Seattle Kraken

Seattle Kraken

The Seattle Kraken get their first win of the season. I mean, it’s the preseason, but I think we did get a little bit more of an understanding of what a lean Lambert le team will look like in Seattle. You are Locked on Kraken, your daily podcast on the Seattle Kraken, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Hey Seattle hockey fans, welcome to another episode of Locked on Kraken, part of the Locked On podcast network. We bring you your favorite team, the Seattle Kraken, every single day. Erica L Ayala here, your host of Locked Onraken here in Seattle. I’ve been able to meet some of you at preseason at training camp. Thank you so much for saying hello. I’m also a contributor at CBS Sports where you’ll find me talking women’s basketball with the WNBA playoffs happening right now. And I am an accredited media member for Milano Cortina 2026 where I’ll be writing about women’s and men’s ice hockey. Uh which is why I’m also one of your co-hosts of the Women’s Hockey Report, which is our weekly digest on all things women’s hockey that lives on our locked on NHL channel. As always, thank you to our everydayers. Thank you for making us your first listen of the day, your midday listen, your late night listen. Either way, we’re excited to have you. And the Seattle Kraken, they get their first win of the season. Joey Dord was in net. We also got to hear him a little bit on the broadcast, which was fun. He’s such a personality. Um, I think this was a good win, a good first game. Um, obviously not the first game for the rookies or prospects that have been in camp, but I think this was a good game overall. If we look at some of these stats, um I’m just going to go back to nhl.com here. Uh Edward Shala um or Shalet I believe is uh the first Kraken member to score. I thought there were some plays where he didn’t seem quite in rhythm early in the game. So for him to get the first goal of the game uh assisted by Everly and Fiddler who I think had a pretty solid serviceable minutes, I liked to see it. There was a bounce back even within the game and I think that’s something that Lane Lambert is going to be uniquely qualified to assess because that’s what his ask really is of this team. Not just the prospects, but the veterans overall. Well, we’ll talk a little bit more about that. Actually, I forgot to let you know. Um, the rundown for today’s show. This is what we’re going to talk about. We’re going to talk about the win. We’ve already started that. Then, I’m going to talk about specific standouts, get into a little bit more depth. I’m going to talk team level first, specific players, and then give you my early assessments and where I think this team is going. I feel much better now that I’m seeing it in action. That being said, it’s still early. Okay. Now, let’s go back to this game again. Shala gets the Kraken on the board. Then you see that Newman gets a goal. Uh Jaden Schwarz and then Newman. So a Schwarzy sandwich there in between uh two Newman goals. Uh Vince Dunn was very active in this game. I believe he had four points overall. He had three or three points, excuse me. He assisted on three consecutive goals um between Schwarz and Ko um or excuse me and Newman. Uh Ko got the primary assists for both of Yanni Newman’s goals. So we did hear a little bit from Ko and Newman regarding playing on that Beneers line. Um and I am going to talk about Maddie Beneers. If you saw my postgame reaction on our social media channels, then you already know what I feel about Matty Beneers, but we’ll talk about that a little bit more. Um, this is what I like about this game. With exception, with the only exception being in the third period, the Seattle Kraken won the shots on goal 13 um to seven in the first frame, 7-4 in the second frame. They were outshot in a big way, 14-4 in the third frame. But overall, the Seattle Kraken, I think, had a pretty solid game here. The penalty minutes were wild, and that had to do with Hayden, who on his own got 19 penalty minutes. Um, yeah, and you’ll hear what Lane Lambert thought about that. Um, giveaways. Didn’t love that we had more giveaways. 10-6 by Vancouver. Um, but I think this was a good game in that it exposed some things. It exposed some things and it revealed some things. And that’s ultimately what preseason is all about. If we look at some of the players that were in this lineup, um you know, we had um the lines were as follows. Let me I’m actually going to share this with you, so bear with me just one minute. Um the lines for the preseason game. Uh we see that we had uh Newman um and Ko on either side of Mattie Beneers, Jaden Schwarz, Shane Wright in the middle and Jagger Furcus. Talk about both of them a little bit. Shalet as I mentioned, goalcorer um was with Ken and Ely. And then Oscar Fisker Mulgard with Jake O’Brien and John Hayden. Now, we heard earlier in training camp from Lane Lambert that we