What a difference a week makes. Last Monday, it felt like the Seattle Kraken were on the brink of theoretical elimination from contending for a playoff spot, and now I am convinced they are a playoff team. Remember what I said about recency bias a few weeks ago? It apparently works the other way too, because I am now feeling good about this team’s chances this season after its impressive win against Vancouver on Saturday.
The Kraken secured five of a possible six points over the last three games and have looked good in all those games. There is still a long way to go, but there is a lot to be happy about over this last stretch. For starters, the depth scoring that was a key to Seattle’s success in 2022-23 has returned. Over the last three games, the Kraken have scored 10 goals from eight different players. They also won a game that went to a shootout for the first time in 579 days.
No panic
Since Game No. 5 on the season, it has felt like the Kraken have been playing decent hockey most nights, but they just were not getting quality results (and yes, I know there were some real stinkers sprinkled in there). If you play good hockey, the wins should come, so I’m hoping the last week of play is the new normal.
Coach Dave Hakstol has been even-keeled and consistent when speaking to the media, even after what felt like a disastrous loss in Edmonton when Evander Kane scored a hat trick that started with under seven minutes to play in the third period. That could have been a loss that stuck with players for a while, but they bounced back with the shootout win against the Islanders, and that seemed to give them some confidence heading into Vancouver.
3-on-3 changes coming
Broadening the scope of this article a bit, there was a lot of chatter about potential changes to three-on-three overtime rules coming out of the general managers meetings last week. My first question is, “Why do we need to change it again?”
The closest answer I saw was the quote from Arizona Coyotes GM, Bill Armstrong. “The purpose of overtime is to end the game [before the shootout], and we need to make sure that continues to progress.”
So, I looked up the numbers.
Three-on-three was instituted before the 2015-16 season, so you can see the obvious and immediate impact it had on reducing the number of shootout games. But, that number has even been trending down slightly since its inception, so changes in tactics from coaches really haven’t made the shootout happen any more frequently.
I, for one, love the shoutout, even when a team’s shooters are slow and methodical about choosing their shot attempts. It adds a lot of anticipation.
If reducing shootouts is the goal, how about they just say… eliminate them altogether? For the record, I have never heard a fan complain about the three-on-three format other than it being too short.
Other musings
Regular readers will already know this, but the Kraken win over Vancouver was their first win on a Saturday this season. They improved to 1-4-1 on the season on Saturdays.
Alex Wennberg, Brandon Tanev, and Jamie Oleksiak all scored their first goal of the season over the last week.
It’s been nice to see Tanev back on the penalty kill. The team was solid on the PK early in the season without Tanev but has struggled as of late. Turbo’s speed brings a different element that might get teams second guessing when trying to pinch on a 50/50 puck.
One of my favorite moments of the game against the Canucks was when Jared McCann took a (clean) run at Elias Pettersson. I love the emotion McCann shows on the ice.
Eeli Tolvanen led the forwards in blocked shots last week. He is known for his shot, but he has looked good defensively. Offensively, he only has three goals on the season, which is fine, but he is still due for a breakout game with a couple goals. If he isn’t making a huge impact offensively, being able to block shots and help at Seattle’s end of the ice keeps him in the coaching staff’s good graces.
I have some feedback for Game Ops at Climate Pledge Arena. When there is a penalty in the game, show the replay BEFORE the game starts again. More than a few times last week, a penalty was called, but the replay did not show up on “The Twins” until after game play began. Anyone else notice this? We, as fans, need more time to be irate over the call.
Big congratulations to Everett native Kaden Shahan for being named to the US Junior Select team that will compete in the 2023 World Junior A Challenge in early December. Shahan played much of his youth hockey in the Seattle area. He now plays for the Sioux City Musketeers in the USHL where he has 15 goals and five points in 19 games. He is expected to play at the University of Connecticut next season.
Kraken prospect, Ty Nelson became the North Bay Battalion’s franchise leader in goals, assists, and points for a defenseman. Congrats, Ty!
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard scored two goals on Saturday night for HV71 in the Swedish Hockey League. He was a second-round selection of the Kraken in this most recent entry draft, and apparently, he had some sage advice for one the veterans before the game.
Former Seattle Thunderbird Luke Prokop made his AHL debut last week. Read about Luke’s inspiring story here.
Another former Seattle Thunderbird hit a significant milestone last week. Goaltender Thomas Milic won his first AHL game in a 3-2 win for the Manitoba Moose.
Player performances
Jordan Eberle (SEA) – After missing a few games after being cut by Jaden Schwartz’s skate in practice, Ebs has five points over the last three games. Eberle’s uptick in production has been a sight for sore eyes, as he struggled to contribute in the first part of the season.
Jani Nyman (SEA) – The Seattle Kraken’s second-round pick from the 2022 NHL Entry Draft continued his impressive season with a hat trick for Ilves against SaiPa on Saturday night. At 19 years old, he is tied for second in goals scored (11-5—16) in the Finnish Liiga.
Sidney Crosby (PIT) – I don’t know if anyone has heard of this guy before, but he has five goals over his last four games.
Goal of the week
This was Mølgaard’s second goal of the game and proved to be the game winner for HV71.
This was Alex Nedeljkovic’s second AHL goal. He then got recalled to the Pittsburgh Penguins and pitched a 38-save shutout against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday.
Chart of the week
The Seattle Kraken power play has significantly improved this season, and the team has become more dependent on it compared to last year.
Here is a look at the team’s power-play goal percentage compared to the rest of the league this season.
Another big and busy week
For as good as I feel about the team right now, they still have some work to do before we can really say they are a playoff contender. They have another critical week ahead, with three home games against division opponents over the next five days. The Kraken will look for redemption Monday against the Calgary Flames, who are not too far behind the Kraken in the standings.
