Kraken focused on building foundation for success during lengthy road trip
Balanced scoring throughout lineup, power-play success helping establish early identity
By Tom Gulitti
NHL.com Senior Writer
ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Seattle Kraken are getting a lot of quality time together on the road early in the season that they hope will help them establish a foundation for success over the long haul.
The Kraken (3-2-0) visit the Washington Capitals (3-1-0) at Capital One Arena on Sunday (5 p.m. ET; Prime Video, MNMT, KONG, SN+, TVAS) for the second game of a five-game road trip that they opened with a 6-3 win against the Detroit Red Wings on Friday.
Including this trip, which also includes stops at the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday and Florida Panthers on Oct. 17, the Kraken will play seven of their first nine games on the road. Although that will be challenging, they also view it as an opportunity to learn and improve.
“Going into another team's building in this league, you've got to find a way,” coach Lane Lambert said Saturday. “Maybe you've got to survive the first five minutes, maybe you've got to survive a portion in the second period, whatever it might be. But certainly, home teams have pushes for the most part, and this is a great learning experience for a hockey team in terms of what it takes to manage that on a nightly basis.”
It’s a small sample size, but there have already been some positive signs in the Kraken’s play. After they were 28th in the NHL last season in scoring 2.73 goals per game, they have averaged 4.20 goals in their first five games, which is third in the League. They scored six goals in each of their wins and received contributions throughout their lineup.
Seattle has seven players with at least four points, led by forward Jared McCann with six (one goal, five assists). After being acquired in a trade with the Florida Panthers in the offseason, Mackie Samoskevich has three goals in four games since returning from an upper-body injury that kept him out of the season opener against the Calgary Flames.
The Kraken’s fourth line of Ben Meyers (one goal, two assists), Frederick Gaudreau (two goals) and Ryan Winterton (two assists) combined for seven points (three goals, four assists) to drive the offense in the victory against the Red Wings. They are also getting offense from their defense with Vince Dunn producing five points (two goals, three assists) and Brandon Montour getting four (four assists).
“It’s always easier when you're not chasing games and getting up in scores and continuing to put pressure on the other team,” Montour said. “It's just a short span of time right now, but it's nice that guys are finding the back of the net. We definitely know one issue of ours is we struggle to score, and it's nice when you can see the puck go in, and guys are finding ways to do that.”
The Kraken’s power play also has shown promise, going 4-for-15 (26.7 percent) in the first five games. And their goaltending with Joey Daccord (2-1-0, 2.64 goals-against average, .911 save percentage) and Philipp Grubauer (1-1-0, 2.59 GAA, .917 save percentage) has been solid.
“The beginning of the year is always kind of weird,” center Chandler Stephenson said. “Teams are still figuring it out. You're still figuring it out. You're just kind of waiting for the games to get harder, and every 10-15 games they do. So, I think we're happy with how things are right now. Obviously, still just working on things. You're trying to, I guess, make everything as perfect as you can early on.”
Stephenson pointed out that Seattle didn’t have a lot of turnover to its roster in the offseason with Samoskevich and forward Curtis Douglas as the only notable additions. So, most of the players were already familiar with the systems the Kraken play under Lambert, who is in his second season as coach.
The key, though, will be finding consistency in their play that can carry through the entire season so they can return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2022-23.
The Kraken were in position to qualify for the playoffs after going 29-22-9 for 67 points through their first 60 games last season. That was good for third in the Pacific Division, two points behind the second place Anaheim Ducks and three behind the first-place Vegas Golden Knights.
They faded after that, though, going 5-15-2 in their final 22 games to finish 34-37-11 with 79 points, 11 behind the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference.
“We kind of had a lot going right for us last year, and then just kind of fell short when the games got harder,” Stephenson said. “You need those one-goal games, those tie games, those one-point games. It just kind of seemed like we just ran out of juice.”
Montour said the Kraken also learned from last season that “every single game matters.” That includes these early in the season.
And if they can continue to take steps during this road trip, they will have chance to build some momentum after that at home, where they will play seven of their next eight games.
“It's definitely tricky, especially against top teams,” Montour said of the road trip. “Tomorrow night is going to be a good test against a good, solid team that plays good at home. But it's good to kind of get those games and experience being in big games like that, games that mean something. … It was a good start in Detroit, but now we have four more.”