shouldn’t look too much into these line combinations. I kind of already did. I know that’s what he’s going to say and it makes sense. I think it what we see coming up for tomorrow’s game is going to be really interesting. But, um, you know, on the defensive side, Dunn and Larson, Evans, Alexiaak, Olafson, and Fiddler. I really liked Fiddler’s game. Joey Dord started and then we had Nik Koko um played the third period. So Joey had two periods and then he hopped on the mic for us in period number three for those who are watching on the Kraken Hockey Network. Um you know I think that the lineup was pretty solid. Definitely some holes but again we’ll talk a little bit about that. What I got from this game um is that at least as of right now, and I want to put a big asterisk, caveat, whatever you want to say, as of right now, Lane Lambert is getting what he has asked of this team. I saw a lot more discipline. You’re going to hear from Lane Lambert shortly. And I actually asked a very specific question or I asked a question about offense. I liked what I saw from the offense and I do think one of the areas that we know coming in that Lane wanted to see more of, he addressed that. We’ll talk about it. Um, there were some players I thought that did really great in that area, other players not so much. One of the things I noticed right away, let me know in the comments if you were at this game or you watched the game, but one thing I noticed right away was the passing. The passing looks super sharp from the Seattle Kraken. I think they were doing a good job of getting to the offensive zone quickly. Um, there’s no shot clock. Again, I’m rewiring my brain because I’m also covering basketball right now. So, in basketball, of course, there’s a shot clock. You have to get across the timeline as it’s known or half court um in a certain period of time and then you only have a certain period of time to shoot. We know that doesn’t exist in hockey, but the urgency with which the Seattle Kraken was moving into the offensive zone, I liked. And then there was a patience. That was one of the things I wrote down in my notes. There was a patience when they were in the offensive zone that lent to sharp passing. I saw lots of movement. And so I asked Lane about that. Again, I think he agreed with me on some points, maybe not so much on others. Or there was one specific thing I should say that he pointed out which I would agree with. But here what Lane Lambert said um postgame again about uh I want you to hear what he said about Fergus. I want you to hear what he said about being in the offensive end and uh what he said about John Hayden as well. Coach Yanni Newman scores two goals tonight. I mean we all knew he could shoot but the first goal he’s going to the net gets himself positioned in the right place. I mean, how how much is stuff like that going to matter when you evaluate, you know, all the the complete part of his game towards getting to the NHL? Yeah. No, he’s Yeah, he’s you know, his second one was a was a a good shot. The first one was going to the net hard. Uh great play by uh Ko. Um you know, the thing that excited me about that goal was uh our Dzone started in the Dzone and uh we killed the play and then it ended up in the back of their net. So, uh, from my perspective, that that’s what I’m talking about when we’re talking about defense and translates into offense. So, uh, Yanni Yanni played well. Uh, coach, what what did you think of, um, John Hayden’s game tonight with the 19 minutes of penalties on the one play? Like, what’s your reaction to to that decision to engage there? And then he goes out and scores a goal later in the game as well. Uh, you know what? I I have all kinds of time in the world for that. Um sticking up for his teammate. Um outstanding job by him and you know we uh we’ll try and kill those off all day long when when we feel like somebody’s taken a little bit of a liberty with one of our teammates. Uh and think about a couple other younger players tonight. Um Jake O’Brien, Berkeley Ken. What did you see from from those players tonight? Yeah, I saw well from both of them I I like both their games. O’Brien um real cerebral player. uh really solid defensively. Uh just honestly, he just keeps getting better every day, you know, and uh he’s had a good he’s had a good training camp. His progression has been very very good. Uh Cats, he um you know, he’s got that dynamic uh ability and that dynamic speed and um you know, he he showed it on a few occasions tonight. Uh coach, what did you uh how did you feel about Jagger Fergus’s game tonight? Uh he got caught a little bit uh with all the penalties we took. He got caught a little bit in the in the shuffle. He’s he’s not a killer and uh you know there’s a couple guys that uh didn’t maybe get the minutes that they potentially needed. I didn’t mind his game. Um you know I uh I would say he’s a little bit of a victim of