Then, the Kraken will welcome the San Jose Sharks and Canucks in what I call the “Turkey Sandwich” on the days before and after Thanksgiving respectively. Four points should be the target with three being the minimum for good feelings.
Is there an area you want to dig into for next week? If so, let me know in the comments section, and I will see what I can do.
Good morning from Vancouver, where the Seattle Kraken defeated the Canucks 4-3 for a massive two points on Saturday.
We’ve heard Seattle’s players and head coach talking about the need to find a full 60-minute effort, and they got that from everybody in the lineup, resulting in a signature win for this team.
Author’s note: This edition of Three Takeaways will be quicker than usual because I have limited time this morning and woke up too late to do a more in-depth version. Forgive me.
Let’s get to it!
Takeaway #1: Exactly the type of goal we were talking about
On the last full Sound Of Hockey Podcast episode (Episode 261), we discussed the many things we thought had been plaguing the Kraken through the early stages of the season.
One of the things I identified is that we haven’t seen many of those plays off the rush where a Kraken forward either pulls up and finds a trailer or goes cross-ice to the player on the opposite wing and that guy finds the trailer for a prime opportunity from the slot.
With Vancouver leading 1-0 after a squeaky J.T. Miller goal that barely crossed the line, Jamie Oleksiak got the Kraken on the board with the type of play I was talking about on that episode.
1-1
Jamie Oleksiak starts the play. Jamie Oleksiak finishes the play. Great work supporting the set up by Beniers. #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/rBTniqAY3u
In this case, Jordan Eberle passed to Oleksiak at Seattle’s blue line, and the Kraken transitioned to offense quickly. The Big Rig sent a quick-up pass to Matty Beniers who rushed up the boards. Seattle did not have a numerical advantage on this play, as Beniers, Eberle, and Jared McCann faced three retreating Canucks defenders.
But Matty slammed on the breaks and found Oleksiak coming over the line. Oleksiak took a big rip at it and launched it over Thatcher Demko’s shoulder.
This play works, and it is a huge way Seattle generated offense at five-on-five last season. More of this, please!
Takeaway #2: Eberle and Beniers came alive
This was an important night for Eberle and Beniers, who have both been snakebitten for most of the season. They showed real chemistry and got rewarded for their creativity and hard work.
Beniers set up the goal we talked about in Takeaway #1, and Eberle had the second assist. Then Eberle got a fortunate bounce one second after a power play had ended after a high Oliver Bjorkstrand shot bounced off the shaft of his stick, got lost in Demko’s equipment, and eventually trickled over the line.
“Sometimes it’s nice to get some bounces,” Eberle said.
Eberle’s best play proved to be the eventual game winner at 6:48 of the third period. After a puck got tipped deep into Vancouver’s zone, he sprinted in on the forecheck and stripped Tyler Myers. Then in one fell swoop, he swung around and found Beniers streaking down the slot.
Beniers was in a prime scoring position, but he still needed to perfectly place the shot, and he did that, beating Demko to the stick side.
Getting these two players going offensively could be massive for the Kraken.
Takeaway #3: Are the Kraken starting to cook?
If you still had a bad taste in your mouth from Seattle’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Oilers on Wednesday, this game provided the cap of Listerine you needed.
The reality of that loss in Edmonton is that the Kraken played really well for 53 minutes that night, before completely blowing it and only getting one point. But mix that with a hard-fought shootout win the following night over the Islanders and now this very complete effort in Vancouver, and it seems this team could be finding itself.
The Kraken have earned five points out of a possible six in their past three games and have gone 5-3-2 in their past 10. We aren’t ready to say the Kraken are back to last season’s level and are firing on all cylinders, but we’re seeing some very positive signs.
This next week of home games is critical. Seattle will face a mediocre Flames team Monday, a terrible Sharks team on Wednesday, and this same good Vancouver team on Black Friday.
Take care of business.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
The Seattle Kraken sweater for the 2024 Discover Winter Classic *apparently* got revealed Friday, in very confusing fashion. Players from the Utah Jazz walked into their game against the Phoenix Suns wearing what appeared to be Seattle’s jerseys for the NHL’s annual tentpole event, coming to T-Mobile Park on New Year’s Day.
Ok, so Utah Jazz bizarreness aside, we love these.
Nice ode to the Metropolitans without being too “on the nose” with either the color scheme or the crest. It’s uniquely #SeaKraken, and it’s beautiful.
Of course, having a completely unaffiliated basketball team unveil a hockey team’s sweaters for a major event is confusing for everyone involved, but the point of this story is to talk about the jerseys themselves, which—for the record—we absolutely love.
What the Kraken, the NHL, and Adidas came up with is an obvious ode to the Seattle Metropolitans, a team that played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association from 1915 to 1924 and won the Stanley Cup in 1917. But they managed to make it uniquely “Kraken,” with different colors and even a crest that says, This is a Metropolitans-esque jersey, but it’s not a Metropolitans jersey.
The original Metropolitans uniforms were Christmas colored, with red, white, and green horizontal stripes running through the bodies of the shirts. These special Winter Classic sweaters are deep sea blue, ice blue, and a new cream color we don’t believe the franchise has officially used before. The crest is Seattle’s “red alert” color, which has been used in the trim of the team’s regular home and road uniforms for the past three seasons and also makes up the eye of the usual Kraken crest.
The word “Kraken” meandering through the middle of the logo is, in our opinion, what makes this look so special. The offset letters, the big block font, and again, the nod to the Metropolitans without just pasting a Metropolitans logo on there is so, so cool.
Now, why did the jerseys get revealed by the Utah Jazz? Our short answer is that we don’t know. Our longer answer is that we asked around, and we believe this rollout was led by the NHL and Adidas, because they have led past rollouts of Winter Classic and Heritage Classic uniforms.
Why they chose to roll the jerseys out that way remains a mystery, for now.
