We The Fans:Teachable Moment in New Jersey and How the Seattle Kraken Can Win After Boston

The BARE MINIMUM is that these were bad losses and so was the compete level in the Kraken 4-2 loss to the Boston Bruins, after an equally disappointing result the night prior in a 3-2 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils. It really felt for a minute like a true roster dilemma existed of which line Freddy Gaudreau was best going to fit in the lineup and that seemingly this team’s biggest problem going into the match up with the New Jersey Devils. The team ultimately decided to break up their best line pairing of the season; “The Coachella Valley Line” as we came to know it of Winterton, Meyers, and Melanson which brought so much identity and grit to this team that they even had the pleasure of being the starting forward line for Coach Lambert for a few games during the hockey club’s best stretch of the season while the stable of underperforming Veterans and Role Players filled up the Injury Report. The team have since sent Melanson back to Coachella Valley. The story on a night was the team is clearly missing physicality, and with Gaudreau on the fourth line right wing this team could look to use Tye Kartye for his strong skating and forechecking and sub him into the lineup for the speedy fourth line playmaker, Ryan Winterton. The Seattle Kraken were third place in the Pacific Division through 46 games played with 51 points, but after the loss to Boston the Kraken are now tied with San Jose. Back to back contest turned out to be offensively inefficient games against two teams that are not known as the most defensively capable teams saw the Kraken look slow and start the game relatively lifeless.

The game against New Jersey was the kind of game that could put fans to sleep. Phillip Grubauer looked amazing and then the Seattle Kraken manage to lose again in Overtime on a bad change by Vince Dunn. The Devils are 18th in Goals Against Average(3.09). Fast Forward to the most recent loss against the Boston Bruins and it is a lot of the same. Joey Daccord has really struggled recently with the lack of goal support indicated by what his numbers looked like to start the season versus at the current moment., as through the first 15 games he lead the league in steals with 4. The Kraken gave up a goal 54 seconds in and then another around the 4 minute mark to start the game chasing 2-0. The personnel decisions are definitely a head scratcher as it seems the team is more concerned with icing regressing veterans than icing young talent that fans want to see or even trying to win. Matty Beniers got too cute with the puck in his own end while on a powerplay and a forechecking Mark Kastelic from Boston put the Bruins up 3-1. A powerplay goal from Eli Tolvanen made it 3-2, before a Boston sealed the game with a late 5 on 5 powerplay goal that came with the Kraken net empty after a late penalty. The Bruins are 16th in GAA with a 3.06. Returning Brandon Montour from his second surgery of the season saw Ryker Evans also come out of the line up against Boston. The team looks flat and has given up six goals in the first minute of the game this season, for context this team that’s supposedly more defensive minded does not like to make changes, but changes need to be made: in defense of the players they are also second in third period comebacks, although most of those came with guys who aren’t in the lineup anymore. The Kraken have 6 total third period comebacks and only Vegas has more with 8.

The Seattle Kraken are 27th in goals for per game, and if not for the powerplay being 9th ranked in the league, then the Kraken might even see themselves lower on that list as assistant coach Chris Taylor has found creative ways to help the players on this team find good looks on net. The coaching and goaltending have been the strongest part of the team this season. The Seattle Kraken Goaltenders have the team ranked 4th in Save Percentage at .910 even with a -8 Goal differential. Some of the players on this team have a worse shooting percentage than Shaq at the free throw line. Jared McCann is the only Kraken player shooting over 15% currently. Jaden Schwartz started the season at 18% through the first 18 games, but after his injury he looks more likely to finish around his career average of 12.3%. The Kraken need to trade for a top 6 wing with a better shooting percentage. Shane wright is only 22 and seemingly could benefit from another year in Coachella Valley to work on his shooting, skating, and face-off ability as they have not been up to standard for the breakout 80 point season we expected. He’s trending more towards a 40 point season. If the Kraken wanted to move him for a more productive option: the youth of the third line center makes him extremely valuable to a team like the New York Rangers, Dallas Stars, LA Kings, or Carolina Hurricanes. In my personal opinion, I would make him available to trade and put Freddy Gaudreau in his spot. The personnel choices on the roster say we are trying to win in the future, but the contracts and age of key players in the starting lineup say we are trying to win now. Management isn’t smart enough to make a choice? Jason Boterrill is already GMing for his job, he might as well take some risk and try and inject some offense into this roster as they fall from 11th to 19th in the league rankings. Defense is important, but with the skill and speed in the current NHL and the way the league is trending this team can’t afford to try and win 3-2 everynight. 2 goals against bottom half of the league teams even with the win is not a realistic post season formula.