circumstance tonight and um you know we’ll be looking to get another look at him for sure, but when he was out there I thought he was fine. Well, I think you’re always concerned when you take, you know, we I think we took six and a seventh one was a was a a penalty shot. Um, we need to do a better job of that. We can’t take that many penalties. That’s just plain and simple. And we certainly have plenty of video uh and plenty of repetition on our penalty kill to continue getting that better. Is it things? I I like the effort a lot. Uh I thought our team I thought we played hard. I thought we did things that we’ve been working on uh from a defensive standpoint. And I thought we did a lot of good things uh offensively. You know, the first period we controlled the game. Uh had, you know, a number of good quality scoring chances. Um and you know, we took a 4-minute penalty, but that was, you know, that was all part of it. But, uh in terms of, you know, just sticking up for your teammate, but I thought we did a lot of good things in a lot of different areas. What I really liked a lot was we were on pucks tonight. Uh we were hounding pucks, creating turnovers, um and then uh turning it into offense. Coach, can you talk a little bit about what you saw in the offensive zone? Seemed like the guys were pretty active, um and you know, moving the puck around pretty well. Yeah, we were moving it around. Um we want to I want to see us get to the net more. Uh I thought in the first period we created a number of opportunities and there was a number of rebounds there and we didn’t get to them. So that’s uh that’s something we got to improve on. Lane Lambert talking to media there. I asked uh what was the last question there? Um but you heard that he wants the offense to have more of a netfront presence. And so coming up on locked on Kraken, I want to talk about some players that I think did a better job of that and then go back to some players that Lane mentioned in passing and give you my analysis and then we’ll close out the show. um thinking about where I see the direction of this Kraken team under Lane Lambert and if I think we can maybe surprise some folks. We’ll talk about that and more on today’s episode of Locked on Kraken. 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I love the dashboards, especially the cash flow, so I can see what’s going on as I bring on other creatives. And so, you know, you can identify whether you’re not saving enough. Um, helps you no notice any inefficient investments, etc. So, don’t let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use promo code locked on NHL atmon.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with code locked on NHL. Thanks as always for making Locked on Kraken a part of your daily destination. Making us your first listen of the day, your midday listen, your late night listen. Either way, we’re happy you’re here. Erica L Ayali, your host of Locked on Kraken. And you heard from Lane Lambert in that first segment. I want to talk though and go back to Yanni Newman. Definitely a standout. He had two goals, but what stood out to me, and I’ve talked about this before, is his physique. The way that he is focused in camp and how he’s performing on the ice is a a young man that really wants to make the NHL. and he’s been asked that um Jeff Baker has an article talking a little bit more about making a case for Yanni Newman and he’s doing all of the things. Now Newman had a knack for goal. Um I think when you hear what Lane Lambert said to me with regard to offense, Newman is one of those guys, especially on a line with Koko and Beneers where he can be the guy that’s attacking the net. um netfront presence. You heard Lane Lambert talk about rebounds. I think also he wants guys to be there disrupting the defense a little bit more and I think Newman can have that game. I think Koko does such a great job. He’s a really skilled facilitator. I do wonder if Lane Lambert will maybe put an ask to for Koko to be a little bit more aggressive and I think he can be. Um, as far as uh that line, I want to just wrap with Mattie Beneers. I said this jokingly. Um, I meant it, but also, you know, a a little having a little fun with Mattie Beneers. I feel like, um, to be more technical, he wastes a lot of energy sometimes with his lateral movement while he’s skating. And I felt that he was a lot more compact. Um, so any skating coaches who watch Locked on Kraken, please, please, please comment and respond. I don’t know if I’m using the right terminology as I am not a hockey player as sometimes people in the chat remind me. Um, but jokes aside, snarkiness aside, I get the sense that and and you know, but I’m an athlete and so you have people who their natural motion just kind of has them all over the place. But what we know is even if you think of a running motion, the more compact and you want to use your energy to drive and propel you to