Sound Of Hockey is proud to present new coverage of the Western Hockey League. Most weeks, we will discuss the teams based locally around Seattle, but to get things rolling this week, let’s do a quick check-in on all the U.S. Division teams, the Everett Silvertips, Portland Winterhawks, Seattle Thunderbirds, Spokane Chiefs, Tri-City Americans, and Wenatchee Wild. In this space, we will also talk about what’s happening with Kraken prospects playing elsewhere in the WHL.
As the temperatures in the Pacific Northwest are cooling down, things are beginning to heat up for teams in the U.S. Division, and only nine points separate the first- and last-place teams. We look back at some of their recent performances and ahead to what’s on the docket in the upcoming week.
Everett Silvertips
The Silvertips came back from their road trip with a vengeance. Winners of five in a row, including wins this week over Kelowna, Vancouver, and Prince Albert, Everett remains toward the top of the U.S. standings. The Tips have a busy weekend with a home-and-home against the Seattle Thunderbirds before jogging down to Portland on Sunday, then back in time for Saskatoon on Wednesday.
Portland Winterhawks
The Portland Winterhawks have been dishing teams L’s left and right so far this season. This is no different from years prior, but Portland, currently ranked third in the entire CHL, has secured points in each of its last five games including this week’s lone game in Vancouver. The Hawks outshot the Giants 34-10 through two periods on Friday, including a pair of goals and a primary assist from team point leader Gabe Klassen, who helped take down Vancouver, 5-1.
Portland had a hiatus this past week but is back on home ice to start the weekend, beginning with Prince Albert making its lone appearance in the Rose City this season. The Winterhawks will follow that up with a Sunday showdown with the Silvertips, then round out their homestand playing host to the Victoria Royals on Wednesday.
Seattle Thunderbirds
Despite a strong start to the season at 7-1-0, the defending champions have cooled off significantly, dropping six of their last seven games and falling near the bottom of the U.S. Division standings. The T-Birds split a Friday and Saturday home-and-home with the Victoria Royals, losing 3-2 in Victoria, but then bouncing back the following night with a 5-4 win in Kent.
They tried stringing together two in a row, but Prince Albert had other plans on Tuesday, as three first-period goals from the Raiders were all they needed for a 3-2 final.
Defenseman Jeremy Hanzel provided an offensive boost for the T-Birds this week, accounting for three goals, including a pair in Saturday’s game against Victoria.
It will be an action-packed week ahead for the Thunderbirds, as they go back-to-back with the Silvertips, Friday in Everett and Saturday in Kent. They will have a quick Tuesday night jaunt to Tri-City, then head back home the following night to host the Kelowna Rockets.
Spokane Chiefs
Did you know it’s been over two decades since the Spokane Chiefs last won the U.S. Division? Seriously. Not once since 1999-00 have the Chiefs been in the top spot of the U.S. on the last day of the season, and that includes their 2007-08 Memorial Cup. And so far this season, this will likely not change. Spokane, despite early explosions from Connor Roulette and top prospect Berkly Catton, currently sits in last place in the U.S. This week, despite a mundane 3-2 loss to Prince Albert on Friday, Spokane eventually put together a better performance offensively on Saturday, taking out Kamloops, 6-3.
The homestand continues for the Chiefs this week, with Wenatchee making its first ever appearance at Spokane Arena on Saturday night and then hosting Kamloops once more Sunday and wrapping it up with the Vancouver Giants on Wednesday.
Tri-City Americans
The Americans knew they needed to make a change in goal after a lackluster finish in October, a stretch from Oct. 15-28 that saw them go 2-3-2 with a correlating -14 goal differential. They decided they needed to make a splash by acquiring goaltender Kyle Kelsey from the Red Deer Rebels, a move they hoped would bolster their early puck-stopping struggles.
The Americans are 4-2-0 since the acquisition of Kelsey, though this week halted their momentum just a bit, starting with a 3-0 loss to Kamloops on Friday. Tri-City found better momentum on Saturday, as Kelsey stopped 31 of 35 shots in his second start with the Americans, who bounced back to beat Prince Albert, 5-4. Despite this performance, the success wouldn’t carry over to Wednesday, and the Americans were taken down by Wenatchee, 5-2.
This week is a light one in the Tri-Cities. The Americans will rematch with Wenatchee in Kennewick Friday night, then welcome in the T-Birds on Tuesday.
Wenatchee Wild
Though this new edition of the Wenatchee Wild is off to a fast start in their inaugural WHL season, it hasn’t come without its growing pains. Wenatchee made its first Alberta trip since its reincarnation from Winnipeg, and despite the strong effort to start the trip in Swift Current, the Wild dropped their following two games on the trip, losing handedly to Lethbridge on Friday, 5-1, and Medicine Hat on Saturday, 4-1.
The offense was given a boost thanks to the Buffalo Sabres sending down top prospect Matthew Savoie, reuniting him with Arizona Coyotes prospect Conor Geekie. Savoie and Geekie led the charge on Wednesday, combining for six points (Geekie: 2-2—4) en route to a 5-2 victory over the Americans.
It will be a busy week ahead for the Wild, who will play four games in five days, beginning with a visit to Tri-City for a Friday night rematch with the Americans and following that with a Saturday night date in Spokane. The Wild travel back home Sunday to face Prince Albert, then welcome in Saskatoon on Tuesday.
Kraken WHL prospects
Jagger Firkus continues to impress in Moose Jaw, as the Kraken’s second-round pick in 2022 leads the league with 40 points in just 19 games played. Meanwhile, defensive prospects Caden Price and Lukas Dragicevic started to contribute on offense for their respective teams recently. Price has nearly a point per game with Kelowna, while Dragicevic is at half a point per game for Tri-City. Dragicevic is finding his offense with his impressive one-time shot, a shot he showed off on Saturday against Prince Albert.
