In 2023, apparently with some sort of 1st-time playoff hangover, the Seattle Kraken soiled the sheets just a couple weeks into the season. In head coach Dave Hakstol’s final campaign, the team started 1-5-and-1 and were unofficially out of the playoff race after an 0-6-and-2 skid bridging November into December.
Last season under Dan Bylsma the pattern was similar although it took a bit longer to kick in.
NHL teams settle into systems and identities as November unfolds, putting the usually unpredictable and sometimes crazy October behind them.
In 2024 the Kraken didn’t find their game after a 5-5-and-1 opening month, instead losing their first three games of November and then losing four out of five to finish that month. A four game losing streak in mid-December and the writing was on the wall.
Here we go again. Or so it seems. A shoot-out loss and two regulation defeats wrapped around the Thanksgiving holiday, followed by three days of practice and two more losses, and the Kraken might be on a slippery slope. Getting whipped by the Oilers 9-4 in Edmonton on Thursday was particularly fugly, as was some of the goaltending.
That would be a new concern. For a squad that relies on sound play in its own end and lacks offense at the other, netminding cannot be a worry.
Meanwhile, head coach Lane Lambert appears to have buy-in from the players on his style of play, half the battle for a coach, but as we’ve pointed out a number of times, he’s lacking in upscale talent. As other NHL clubs find their games, that simple fact might be Seattle’s undoing.
On the bright side the Kraken have played the fewest games in the NHL, 26, and the team has anywhere from one to four games in-hand on the clubs they’re chasing. Seattle is presently three points out of a Western Conference playoff spot.
We should have a pretty good idea of this team’s fate by Christmas, especially if, at some point along the way, that secondary swoon occurs. It’s a holiday tradition the Kraken could do without.
Earlier Kraken:
— Another Day, Another Kraken Injury
Of interest from the Canucks:
— Canucks Ugly Trade Talk Turns To Hughes