whatever direction you’re going. And I just felt that Maddie, he had such a wide uh hockey stance. And you know, you want that when you’re skating, I’m sure, but I’m sure with anything else, there’s a little bit of a tipping point. And you know, if I I liken this to basketball, which again, I’m in the throws of covering um playoff basketball right now. You know, you have people who their shot maybe is unique and whether that has to do with injuries or just what their comfort level is, how they were taught, you don’t always want to mess that up, but when you’re looking at elite level athletes, they’re always looking to refine things. And sometimes it is small fundamental details. And to me, it looked like Matty Beneers was able to again simplify his motion. I also used to play baseball and softball and sometimes you have to simplify your swing, maybe you don’t do it forever, but just because maybe you’re you’re pulling your your head out or your eyes are are moving and so you simplify things. And I get the sense that Matty Baneer simplified his skating motion. It’s something that I’m hoping I get to talk to him about. Uh so stay tuned on Locked on Kraken. And again, any skating coaches or people who are better at analyzing that. Keep an eye on it because I I I in that first game, it was just so noticeable to me as someone who watches a lot of Kraken games. And of course, you know, I believe in 2025 being the year of veneers. So he stood out to me. Fiddler and it’s, you know, Striatic was someone that I was able to catch up with. also uh 365. Um you know, we caught up at uh Kraken Community Iceplex the other day, Sunday I guess, and um you know, we were talking about a few different players and Fiddler really stood out in a good way. And when you have someone, you know, especially on that back end, uh Fiddler again here we can see uh was was with Olifson, so a younger defensive, you know, grouping there. For me, he was a lot of what Jake O’Brien was as well. So, I’m going to kind of talk about these two, not specific to their role, but in how they played. You could tell they were young, but what I liked is that they weren’t trying to do too much. And that’s like a finicky thing. Like, if you asked me, you know, how can you tell if someone’s trying to do the most? There are people who are dramatic cases and then there’s nuance. There’s subtlety and it’s hard to describe, but I think the best way I can describe it is like I didn’t see a lot of lost um motion. They seemed very self-possessed or in control. And um it comes off as effortless, but that’s not it’s I mean, they’re putting in work, but it it just is smooth. It’s not choppy. Um, you know, I I just really liked what I was seeing from Fiddler and the same from Jake O’Brien. It wasn’t perfect. That’s It’s not It’s not about perfect. It’s about fluidity sometimes and ease and comfort. And I was really impressed with what I saw from Jake O’Brien. I am not exactly sure what I was expecting. And there were some things that I noticed from Berkeley Katton. I talked about this in my immediate postgame video. He got absolutely rocked open ice. There were times he was getting caught up against the glass early in the game. I think he figured it out a little later and then, you know, a case can be made that the game just opened up a little differently. But Ken and Shala um or Shalet, excuse me, those were two players that I have it in my notebook. My notebook’s over there right now off camera, but I wrote down that, you know, like there were just some broken plays, a little bit unsure. I think Berkeley Ken had a little bit of difficulty dealing with the physicality. Jake O’Brien a taller player and, you know, he’s not particularly big yet. He has some weight to gain for sure, but he looked composed. And same for Fiddler. Liked what you saw there. Olivessson’s got great size. I think he, you know, Olafson I didn’t notice and sometimes that’s the best compliment you can give to a defender. Um I think it was solid, serviceable. Um again within control of his self. Um but but those are some players that stood out to me. We did hear from Lane Lambert about uh Jagger Fergus and he’s a player who you know I might need to go back to the film because there were times where you could see he was very active and there were times where I think he was trying to make things happen, make things work. Um, and sometimes the execution was just slightly off, just a little bit flawed, but his instincts are definitely there. And so those things are fixable. Again, you heard from Lambert, we didn’t see him as much because there were a lot of uh PK minutes and he’s not on that special teams unit. Um, I’m trying to think of who else stood out to me. Uh, Hayden got some stick taps. Lane Lambert likes the physicality, and I’m okay with that. I don’t Okay, I know I just said I know I just said what I said and I meant what I said. I’m okay with outward