Everett traveling to Portland on Sunday is sure to be a doozy, as both teams vie for the top spot in the U.S. division. With the chance of seeing two of the league’s top goalies in Tyler Palmer and Jan Spunar, this match could be an early decider of who takes control in the division going forward.
…And a BIG exhale from the home faithful. The Seattle Kraken badly needed the two points they collected Thursday, getting a rare shootout victory over the New York Islanders for a 4-3 win. The victory snapped a three-game losing streak for Seattle and eased the pain of a devastating overtime loss in Edmonton on Wednesday.
“Coming out of last night, that was a disappointing loss,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “We felt like we did so many really good things there. But you know, true to the group in here, we addressed a couple of things that we felt like we could do better, and then we said, ‘Let’s turn the page.’”
Kailer Yamamoto was the star in this one, scoring the tying goal at 4:50 of the third period, assisting on Matty Beniers’s power-play goal, and scoring the deciding goal in an extended eight-round shootout.
It’s wild to think how thin the margin has been in both games of this back-to-back series against the Oilers and Islanders. A couple bounces in either direction, and the Kraken could have come out with any number of points between zero and four. They will gladly accept three out of four, considering the Wednesday stinger.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-3 Kraken win over the Islanders, their first shootout win since April 16, 2022.
Takeaway #1 (Curtis): Yamamoto delivers two “one-point” plays
Yamamoto delivered the team a much-needed two points with two separate key plays late in the game.
The first play came as Seattle was trailing 3-2 in third period. Yamamoto took the ice with his power play unit, and together they hemmed the Islanders in their zone for over a minute, escalating the pressure on tiring penalty killers. As a result, Jaden Schwartz was quicker to retrieve a deflected shot in the corner, scan the defense, and find Yamamoto open in the slot between defenders.
“Their penalty kill was gassed because we were able to retrieve pucks and keep possession,” Hakstol said. “If you look at the play we scored on, it was a really good play by [Schwartz] getting it back inside on a retrieval with tired penalty killers trying to defend.”
Yamamoto took it from there, showing patience and skill to work to his backhand and elevate the shot past Varlamov.
Yamamoto didn’t get significant power-play time during his tenure with the Oilers given the depth of high-end skill in Edmonton, but we had a suspicion coming into the season that he had some untapped potential to help on the man advantage. That has proven true over Seattle’s first 18 games.
Yamamoto has carved out a crucial special-teams role as a zone-entry player and flexible net-front or bumper presence. When he’s on the ice, Seattle’s power play generates shot quality 22 percent better than league average–in particular creating a large volume of chances net front. When he’s not out there, the net-front play struggles, and Seattle’s power play generates shot quality 34 percent below league average.
This difference is not all attributable to Yamamoto, of course. HockeyViz isolates his personal power play value at approximately 4 percent better than league average. But the shot chart underscores the value he has delivered in stark fashion. In this one, Yamamoto’s score leveled the game and pushed it to overtime, earning Seattle a point.
Yamamoto’s second “one-point” play came in the shootout. As mentioned above, his score in the eighth round was the difference and handed Seattle the win. When asked what his approach was, Yamamoto stressed that he was trying to stay flexible: “I’m looking for anything, whichever way [the goalie is] cheating.”
Yamamoto approached Varlamov from the right and drifted toward the middle of the ice. As he reached the slot, he sensed an opening glove side and shot back across the grain to beat the Islanders goaltender. In doing so, he delivered a huge win a night after perhaps Seattle’s toughest loss.
“Just to be able to contribute to the team and the team’s success, it feels really good,” Yamamoto said.
Where does this game rank in his career? “Pretty high, honestly.”
Takeaway #2 (Darren): A big night for the power play
The Kraken tied a franchise record for power-play goals in a game by converting three times with the manpower advantage Thursday. They also gave up two to New York’s power play, but hey… that’s a plus-one on the night for the special teams!
“I think both units are finding that groove,” said Vince Dunn. “I think we have really good key pieces on [my] unit, and everyone brings a different element.”
Things are definitely clicking for the power play, and a good sign that the Kraken can keep it going is that they’re scoring power-play goals in a variety of ways. Matty Beniers scored the first PPG of the night on a “Jared McCann special,” taking a pass from Dunn at the top of the left circle, rolling toward Varlamov, and ripping it over his shoulder.
Beniers gets rolling down hill and puts it up where mommy hides the cookies.
Power-play goal, Beniers's second goal of the season.
That “Jared McCann special” became way too predictable last season, so it was good to see Wennberg finish off a great pass by Bjorkstrand at the net front, then Schwartz setting up Yamamoto with one of his classic puck retrievals (we’re starting to think we should call goals like that the “Jaden Schwartz special”).
After finishing 18th in the league in power-play percentage last season, the Kraken have climbed to seventh this season, converting 26.8 percent of the time.
Takeaway #3 (Darren): Grubauer’s nice read
It wasn’t a perfect outing by Philipp Grubauer, and at .870, he registered his fourth game in a row with a save percentage below .900. He came up big in the overtime period, though, and stuffed Noah Dobson to close out the shootout in the eighth round.
Interestingly, Grubauer’s best “play” of the night didn’t technically earn him a save. With the Kraken running around like chickens without heads for a lot of the OT period (Hakstol said they may want to “burn the tape” from that extra frame), they appeared to have hung their goalie out to dry around the 1:40 mark.
Mathew Barzal was dancing around in the corner to Grubauer’s left. McCann and Schwartz both drifted toward him, leaving Bjorkstrand as the lone soldier available to cover Sebastian Aho. But Bjorkstrand fell down, leaving Aho all alone in the slot for what looked like a sure goal.
Grubauer read the play perfectly and fired his stick out into the passing lane, breaking up the opportunity before it got to Aho.
We didn't get to tweet it during the game, but how huge was this poke check by Grubi in OT?
