip.
With his two power-play goals on Wednesday night, Shane Wright now has as many goals this season as Matty Beniers.
The Kraken scored three “response goals” over the two games: two on Friday in San Jose and one on Saturday night, which came just 32 seconds after the Sharks extended their lead to 4-0. While response goals are encouraging to see, they ideally shouldn’t come after giving the opposition a four-goal lead.
The goalie interference call with seven seconds left in Saturday’s game was incredibly frustrating. I generally avoid complaining about interference reviews, but this season has been wildly inconsistent.
The review of that goal took three and a half minutes. While it likely wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the game, it killed any excitement the fans were feeling. More importantly, it negated a Filson Final Minute goal just in time for holiday shopping. Thanks for nothing, NHL.
On a related note, if the league truly wants to eliminate head shots from the game, they should also issue suspensions for players who punch an unengaged opponent in the head. I’ve believed this for a long time, even before Ross Johnston’s punches on Tye Kartye in Wednesday’s game against Anaheim.
One thing that stood out during the games against the Ducks and Sharks was the youth of those teams compared to the Kraken. Anaheim has 12 players on its roster who were drafted since 2017, while the Sharks have 11. In contrast, the Kraken have just five, which is understandable given they’ve only been drafting since 2021. However, it’s a stark reminder that the Kraken won’t have a fully developed young core for a few more seasons.
One encouraging sign for the Kraken is their recent increase in shot attempts. Over the last four games, they have averaged 75 shot attempts per game, compared to just 58 in their first 21 games. They even recorded a season-high 84 shot attempts during their home losses to the Sharks and Ducks.
Kraken prospects Berkly Catton, Carson Rehkopf, and Caden Price have all been named to the World Junior camp roster for Team Canada. Barring any injury, Catton and Rehkopf are locks to make the final team with Price having an outside shot of landing on the roster.
In case you missed it, the Kelowna Rockets have been named the host for the 2026 Memorial Cup, beating out several other candidates, including Spokane. It would be great to see the Memorial Cup return to a U.S. host city someday.
Goal of the week
Seattle Kraken prospect Berkly Catton scored a nasty goal from a tough angle in the Spokane Chiefs’ win on Sunday.
The Spokane Chiefs have quietly won six games in a row and eight of their last 10. During that span, Berkly Catton has recorded 21 points.
Player performances
Jakub Fibigr (SEA/BRA): The Kraken’s seventh-round selection from the 2024 NHL Entry Draft recorded four assists in a single game for the Brampton Steelheads of the OHL. He is a dark horse to make the Czechia World Junior team this year but will likely have a stronger chance next year.
Oliver Bjorkstrand (SEA): Bjorkstrand enters Tuesday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes on a five-game point streak.
Shane Wright (SEA): Since being a healthy scratch for three games, Wright has tallied three goals and two assists in his last four outings. It would be great to see him maintain this momentum for an extended period.
WRIGHT AS RAIN AGAIN! 🚨
TWO power-play goals, both by Shane Wright, and this one comes off a beautiful pass by Stephenson.
On paper, this upcoming road trip looks like the most challenging of the season. The Kraken begin with a Tuesday game against the Hurricanes, followed by back-to-back matchups against the Islanders on Thursday and the Devils on Friday. They will close out the trip with a game against the New York Rangers on Sunday.
If there’s any consolation, none of these four teams are currently playing their best hockey. This could be an opportune time for the Kraken to face them, as these teams have a collective record of 18-18-4 over their last 10 games.
Normally, earning 50 percent of the available points during a stretch like this would be acceptable. However, if the Kraken want to avoid settling into the mushy middle of the standings, they need to steal some games they aren’t projected to win. Wouldn’t it be something if they struggled against the Sharks and Ducks, but then managed to beat teams like the Hurricanes and Devils?
Whoa. That was two very bad days of no-good, rotten hockey from the Seattle Kraken. For months, we viewed this latest four-game stretch of the schedule as a chance for them to make hay against two bad teams and perhaps snag a playoff position—just in time for a gauntlet of tough opponents that runs through most of December.
At Sound Of Hockey, we figured that with the Kraken playing two of the NHL’s worst teams for four consecutive games, they needed to rack up at least six standings points to feel like they had taken care of business. Realistically, they should have earned all eight. Seattle managed just two points out of the four games.
Two. Lousy. Points.
The Kraken capped it off by getting swept by the Sharks, who hung 12 goals on Seattle—the most San Jose has scored in any two-game stretch since 2021.
I’m an optimist to a fault, but even I am struggling to find optimism about this team right now. The vibes are bad.
Here are Three Takeaways from a miserable weekend of hockey, in which the Kraken lost 8-5 at San Jose on Friday and 4-2 at home to those same Sharks on Saturday.