aggression. For me, there’s a tipping point. I just think it’s really silly to try and punch someone um barehanded, you know, bare knuckles while they’re wearing all of that hockey equipment. I I I’m just not ever going to get into that. And like we heard from Lambert, being able to stick up for your guys. Uh he’s like, “We’ll spend as much time on the PK if that’s the case.” And I was it Larson? I I believe it was a defenseman. Gnarly, you know, cross check. Um and well, there were a few hits actually. Um, I’d have to go back for the Hayden one, but there was one I think it was the second goal for Vancouver. And I think it was Larson. It makes sense if it was Larson cuz Dunn sees Larson get hit. It was an ugly hit. Really gross. Not cool. Wasn’t a pen. It wasn’t called. It wasn’t seen. And so you see Vince kind of as Vancouver is going on the breakaway, he’s trying to tap the guy. Tap the guy. Tap the guy. That’s actually I should know this and I closed out nhl.com but they had a penalty shot. Um the Vancouver Conucks got a penalty shot and that was on that play. So, right before that play, Larson got hit from behind. An ugly hit. And Vince Dunn, I think if you watch that clip, you’ll see him talking to the officials. But also, Vince, he didn’t respond right away. He got caught up trying to teach a lesson, so to speak. and Vancouver kept the play in motion and that led to um you know a penalty shot which ultimately was a goal. Um so that was Chase Stillman’s goal. So it was a second goal. Um and for me that was like I didn’t like that play from Vince Dunn because if you’re going to go after a guy you better make sure you don’t miss when he’s on a breakaway. But then Hayden gets, you know, involved there and um, you know, he kind of handles things on the back end. It was a nasty hit for sure on a on a veteran. I’m almost positive it was on Larson. Let me know in the chat uh, or in the comments because that to me stood out. Vince, I thought had a solid game. Talked about how he had three points. It was just that one thing. And that’s what you can do in the preseason is be nitpicky. So, what are some of the things that just in a few times with chatting um of chatting with Lane Lambert and observing how he’s running things, what is this Seattle Kraken team all about? I will tell you my early observations coming up on today’s episode of Locked on Kraken. The NFL season is here and FanDuel is making sure you’re ready for kickoff with a can’tmiss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets. Now, people who are utilizing FanDuel, they rave about so many options to make good on that first $5 bet. You can do same game parlays, um, jumping in live as the action unfolds. You know, I love talking about futures bets. We’ll talk about that throughout the week to see where the Seattle Kraken stand. Kraken um Hockey Network did their rankings and I’ll talk about that a little bit. But also FanDuel is quick, it’s easy, and it’s the best way to add a little extra energy to your Sundays. So, are you ready to play? I hope you’re ready. I hope the Kraken are ready to play. We’ll talk about that coming up. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting fanduel.com to get started. That’s fanduel.com to place your first $5 bet. first game in the book, Seattle Hockey fans. And we’ve got another one coming up on Tuesday. You know, I’ve I’ve moved to a later recording time, so just in a few hours, we’ll be back after it um at Kraken uh community, Iceplex. Actually, let me go through that schedule before I break down um what I’ve seen from camp. And also a reminder if you follow us on social media, we’ve got a really cool graphic. We worked with the locked on um you know staff to create. So we’re keeping everything organized. We announce the day uh and then the schedule for the day and then any clips that come in will be under that day. But for Tuesday, September 23rd, it is a game day. The Seattle Kraken will hit the road and take on the Calgary Flames. Um but they there will be the group that is not skating that will be on the ice by 8:30 tomorrow. Um first it’s the goalies 8:30 to 9 then 9 to 9:30 on practice rink one and then 9:30 to 10 practice on rink two. Media availability will follow that. We will get the uh the guys that are going to suit up for this second preseason game. They hit the ice at 10:45 a.m. and and that will be on rink one and then we’ll get to talk to the guys. Game tomorrow, 6 pm Pacific time, Kraken at Flames uh at Scotia Scotia, excuse me, Scosia Bank Saddle Dome. I know we have some folks on the ticky talk that uh have talked about being able to go to some of these upcoming games. I believe the comment though was from the game coming up uh Wednesday which is at Rogers place against the Edmonton Oilers. Pretty much a similar schedule. It’s actually a later start though. Instead of 8:30, start at 11:50. But again, we can talk about that tomorrow. And