“Kudos to Grubi on that,” Hakstol said. “There wasn’t a lot going either way, but they had a couple looks.”
We think Hakstol downplayed that a little. When we watched it live, we saw Aho breaking in, Barzal twirling, and Bjorkstrand falling down, and we started gathering our belongings to head to the exit with another painful defeat in tow.
Instead, it became an innocuous play in the end, and Grubauer held on just long enough to get the second point.
Worth noting, he also got a piece of an Adam Pelech howitzer early in the extra frame and stopped a Bo Horvat breakaway offering in the closing minutes for good measure.
Welp… Wednesday’s 4-3 Kraken overtime loss to the Oilers had Nov. 6, 2021 vibes to it. If you’re not sure what happened on Nov. 6, 2021, that was the night when the Seattle Kraken—in their inaugural campaign—limped into Gila River Arena with their season veering in a miserable direction. They desperately needed a victory against a still winless Arizona team. The Kraken tied that game 4-4 with 1:18 left on a Mark Giordano shot from the point, but then they handed the game winner to Lawson Crouse just 13 seconds later.
That was arguably the lowest low point of 2021-22, a season filled with low points.
Wednesday’s game played out in a very different manner, and the Kraken did take a standings point. But with Seattle again badly needing a win, blowing a 3-1 lead late in the third is going to sting players, coaches, and fans alike.
“Giving up that second [goal] obviously gives them a little bit of juice and a little bit of momentum,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “It comes down to the tying goal. Our centerman gets bulldogged on that, so we’re not able to pressure that on the half wall, and that puts us a little bit in the soup down low. So it’s disappointing, no question, because of how hard our players worked.”
Here are our Three Takeaways from a painful 4-3 Kraken OT loss to the Oilers.
Takeaway #1: They had it
The Kraken played about 53 very good minutes of hockey on Wednesday. They didn’t score in the first period, but they had the better of the play and the looks, with 63 percent of the shot quality in the frame. Brandon Tanev even slid one behind Stuart Skinner, through the crease, and out the other side. The chances were there.
OH! Turbo sweeps one behind Skinner, through the blue paint, and out the other side. pic.twitter.com/h6Z2xnqJGa
They conceded the first goal of the game when Adam Larsson tried to force a Leon Draisaitl turnover at the blue line, but Draisaitl made an elite play to get the puck to Connor McDavid. Forgetting about McDavid is generally not recommended and unsurprisingly resulted in a goal, but Seattle bounced back from the gaffe.
Jared McCann, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, and Alex Wennberg each scored in that middle frame, and Seattle went to the dressing room in complete control after the second.
Things were still going fine for most of the third period, and the Oilers were even showing signs of frustration. But Evander Kane redirected an Evan Bouchard pass by Joey Daccord at 13:28, and suddenly Edmonton had life.
That thud you heard with 46 seconds left was the sound of every Kraken fan on the planet slumping to the ground when Kane scored again to tie it and send it to overtime. The whimpering you heard at 2:57 of the extra frame was Kraken fans gently weeping after Kane completed the hat trick to give Edmonton the win.
“We played a great road game for 56 minutes, and even in the last five, six minutes, I didn’t think we played poorly,” Daccord said. “They just found a way to score. It’s frustrating, but it is what it is. You know, at the end of the day, I think we probably deserved to win tonight, but it just didn’t go our way.”
It was a miserable, miserable night.
Takeaway #2: Another two-goal lead wasted
During Seattle’s road trip to Detroit, Carolina, Florida, and Tampa Bay earlier this season, the team blew two-goal leads in all four games but managed to come home with a 2-1-1 record. We talked to several players after that trip about why two-goal leads are so hard to keep, so give that a read if you’re perplexed.
We hoped it was just a phase this team was going through, but the two-goal struggle keeps rearing its ugly head, and it did so in the ugliest fashion Wednesday.
There is just something about that two-goal lead where the opponent finds one and then starts getting momentum. As the team that’s leading, you can’t help but sit back and try to play defense, and then all of a sudden, you’ve blown the lead.
Still, what’s been happening with this Kraken team this season isn’t normal. They have to start closing out games when they have the opportunity.
Takeaway #3: Where do they go from here?
When a team is struggling, we look for little positives that indicate it’s getting close to re-entering the win column. If this game hadn’t played out in the manner that it did, with the late tying goal and subsequent overtime loss, we would have been able to take a whole bunch of positives from it.
Here are a few positives we could have taken: Tanev has been awesome since his return from injury, and his line with Jaden Schwartz and Wennberg is clicking. Joey Daccord had another solid night in net. Wennberg scored his first goal of the season. McCann scored for the first time since Nov. 2, and we know he tends to score in bunches once he gets going.
Those could have been some positives to take away, but instead, we’re left feeling like this team will never win again. Of course, that’s an overreaction, but for as well as Seattle played for most of this game, there’s still a sense that it was yet another step in the wrong direction.
“Obviously, it’s a tough way to end it,” Wennberg said. “And there’s a lot of good things out there, but I mean we just can’t lose this game. This is one of those games you’ve just got to fight through and just find a way to win. But, unfortunately, we didn’t today.”
What the team needs to do is look at how it played for the first 53 minutes and—somehow, someway, for the love of Joey—figure out how to extend that effort for a full 60 minutes.
Sometimes, it’s good to not have much time to dwell on a painful loss, and the Kraken will need to quickly shake this off to get ready for a home tilt against the Islanders on Thursday.
The Kraken have lost three in a row and five of their last six. They need a win.
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 might be time to get concerned about this Kraken team. We’ve been preaching patience, expecting Seattle to eventually figure it out and rip off a bunch of wins in a row. We even (perhaps naively) thought such a streak could get started after coach Dave Hakstol gave his team a stern message and put the players through one of their hardest practices in the three-year history of the franchise Sunday. Surely, they would respond with a 60-minute effort Monday against the Avalanche.
