"We felt that goaltending and defense would give us a chance in each game," Francis told The Seattle Times. "And then the question was scoring, and can we score enough or not? I think we certainly felt going into the season that we would be a competitive team.
"I think we've had some games from the start of the season where I've felt we found a way to lose rather than gain a point or two. And when you give up six or eight of those points, you're in a different situation than you're sitting in now."
The Kraken (4-10-1) are last in the Pacific Division after losing four straight games and six of the past seven. They are 31st in the NHL with a 3.67 goals-against average and 20th in goals per game at 2.80.
"I think the expected goals against is the big discrepancy from where we thought it would be," Francis said. "And it seems to be different things on different nights. Certainly, there have been games where the goaltenders feel they'd like one or two back. And I think there have been nights where the [defensemen] and the forwards, they'd like to do something different with one or two. And that's sort of adding to our frustration at this point."
Jordan Eberle leads the Kraken with eight goals and 12 points in 15 games. Defenseman Mark Giordano, who has scored seven points (three goals, four assists), leads Seattle in average ice time (21:12).
Goalies Philipp Grubauer and Chris Driedger each has struggled with consistency.
Grubauer, who signed a six-year contract July 28 after he was voted a finalist for the Vezina Trophy as the best goalie in the NHL last season with the Colorado Avalanche, is 4-7-1 with a 3.18 goals-against average and .880 save percentage in 12 games (all starts). Last season, he was 30-9-1 with a 1.95 GAA, .922 save percentage and seven shutouts in 40 games (39 starts).
Driedger, who signed a three-year contract July 21, has started one game, a 4-2 loss at the Vegas Golden Knights on Nov. 9. He was 14-6-3 with a 2.07 GAA, .927 save percentage and three shutouts in 23 starts for the Florida Panthers last season.
"There's a lot of things that have factored into it," Francis said. "We started with five [games] in eight [days] on the road, and then [Driedger] got injured so we had to run [Grubauer] probably harder than we want. You've got a team with guys trying to figure each other out, figure out a new system. Certainly, there's been more than one time we've sort of left [Grubauer] out to dry, and I think that factors into things.
"I'm not making excuses for him. I think if you talk to him, he'd say he needs to be a little bit better. But as a group, we all need to be a little bit better in situations as well too."