of course, we’ll have that posted on social media on Thursday. It’s more of what we’ve seen from training camp. It will be broken up into the blue group and the white group. do want to just go over a few things here that we haven’t talked about on the show yet, but the Seattle Kraken um have announced that there are some guys dealing with injury, including Jared McCann. Now, um Lane Lambert again talked at practice, of course, and he mentioned that McCann is more of a maintenance thing, but what he also talked about is that yeah, I mean, camp is it’s it’s aggressive. It’s It’s definitely putting the guys through their paces. I was talking I I mentioned this I think on Friday’s episode talking to Twin Turbo uh who goes to the rank said hi had a great conversation and Twin Turbo and I Yes, Twin Turbo I think you can kind of figure out where that nickname comes from. I will not reveal their identity. Um, twin turbo is what we will go with. But, um, so twin turbs and I were talking and um, I do think the fitness level just from my eye test, I believe in my I I believe in my eye, my gut, my instinct. And my eye test is telling me that these guys came in fit. Now, that makes a lot of sense. On the one hand, yeah, come in fit after last season for those returning. Number two, you got a new coaching staff. the only holdover is Jessica Campbell that you have to impress. And number three, I get the sense that Lane Lambert, you know, he hasn’t shared explicitly, and I’m going to try to do some digging, but I remember when I played in college, you know, my coach, it’s not necessarily that they gave us workouts, but they they expected us to do certain things and it was on you to do that. But some coaches and some seasons, the message is a little more hard-hitting and direct than others. And so I get the sense that Lane really set the tone with what his expectation was coming into this camp. Needless to say, that doesn’t preclude unfortunately hockey fans from dealing with it or hockey fans, hockey players or fans sometimes from dealing with injury. Jared McCann is dayto-day with a lower body injury. Nathan Nathan Vilnu, who’s someone I was really eager to see, out for the remainder of training camp with a lower body injury. Brandon Montour, um, out after a bersa removal, is expected to be ready for the first home game. Uh, Leighton RH is expected to be out for two months dealing with an upper body injury. Max McCormack is out indefinitely with a hip injury. And then um we also had uh Lindren that on the non for the um non-game participants on Sunday caught a puck to the face but uh Lane Lambert expects that he will be okay definitely bruised up but that’s the update with regard to injury. um not great but uh especially that McCann injury but it is a it is good news that he’s dayto-day also missing Brandon Montour two fixtures we expect to be main stays in the starting lineup um and for the AHL Firebirds the captain Max McCormack out indefinitely that’s a tough blow I just wanted to give those updates now before we close the show what am I getting from this team. What are the vibes? What are the vibes? The vibes are this team is focused. And I love that because there were too many times last season and I should have I should have known this prepared me for the WNBA season where not only am I a national writer for CBS, but for my company, Black Rosie Media, I cover the Seattle Storm and the New York Liberty. Between the Kraken, the Storm, and the Liberty, I covered three teams that had a much better team on paper than they performed. Um, they did not execute. And the fact that Lane already has this team focused, I love it. Now, I told you earlier in the show I have an asterisk, a big question mark or something that I’m going to keep an eye on because I felt that Dan Bilesma did a really good job in the train in training camp and preseason getting the team to be aggressive offensively. We know he wanted to ram the puck down the opponent’s throats. He wanted them to be fast. He wanted them to be on the for check and we saw that until we didn’t. I don’t It’s almost like a a vibe, a feel. Lane Lambert communicates in a much different way than Haxel in a much different way than Dan Bilesma. He is direct. He is also softspoken. So, we’re going to have to crank up the volume sometimes when he’s speaking. Hopefully the Kraken staff will handle that for me so I don’t have to do it in post-production or so Joe doesn’t have to do it. He’s a man of few words, but he’s direct and he’s unapologetic. I love that so much. This man has told this team they’re going to be defensive. They’re going to be disciplined and they’re going to I don’t think he’s using this term, but they are going to be a sandpaper team. this, excuse me, this is going to be a sandpaper team. He is demanding that non-negotiables. I asked him about non-negotiables the other day. That’s non-negoti like I mean I get the