But that didn’t happen.
“There were stretches of good hockey from our group,” Brandon Tanev said. “But then there were times when we were not in the game and giving them too much time and space. When you give great players too much time and space, you make it look easy for them.”
Case in point, when Cale Makar scored his goal in the third period to make it 3-1, all five Kraken players had collapsed below the dots, and Tanev, Jared McCann, and Alex Wennberg all lined up and watched Makar drift into better and better scoring position, before finally rifling it past Joey Daccord.
Makar makes it 3-1 with a snipe. #SeaKraken have been hemmed in for most of the first 5 minutes in the 3rd. They deserved to give that one up. pic.twitter.com/CeknK4SEwh
It started well, but this definitely was not the 60-minute effort the Kraken needed to snap themselves out of their funk. Here are our Three Takeaways from a 5-1 Kraken loss to the Avalanche.
Takeaway #1 (Darren): The opposite, yet the same
Curtis will dig into the third period in depth with Takeaway #3, but it was odd how this game played out in almost exactly the opposite fashion as the Edmonton game on Saturday, but still had the same lopsided result for Seattle. Instead of spotting their opponent four goals in the opening frame, then very slowly finding their game when it was too little, too late, the Kraken looked good in the opening 20 Monday. But then it was a slow, painful death that started with a few miserable shifts in the second period.
There was one shift, in particular, that started around the 4:00 mark of the second period, when the Kraken couldn’t get a clear despite several chances to do so, and the struggles were almost entirely of their own making. Will Borgen made a breakout pass to Yanni Gourde, but it handcuffed Gourde and kicked right to Valeri Nichushkin for a Grade-A opportunity. Then Tye Kartye tried to pass between his own legs off the half wall, but it went right to Nathan MacKinnon for another chance. Next, Borgen had a chance to clear and threw a hot pizza pie to MacKinnon at the blue line. Then Jared McCann tried to skate the puck out, but lost the handle and gave it to Cale Makar.
It was one of the sloppiest minutes of hockey we’ve seen this team play. Shockingly, that stretch did not result directly in a goal, and the Kraken survived another three minutes before conceding Colorado’s first tally to Mikko Rantanen. But that shift was a turning point, and you could really feel the ice tilting in Colorado’s favor after that.
From that point on, things accelerated in the wrong direction, and before we knew it, Seattle was looking up at another slanted score.
Takeaway #2 (Darren): Joey held on for a while
There was a moment in the second period when we looked up and saw Colorado had somehow only thrown something like 12 shots at Joey Daccord (don’t quote us on that number). We were surprised, because at that point, it seemed like the Kraken netminder had been standing on his head all period, while his teammates allowed him to get peppered with quality chances.
“It was 1-0 halfway through the game,” Daccord said. “We were sticking to the game plan, playing the way we wanted to play. They scored two quick ones, and the wind got taken out of our sails a little bit.”
Eventually, Colorado’s shot total did pile up to 31 on the night, but we thought Daccord deserved better than the five goals he allowed. He gave his team a chance through that second period, when the Kraken were getting hemmed in their zone for long stretches.
Brandon Tanev, who scored in his return after missing 14 games with a lower-body injury sustained on opening night, had high praise for the netminder. “Joey made some fabulous saves. Unfortunately, we weren’t there to help when he needed it.”
Hakstol agreed. “Tonight, I thought his puck play was good and pretty clean. The biggest part of his game, I thought he made a few big saves at the right times. … I thought he was sharp. I thought he was on his game.”
Here was Daccord’s best save of the night:
JOEY! JOEY! JOEY!
What a stop by Daccord. He was down and out, but somehow swam across and got his pad on Miles Wood's shot. Ross Colton put his arms up behind the net.
While the momentum had shifted away from the Kraken earlier in the night, the team entered the third period in a close contest. Across the first two periods, Seattle had generated 42 shot attempts worth 2.04 expected goals to 40 attempts and 1.99 expected goals for Colorado, per Natural Stat Trick. Most important, Seattle trailed just 2-1 and began the period with almost a full minute of power-play time.
Distinguishing this game from Saturday’s effort against Edmonton, Hakstol complimented the team’s start. “Our pace was good through most of the first 40 minutes,” Hakstol said.
If Seattle came out right in the third, the game was still very much in the balance. And, to begin, it seemed like the Kraken would make a game of it. While the team couldn’t get the power play organized to create a chance, Seattle generated the first two shot attempts of the third period, though both were blocked.
From there, Colorado put on the pressure and, eventually, a collapsing defense yielded an uncontested wrister to Makar that found the back of the net.
Seattle didn’t generate an effective push after that. Gourde’s line came out and tried to find some energy with physical play but instead found themselves chasing the puck and conceding another Grade-A chance.
This scrambling defensive posture persisted for much of the third period until Jonathan Drouin’s first goal with Colorado put the Avalanche up 4-1. Vince Dunn then took two undisciplined minor penalties–slashing and unsportsmanlike conduct–plus a 10-minute misconduct. This ended the night for the Kraken defender and many fans in the stands.
All told, Seattle conceded over 90 percent of the total shot quality and got outscored 3-0 in the third period. Now, the Kraken face an inflection point in their season. With three games in four days from Wednesday through Saturday, including two against Pacific Division rivals, the team cannot afford to let the skid extend.
Asked how the Kraken could turn things around, Hakstol was clear postgame that there are no secrets here: “You just keep working.” He foreshadowed that Eberle could return to the lineup in the coming days, but Eberle alone cannot right the ship. The Kraken need to respond with a push very soon, or the season could flounder.
Another Monday Musings and another sinking feeling about this team. The Kraken are now 0-4-1 on Saturday nights this season… We all knew the Saturday egg was coming against the Oilers, right? Edmonton was coming off a humiliating loss to the San Jose Sharks, and the Kraken were coming off one of their best games of the season in Colorado, so we had seen this act before.
