One: Reversing the Current Streak
Sometimes, a reversal of hockey fortunes shows up first in effort and generating scoring chances before the scoreboard catches up. That is Kraken coach Lane Lambert’s take on Saturday’s narrow 4-3 loss to Detroit, which took a wrong turn with a Patrick Kane goal with two-and-a-half minutes remaining in regulation. The Kraken have now absorbed four straight losses following a late November road trip that yielded five of eight possible standings points.
“I thought it was a good game,” said Lambert in the post-game media scrum Saturday night. “I thought our guys competed. We played hard. It was a game, I guess you could say, that could have went either way. We had plenty of chances; we threw plenty of pucks at the net. We’ve been doing that a lot better lately. I was real happy with our compete level tonight.”
Defensemen Brandon Montour and Adam Larsson, who both scored against the Red Wings, were aligned with their coach on the better effort at both ends of the ice and had a few suggestions on what can be added against visiting Minnesota.
“We’re creating chances, but we just have to put them in the net too,” said Larrson, whose shot on net was tipped in by Chandler Stephenson for the Kraken’s third goal after the veteran D-man scored earlier from just inside the blue line. “Offensively, every team goes through tough stretches. It’s a long season. I mean, you lose one, and then you can go on a heater, too. So, we’re just going to stay positive. I thought today was a lot better than the last three [games].”
For his part, Montour liked Saturday’s forecheck efforts and sustained offensive zone time, but urged the best route out of a losing streak is getting to the net with more pucks and bodies, “making it hard on their goalie, hard on their ‘D’. ”
Two: Facing Off and Up to Special Teams Trends
Seattle’s power play and penalty-kill stats are not charting upward in December to date. The Kraken power play scoring percentage is 16.9, which ranks 22nd in the NHL. The penalty kill success percentage of 64.8 is 32nd in the league, and the team has given up seven goals in the last eight PKs over the last three games, two versus Edmonton (and a couple guys named Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl) and Detroit. While Lane Lambert has rightfully noted that PK percentage is an imperfect stat and that earlier in the season he liked the work of his penalty killers despite the simple data point, he was straightforward about the recent PK troubles. He did point out one factor that needs improvement pronto.
“There’s a variation of things contributing to it,” said Lambert when queried about the PK Saturday. “It starts face-off-wise. We’re not winning enough faceoffs. We start pretty much every penalty kill on our heels as opposed to getting pucks down the ice. It starts there, but we certainly haven’t done a very good job, and we know this. Something’s got to be done about it, and there’s only one way to go.”
Three: Know the Foe: Wild Turned Season Around
The Wild stumbled out of the blocks this season with a 3-6-3 record in the opening month before earning points in 13 of 14 games in November, posting an 11-1-2 mark. The Wild have lost their last two games, 4-1 at Calgary Thursday and 2-1 in Vancouver Saturday (a game they arguably deserved to win). The team’s turnaround is widely credited to an October players-only team meeting called by captain Jared Spurgeon via text. During that get-together, veteran forward and alternate captain Marcus Foligno said players are too “mellow and vanilla” (stick tap to The Athletic’s Michael Russo).
Let’s agree the Wild players have spiced it up since. Young star-in-the-making Matt Boldy is a player to watch, given his 10 goals and six assists in the last dozen games. Long-time pro Mats Zuccarello (he first gained NHL notice as a whirlwind playmaker for Norway in the 2010 Winter Olympics) returned from injury in early November, achieving a 2-10-12 stat line in his first 14 games of his 16th season. The 5-foot-8, 38-year-old winger makes superstar Kirill Kaprizov better, a dangerous proposition Monday night.
Projected Lines (not official)
Check back here and on the official app of the Seattle Kraken following morning skate on Monday.