sense that that is that is the standard. That is the that is the only way that Kraken players will see the ice is if they lean into that. Lean into the defense. Lean into the discipline. Wildly undisiplined team. Loved Dan Bilesma. Wildly undisiplined team. And you know what? In hindsight, you know that I talk about Coachella Valley a decent amount on the show. Kind of knew that about Dan Bilesma coming in. So, we did see Jessica Campbell on the bench. Lane told us she will be handling of course player development, which we have also heard Dan said this last year. The organization said this last year, Jason Botrol saying this again this year as well as Lane Lambert. Player development is not just the prospects, it’s the players on the squad. No one better than Mattie Beneers and also Shane Wright when it comes to that. I think Ty Cartier is someone that is probably going to reup with Jessica Campbell is probably going to reup with Jessica Campbell. Another thing we heard is that she’ll be handling faceoffs. So, we’ll see how all of that transpires. And again, having an interesting conversation just with some folks um that I was engaged engaging with at uh Kraken Community Iceplex. But, you know, very curious to see how Jessica Campbell is utilized in the Lane Lambert era. She’s a carryover and Lane Lambert has been a carryover, okay, in his career. That can be a beautiful thing and a great thing. And there are definitely times, I don’t know what the percentage is. It seems like there’s a decent amount um maybe not you know it’s not 50/50 maybe more 6040 where sometimes an organization brings a carryover someone from the regime that that is no more and it’s just not enough newness to break some of the bad habits. So I I’m not hoping for that and I’m going to keep an eye on it. Uh, I’m going to keep an eye on how Lambert handles that, how Campbell handles it. Overall, too soon for me to make my big, bad, bold predictions because I’ve been down this road before with this team. I like the early returns. I like what I’m hearing. I like what I’m seeing. I think they walk it like they talk it. Walk it like they talk it. Walk it like I talk it. That’s what I’m hoping is the messaging for this Seattle Kraken team. But I’ve been down this road before. I’m just telling you my early observations. They got to prove it to me to us. And this team, this organization has a lot to prove. And it’s not necessarily in the wins and losses structurally, organizationally, communicationwise, play style, discipline. This team has a lot to prove. And Lane knows that and he expresses that. My my early take is that he’s expressing that to the team while also keeping them focused on how to improve. super focused, super simple and and simple in a way as simple as maybe not simplified. If we want to do all of these things on the whiteboard, then we have to be better defensively. We have to be a disciplined team and we have to buy in to the non-negotiables. In my mind, from my observations, from what I’m hearing from Lane and from other people, that’s how this conversation is going. It’s not that it’s simple, but he’s simplifying it because at the end of the day, that’s what I wanted from this team last year. It’s simple. It’s not Excuse me. It’s not that it’s simple, but it’s doable. And you do it by focusing on one to three things and doing those as flawlessly as possible. simplified. Not simple, but simplified. That’s what I see. Not simple, but simplified. That’s the vibe. That’s the ask. That’s the charge of this team. And if the passing, if the offensive zone entries look the way they did on Sunday, I am here for it. Were you at the game? Did you watch on the Kraken Hockey Network? Let me know in the comments on social media. I want to hear from you. What are your takeaways? Not simple, but simplified. That’s I feel like the theme adding it to my vets versus new threats. Not simple, but simplified. We’ll see what other catchphrases come out of the season. A reminder, be kind to yourselves. Be kind to others. Hold fast. Stay true. Loud and proud. We say, “Let’s go cracking.” If you see me around the rink, please come say hi. And I will catch you on the next episode. Peace out, everybody.

The Seattle Kraken kicked off their preseason with an exciting win, and host Erica L. Ayala breaks down what stood out most!

From standout performances by Jani Newman and Vince Dunn to Lane Lambert’s leadership shaping this team’s identity, there’s plenty to discuss. Locked On Kraken is your daily podcast covering all things Seattle Kraken and the NHL!

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Locked On Kraken is a daily podcast covering the 32nd NHL team! Host and freelancer journalist Erica L. Ayala (Locked on WBB, Forbes, Sports Illustrated, and more) helped the then NHL Seattle franchise launch the Seattle Kraken brand back in July 2020.

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