In fact, we saw it against Calgary just one week prior, and we saw it last season when Vancouver won its first game of the season against the Kraken after starting the season with seven straight losses. I mentally prepared myself for the loss all day Saturday to minimize that sad Sunday vibe that I usually feel after a Saturday loss.
The week wasn’t a total failure. Last week I wrote that I was hoping for four out of six points, but three would be fine. It is fine, but I can’t shake that sinking feeling in my gut that they could have had more points. I think they were probably the better team Tuesday night in Arizona but only came away with a shootout loss and one point. Thursday against the Avs was one of the more exciting games of the season and ended with a last-minute game-winning goal by Oliver Bjorkstrand.
The Avalanche win felt like a signature win to send the boys streaking, but it was not to be.
Lack of high-danger chances
One thing I did not like about the Saturday night game against Edmonton was the lack of high-danger chances. It just never felt like the Kraken were getting looks at the net until the third period when it was way too late. It is not the first time I’ve felt that way in a loss. Here is a look at the number of high-danger shots by game and the game outcomes.
I am not exactly going out on a limb here, but the Kraken need to generate more shots from in close if they expect to win. The Rangers, Flames, and now the Oilers games have felt like Seattle never really had a chance. How they generate those high-danger shots is not clear to me, but it does seem to correlate with players battling through to get to the top of the crease, similar to what Zach Hyman did three times in 10 minutes for the Oilers on Saturday.
Derek Ryan and promoting the game
I always enjoy seeing Derek Ryan visit Climate Pledge Arena. Derek’s journey through Spokane, Canadian College, Swiss league, Swedish league, the AHL, and the NHL is remarkable in its own right. One thing I especially love about Derek is that he took the time to talk to us on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast back in November of 2020. He did not need to talk to us, but he implied he did the interview because he felt it was important to help grow the game and promote the sport. A lot is asked of NHL players and coaches, so when someone outside the Seattle hockey scene like Ryan makes the time for us, it makes me a fan for life.
Other Musings
The Kraken are 4-4-2 in their last 10 games, good for 50 percent of the points available in that time span. It’s not horrible until you realize the Kings, Golden Knights, and Canucks have captured at least 70 percent of the points available to them over their respective last 10 games.
It is still early in the season, but the NHL’s Pacific Division looks daunting. The Kraken have only played one game (Vegas on opening night) against any of the top four teams in the Pacific, and they are 0-3-0 in games against all divisional opponents.
Nobody brings me more joy when they score than Bjorkstrand. I’ve been following his career since he played with the Portland Winterhawks and still think the trade for him last summer was a major coup. I was jumping up and down in Denver when he scored that game winner on Thursday.
You must figure Colorado is going to come into Seattle fuming. They squandered at least a point to the Kraken on Thursday when they allowed a goal with 32 seconds left in regulation and then had a rather embarrassing 8-2 defeat to the Blues at home on Saturday. I am scared already.
It has been fun to see Ryan Winterton get the call-up this week. I think it will be some time before we can call him an everyday NHLer, but even in limited minutes, I like what I’ve seen. He brings more physicality than I would have expected out of a 20-year-old first-year pro getting called up to the NHL. I think he has a bright future in this organization.
Even though Andre Burakovsky was not playing at the level we expected him to play early this season, this team really misses him. He is a huge scoring threat, and having him out crushes Seattle’s depth.
Speaking of Burakovsky, we would like to congratulate him and Johanna on the birth of their baby girl on Wednesday.
The Kraken only had four regulation Saturday losses all last season. They have four so far this season.
I am wondering if I should change this column to Fridays for the sole purpose of feeling better when I write it. The Kraken are 3-1-1 on Thursdays this season. Friday Fusings? I don’t know. We’ll workshop it.
Seattle Kraken fourth-round selection from the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, Ville Ottavainen, had his first North American professional goal over the weekend for Coachella Valley.
Monday night’s game against the Avalanche will be my 100th Seattle Kraken game at Climate Pledge Arena. There are moments where it still feels like a dream. This will be another one of those moments.
Player performances
Jaden Schwartz (SEA) – A regular call-out here on Monday Musings, Schwartz continues to be the best player on the Kraken this season. He has four goals and two assists in five games in November and is on a four-game goal-scoring streak and nine-game point streak.
Andrei Loshko (ROU/SEA) – The Kraken’s fourth-round selection from the 2023 draft had three goals in three games for the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in the QMJHL over the past week. Loshko gets a lot of praise for his defensive maturity, so it is nice to see him starting to get a bit of a scoring touch.
Connor Bedard (CHI) – Have you heard about this guy? He has six points in the last three games including this little beauty. Bedard and the Blackhawks come to town in mid-December. I imagine that will be a hot ticket.
MacDonald is a freshman at Harvard and has four points in five games.
Chart of the week
This is an updated chart from a couple weeks ago. The chart for the 2022-23 records at this point really illustrates how playoff teams start to establish themselves near the top half of the league around this time of year.
This does not mean that teams need to be in a playoff position at this time of the season, but it pains me to say that no team that had a points percentage of .500 or lower at this stage made the playoffs last season. Yikes.
This is a jam-packed week with four games in six nights and some quality opponents to boot. The Kraken will face an angry Avalanche team on Monday, travel to Edmonton for a single-game road trip on Wednesday night, go back to Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday to host the Islanders, and will close out the week with a game in Vancouver on Saturday night. Four out of eight possible points will be fine, but anything less could be devastating for the team.
I don’t want to look too far ahead, but I am really looking forward to the game on Saturday versus Vancouver. The Canucks are playing extremely well, so I’m hoping the Kraken really elevate their game to compete.