The 2 goals the Kraken managed to score against Boston were on the power play. The Kraken score 7, make a ton of lineup changes to guys they have convinced fans need to be in the line up and then come out against that same team and score 2 goals on 24 shots against the same goalie and the same team. I may not have played professional hockey, but how does this situation in Seattle even make sense. Saturday will be very telling, but it seems the team has made the choice to lose with these questionable decisions. Fans in Seattle blindly support this team and credit management that has put this team in a tough spot as being “Smart enough to get hired, hopefully they can figure it out.” Respectfully, just because it is your job does not mean you are good at it, and if the world worked like that we would all live in a better place. The Kraken won enough puck battles at 55% to warrant a win. If you want to beat Seattle then all you have to do is defend Eberle, McCann, Dunn, and Beniers and find a way to force other players on the team to beat your goalie with limited shooting abilities, and keep them off the powerplay. They tore up the line teams didn’t want to play against and the ones shuffle so often guys are clearly unsure about their place on this team or how they fit on it. The chemistry was getting better and now it’s all gone and they start back over as they lose the lead they were starting to formulate in the Pacific Division Standings. If you read this far then you're probably thinking “Well if you are so smart then what would you do different? Thank you, and I am very glad you asked.

Paychecks aside, I would start with evaluating our current lines and making sure we have guys on the active roster who fill different roles, but also bring different play styles to the table. The top line would be Jaden Schwartz, Matty Beniers, and Jordan Eberle with Dunn and Larsson and would also be known as the Legacy Group. The second line would consist of Kappo Kakko, Chandler Stephenson, and Eli Tolvanen with Cale Fleury and Ryan Lindgren and would be the Olympic Finn Duo and Fellas. As for the third line I would put Catton and McCann on the wings and put Freddy G at third line center as he’s proven his ability to win faceoffs. The third line defense pair would consist of Oleksiak and Montour, with Montour come back from injury, and Oleksiak playing as well he can this season. As for the Fourth line, Its Meyers, Winterton, and Melanson for me. Kartye, Evans, and Mahura would be the Scratches for me as those three players have high upside, but also their aspects of their game that could be improved on by participating against the Kraken Starters. . Obviously the goaltending situation would be the same 1a and 1b type set up the current have a great situation between the pipes. I would send 22 year old Shane Wright back to Coachella Valley and play him as the first or second line center and have him build chemistry with Firkus, Jugnauth, and Nyman. This also doesn’t subject any of the rostered players to waivers. Shane Wright is a great player, but the Kraken have 7 centers on the roster and there are better options in the dot. Wright has 8 goals this season, which means his offensive value isn’t so overwhelming it has to be in the lineup. This formula seems like the most likely to help the Kraken do it by committee, unfortunately they do not employee me to provide this kind of incite, but I have won and been resilient with everything I've ever done, so one day I will making these kinds of choices for a team. An Active NHL Roster requires are least two goalies, 6 defenseman, and 12 forwards; but on rare occasions some teams dress 7 defenseman and 11 forwards. This leaves room for 3 scratches of any type which is normally an extra defenseman and then 2 players you would like to see practice with the team.

The Kraken had great success this season with the burst of youth in their line up seeing them go 9-0-1 over stretch, but the team has since fallen to 5-2-3 over their last ten. The team needs to get it together as San Jose is on a heater. This time in the season before the olympic break is crucial in evaluating whether or not the team will be buyers or sellers before the trade deadline post olympics. The Kraken have seemed to be set on doing whatever it takes to make it back to the playoffs, but I would love to see management scheme up some goal support through trade, and unfortunately the Kraken have only ever made 20 trades in the 5 year history of the franchise. The end of this season sees a loaded draft class where the Kraken are set to pick twice in the first round. The team also has roughly 16-30 million of usable cap space in Free Agency at the end of this season with RFA (Restricted Free Agent) Jason Robertson being the biggest name and Seattle’s largely diverse and asian population who definitely would put butts in seats to see a player like that. UFA’s (Unrestricted Free Agent) players amongst the names I would like to see in Seattle are Andre Kuzmenko (30) from Los Angeles, Patrik Laine (27) from Montreal, Former Kraken Oliver Bjorkstrand (30) from Tampa Bay, Victor Olofsson (30) from Colorado, or Kiefer Sherwood (30) from Vancouver. These guys bring a proven ability to put the puck in the net and with where the team is at age wise; I would love to have as many of those guys as possible. Offer and pitch everyone on being the guy who made Seattle a winner, everyone remembers the first one. The Kraken first goal in franchise history was Ryan Donato, and the first goal the Kraken ever scored at Climate Pledge Arena was Vince Dunn, so Who will be the guy that can bring the first Stanley Cup championship to Seattle?

Saturday against Utah is the most important game of this road trip as they are playing a Saturday afternoon game against a team competing with the Kraken for their current playoff spot/ wild card bid. Utah is 6-3-1 over their last ten games and last beat the Kraken 5-3 when the teams last played on December 12th. The Seattle Kraken NEED to find a way to win some games with 10 games left before the Olympic Break. With signs of management providing no life line in the form of players to support the stellar goaltending and questionable decisions about the lineup leaving committed fans of the teams scratching their heads. The theme for the team in Seattle has become a conversation that leaves every fan wondering the same question at the end of their conversations about the team with fans thinking “What’s Next in Seattle?”

Very Respectfully,

Caleb Nance