We The Fans: Kraken Need to Look to Stop the Bleeding Against Leagues Top Team
If you are familiar with hockey in Seattle, then you know the team started HOT and has since fallen asleep in a deep freezer. The team has a -19 goal differential through the first 28 games of the season and has a record of 2-7-1 over the last ten. One of the worst in the league over the last 10 games. Good teams are making moves, good teams are looking to do whatever it takes to make the playoffs, good teams do at least something well or find players that can. The Kraken have been very mid at everything. Call it a lack of talent, under performance, a disconnect between staff, unorganized work, whatever your choice, the bottom line is the team is bad and management isn’t doing anything about that.
Lane Lambert’s defensive system needs 2 or 3 more dynamic forwards to playmaker and create space. The Kraken overtime to the playoffs plan hasn’t worked out as the team lacks the talent and ability to score in the shoot out. There are players in the league currently that have the skills we need to improve the team. Bright spots on the roster have been Eli Tolvanen picking up the shots on goal and leading the team in hits, Tye Kartye forechecking and skating with everything he’s got, Vince Dunn being offensively clutch and a wall on defense, and Brandon Montour playing solid defense and looking to create plays, and the Kraken Goalies looking like a top pair in the league given the performance of the team and the abundance of weak side goals the team has given up, regardless of the plus minus or Save percentage. The rest of the team has been all hard work, miles skated for no reason, turnovers and missed shots to say the least. The Kraken have key contributors out and none of the current guys who make millions of dollars to play hockey are stepping up.
Make No mistake Kraken Fans, this is not a problem Lane Lambert will be able to fix with strategy; He needs his non existent management group to step up and do the things necessary to find contributors. AJ Brown, General Manager of the SF 49ers said “We are not in the business of good enough, we are not in the business of entertainment, we are in the business of making the post season and trying to win a Championship! If you can’t be fired because you are under a player contract, then you are repurposed or traded if you are underperforming. The NHL and its 32 teams are self healing organizations. No player is bigger than the shield on the front of the jersey. That being said, if they trade Joey Daccord, then we have no choice but to riot in the streets!
Tonight’s game against the Avalanche is a test, and a great chance for the Kraken to turn it around. Hard to imagine this team will magically do a drill at practice that will end this scoring drought. Colorado comes in on a two game win streak and has a goal differential of +54, which is the best in the league. They also lead the league in total points, the bright side for the Kraken is the Avalanche have been slightly less amazing and dominant on the road. Falling down the standings like mascot down a stair master, it is on the players to do whatever it takes to get at least a point tonight. Something has got to give in Seattle, the talk at the beginning of the year was playoffs every year. For me that’s a claim that the organization will do whatever it takes to win, but as the injuries pile up and young guys step up and look like the best players on the team *cough cough* Melanson, Meyers, and Kartye and the success they are having are a testament to the success of Coach Lamberts system, that looks to use strong forechecking and back checking to help relieve pressure in the defensive zone, but the system is not designed for short handed goals, odd man rushes, and the all too common momentum killer in games this season has been untimely breakaway goals, especially on the Penalty-Kill…
Coach Lambert when asked about the preformance of his top line center on Tuesday said “Its easy to sit back and look at the analytics; you would like them to be a little better, if you played them on the third line then the analytics would be better probably.” I am not an expert yet, and I may sound like a broken record but it does not seem that you can not keep paying third line guys, first line money, and expect them to preform like a top of the line player, regardless of the work they do you for your team. Respectfully as we saw in the past game, the Kraken 3rd and 4th line are more than capable of doing the dirty work. Someone needs to tell the management in Seattle that’s not the only thing that matters in hockey. You sign and pay players based on what you need the guy to do for your club, and the guys who show up get paid, and guys who underperform get a chance to have a fresh start and different role in a new system around the league. WE NEED MORE SKILL! Period!
It seems it will be another year of BAD hockey for the Seattle Kraken. Only time will tell if the cash grabs from this organization will lead to a playoff birth, but gambling on young draft picks, and making no real substantial moves to secure success of this organization in the future either during the season or during free agency seems like the dumpster fire recipe to run this franchise into the ground. In management’s defense the have branding and marketing with the merchandise has been stellar, but that doesn’t win hockey games, sell tickets, or get the fans excited.
It took the Mariners eleven years to have a winning record when they first came to town. Ron Francis and Company were bottom of the league in scoring in Carolina, before 9 years without a playoff birth forced him out of the Hurricanes organization after it was sold to new ownership. They have made the Eastern Conference Finals twice and become a powerhouse in the East under Eric Tulsky since moving on from the current president of Kraken Hockey Operations, Tulsky started as a blogger who started his career in hockey writing about the struggles Ron Francis and Company had with his beloved Carolina Hurricanes. We The Fans want to see the team be better and We The Fans want to see the team win now. There are bad teams in the NHL, but no one ever said that we had to be among the bottom.
Very Respectfully,
Caleb Nance