Sunday’s Seattle Kraken practice was a spicy one. Fresh off a 4-1 stinker of a loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday, the team went back to work Sunday at Kraken Community Iceplex, looking to find the consistency that has been lacking in its game. The practice had a more serious tone to it than we’ve seen in most on-ice sessions, as coach Dave Hakstol put his players through drills that focused on speed, quick transitions, and battling physically.
For a moment in the middle of the skate, Hakstol was perhaps the most animated we’ve ever seen him. He stopped a drill and waited for complete quiet in the arena before shouting an obscenity-laced monologue that onlooking media heard loud and clear. We will redact the message a bit, but to give you an idea, it very directly challenged Seattle’s shooting mentality and ended with the phrase, “Shoot the f***ing puck!”
“Direct and honest”
Seattle’s coach finished the practice by having his players gather around the center circle, and he slowly drifted around the face-off dot, looking each player in the eye and delivering another message. This speech was in more of a hushed tone, so we can’t tell you what Hakstol said, but it ended with stick taps from the players.
“We worked on things that we have to work at, and we went out and did it at the pace that’s necessary for it to really become ingrained in what we do,” Hakstol said after practice.
Saturday’s performance by the Kraken was disappointing, no doubt. They were coming off two solid games on the road, earning three out of four possible points against Arizona and Colorado. But Seattle laid an egg in the first period at home against an Oilers club that came in struggling so badly that even with a road win, it still fired its head coach, Jay Woodcroft, and assistant coach, Dave Manson, Sunday morning.
“Direct and honest,” Hakstol said about his message to his team Sunday. “As we look at ourselves individually and collectively, if we take that approach, we’re going to be ok. But right now we have work to do, and that’s what the result from last night says is we have work to do.”
Kraken struggling to string wins together
Last season’s Kraken team built its success around win streaks. They had plenty of stretches where they would win one, lose one, win two, lose two. But then they’d suddenly rip off a bunch of wins in a row and vault up the standings.
They ended the season with five separate win streaks of five games or more, with the first coming between Oct. 29 and Nov. 8. Those calendar dates have come and gone in the 2023-24 season, and so far, the Kraken have failed to win more than two straight.
“This is a tough league to string wins together,” Hakstol said. “I stood here yesterday and said we had done a really good job of gaining points in the majority of our last six-to-eight games, and that’s true. But in between, we’ve had the games where we haven’t been competitive on the points, and those points have gone away for free to our opponent. And that can happen.”
In his 11-year NHL career, defenseman Brian Dumoulin has seen plenty of ups and downs, but he can’t pinpoint what has been plaguing the Kraken so far this season.
“It’s a weird situation,” Dumoulin said. “We felt really good about our game in Arizona and also in Colorado, and obviously got the result in Colorado, and coming home we haven’t been great. We definitely spotted [the Oilers] a few goals, and they had a big 10 minutes there, and we kind of lost the game just in that 10 minutes. It’s just a little bit frustrating in that aspect, but we’ve got to believe in ourselves.”
Dumoulin added that he thinks the Kraken players can do a better job of staying in control of their emotions during games and not letting momentum swings impact the way they play.
“Instead of the highs being high and the lows being low, just kind of be even-keel,” Dumoulin said. “Realize if you played well or if you didn’t, and if you got the result or didn’t, just continue with our structure and live shift to shift instead of looking at it game to game.”
Ryan Winterton “making the most” of his call-up
Kraken forward Ryan Winterton, 20, made his NHL debut in Colorado on Thursday. He had been recalled the day before from AHL Coachella Valley after just seven career games of professional hockey. That may sound like a quick timeline, but his arrival at the sport’s highest level has come with some major bumps in the road.
“It’s surreal, for sure,” Winterton said. “I wouldn’t say I’m surprised [to be here], but it’s definitely been a long journey, you know? A bunch of adversity. It hasn’t been the cleanest ride, that’s for sure, but I’m happy I’m here, and I’m going to make the most of it.”
The Markham, Ontario, native has had a challenging development path. Remember, the entire 2020-21 Ontario Hockey League season was nixed due to COVID, and that caused Winterton to drop to the Kraken in the third round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. After getting selected, he then suffered two separate shoulder injuries that limited him to 37 games in 2021-22 and 34 games in 2022-23.
Ryan Winterton skating with the OHL Hamilton Bulldogs (Photo courtesy Hamilton Bulldogs)
Still, the Kraken organization is clearly high on Winterton’s potential as an NHL player and wasted no time in giving him his first call-up to the big club. Firebirds coach Dan Bylsma delivered the news to Winterton over the phone.
“Coach Bylsma called me when I was— we were preparing for a game that night in Coachella, and I was actually taking my pre-game nap,” Winterton remembered. “He called me twice, so I thought I should answer. He gave me the news, and I’ve never really had a smile like that last so long. I think it was a full 24 hours or longer, so it was pretty cool.”
In his whirlwind scramble to meet the Kraken in Denver, Winterton miscalculated his packing.
“You pack a carry-on, and then you kind of live out of that for as long as I’m here,” Winterton said. “I didn’t really pack for this weather, the cold. I was in California, so it was pretty hot. So, I might have to go shopping today or tomorrow— well, today, because we have a game tomorrow.”
As veterans like Brandon Tanev and Jordan Eberle work their way back from injuries (we expect Tanev to return Monday against Colorado, while Eberle is still at least a game or two away), space will have to be made in Seattle’s lineup. But Winterton survived the “cut” Sunday and was kept with the Kraken, while veteran Devin Shore was reassigned to Coachella Valley.
Interestingly, Winterton skated on a potential “all kids” fourth line Sunday that featured himself, Shane Wright, and Tye Kartye. Whether they stick together for Seattle’s game against the Avalanche remains to be seen, but it is an intriguing mix of young players that could bring a real spark against Colorado’s depth defensive units.
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.