Takeaway #1: The goaltending has taken a nosedive
One bright spot for much of this season has been Seattle’s goaltending, led by Joey Daccord, who has been stellar most nights. Kudos to John Barr, who sounded the alarm on the latest Sound Of Hockey Podcast, saying he was worried the Kraken were leaning on Daccord too heavily and that overuse could lead to cracks in his play.
Indeed, Joey’s last two outings—against Anaheim on Wednesday and San Jose on Saturday—were statistically his two worst of the season, with save percentages of .848 and .826, respectively.
But what choice does coach Dan Bylsma have other than to keep leaning on Daccord? He tried giving Daccord a rest during the first game of the back-to-backs, and Philipp Grubauer had perhaps his worst outing ever as a Kraken, allowing seven goals on 26 shots for a dismal .731 save percentage.
My regular readers and listeners know I empathize with goaltenders because I am one. I’ve probably felt something similar to what Grubi felt on Friday: one of those dreaded nights where it seems like you can’t stop anything. This was evident in Ethan Cardwell’s first career goal—San Jose’s seventh of the game—where Grubauer flat-out whiffed on an easy glove save.
I recognize that the “full-time backup” role is new to Grubauer, but if he’s not going to demand the starter role, he needs to learn how to be reliable as the second-stringer. At this point, the only way he ever gets back to being a full-time starter is by playing outstanding hockey as the backup. If the Kraken can’t even rely on him to take one game of a back-to-back against arguably the worst team in the league… Well, I just don’t know.
After that performance, Grubauer is now 1-7-0 on the season, with a .862 save percentage and a 3.62 goals-against average—both the worst of his 13-year NHL career.
I don’t want to make it seem like Seattle’s issues revolve solely around goaltending, because that’s definitely not the case. While the Kraken generated plenty of shots on Saturday, they were outplayed by a confident Sharks team for the first half of the game. By the time they woke up, they were staring at an insurmountable 4-0 deficit.
Still, there’s something to be said for how confident a team looks when its goalies are playing well. When the goalies are sharp, the skaters play looser and freer than they did this week. As Jared McCann said after Saturday’s game, “We turn the puck over, and it just always seems to go in the back of our net.”
Takeaway #2: Vince Dunn in, Chandler Stephenson out
When it became clear on Saturday that Vince Dunn—who had missed 19 games with a “mid-body” injury—was set to return, I regained a smidgeon of hope that this team might begin to find its form soon. After all, as Blaiz Grubic pointed out on this very website last week, Seattle has historically been a much better team with Dunn in the lineup than without him.
I’m still somewhat hopeful (more on that in Takeaway #3) that this will prove true and that the ship can be righted soon. After all, we’ve only seen Dunn and Brandon Montour together in the lineup for five total games, including Saturday.
Dunn looked solid in his first game since Oct. 17, logging a whopping 26:15 of ice time—the most he’s played in a game this season. He also spent time on the power play with Montour, an intriguing look with two defensemen, although that really didn’t seem to work. Dunn and Montour also shared a few shifts at 5-on-5 when Seattle was trying to rally.
“I thought I felt pretty good,” Dunn said. “Honestly, my legs were good, my execution was pretty good. I think, obviously, missing six weeks is a long time. It goes by pretty slowly, but I thought it was ok for the most part.”
Dunn’s return is a positive step, but it feels like just a drop in the bucket for a team that has looked broken in its last three games.
While one key player returned to the lineup, another exited Saturday, as Chandler Stephenson missed the contest due to illness. He was replaced by Mitchell Stephens, who looked solid in his Kraken debut and helped create some energy with the fourth line.
The Stephenson illness concerns me slightly, given last season’s experience when a bug swept through the team during an East Coast road trip and largely derailed the season. The team heads out on a similar East Coast road trip Sunday, so hopefully the guys are getting plenty of Vitamin C.
Takeaway #3: Vibes are bad
As I mentioned earlier, I’m usually an optimist. But this is a rough, rough moment for the Kraken. They needed points this last week because now they’re headed on a historically tough road trip. And when they return from facing Carolina and the three New York/New Jersey teams, they’ll face the Panthers, Bruins, and Lightning at home. If the Kraken don’t find themselves quickly, they could effectively put themselves out of the playoff race in a few weeks.
I asked Bylsma how he plans to rebuild his team’s confidence during this difficult stretch. He said:
“I think you look at the schedule a lot of different ways. But when you look at the schedule, and you say, ‘This is a team we may believe we can have, or should have success against,’ it changes your mindset a little bit. I think I welcome the difficult opponents because that will help us change our mindset a little bit and understand how we need to play to have success in the game.”
So, there’s that.
Thankfully, the Kraken have a full practice scheduled for Monday in Carolina before kicking off their four-game swing against the Hurricanes on Tuesday.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
