Kraken have ‘got to be better’ after Global Series losses 

HELSINKI -- During their walk from the locker room to the podium, Seattle Kraken forwards Jordan Eberle and Kaapo Kakko tried to find some silver lining from their experiences over the past week at the 2026 NHL Global Series Finland.

There certainly weren’t many positives, if any, to take from what happened on the ice during the two games they played against the Carolina Hurricanes, who completed a sweep of the two-game set by defeating Seattle 5-1 at Veikkaus Arena on Saturday.

That sent the Kraken (9-8-1) home empty-handed from the trip after a 4-1 loss in the first game here on Thursday.

“Obviously, the hockey, we didn't get any points,” said Eberle, the Kraken captain. “That's extremely frustrating, and we're playing a really good team. But I guess a positive side of it is -- Kaapo and I were talking the way here -- I thought our group at least we bonded. 

“I felt like on the bus and in the room, the guys were laughing and chattering. That’s a positive I take out of this.”

Perhaps there can be some value in that after the Kraken hoped to at least hold their own in these two games against the reigning Stanley Cup champions. Instead, they were overrun by a machine firing on all cylinders. 

Carolina (16-3-2) leads the NHL with 34 points after winning its past four games and eight of nine. The Hurricanes have outscored their opponents 23-7 in their past four games.

The aggregate score here was 9-2. 

Seattle was outshot 67-26 in the two games and had a 180-64 disadvantage in shot attempts, including 96-28 on Saturday.

“Just too many turnovers,” Kraken coach Lane Lambert said. “Carolina, they slice pucks to the net. Puck after puck after puck, they just keep coming at you, and when you turn pucks over, don't get it in deep, don't establish a forecheck, they end up coming back at you. 

“I've never been part of a team that had (96) shot attempts against in a game.”

Including a 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers on Nov. 7 before leaving for Finland, Seattle has dropped three in a row following a promising 9-5-1 start. The Kraken were outscored 7-0 in the first periods of those three losses, including 2-0 deficits after 20 minutes in each of the two games here.

In assessing how Seattle measured up against the Cup champs, Lambert said, “When you look at the two games, there's a huge disparity.”

The Kraken struggled throughout the two games with handling the Hurricanes’ forecheck pressure. That led to numerous sustained shifts in the defensive zone and all those shot attempts against.

“Carolina, they're Stanley Cup defending champions for a reason,” Eberle said. “They give you zero time and space out there. There's not a lot of room to make plays, and they're connected. They know where each other are on the ice. They know what their task and their job is, and they do it well.”

Lambert estimated his team lost 70 percent of the puck battles in the two games, but he credited his players for blocking 25 Hurricanes attempts. That did little, though, to help goalie Joey Daccord, who allowed four goals on 14 shots Saturday, including three power-play goals, before being replaced by Philipp Grubauer 10:05 into the second period with Carolina leading 4-1.

“I was looking for a spark,” Lambert said of pulling Daccord. “Much like the rest of our hockey team, he has to be better.

“But we were bad to a man.” 

Neither Eberle nor Kakko disputed that.

“We came here to play hockey,” Kakko said. “We lost both games.”

Kakko agreed with Eberle’s assessment the trip brought the Kraken closer together as a team, though. 

“I think it was a fun trip,” Kakko said. “It doesn't feel like that right now after a game like that, but for sure we got closer.”

Having grown up about 90 minutes from Helsinki in Turku, Kakko had looked forward to the Global Series Finland since the NHL announced in March the Kraken would be a participant. 

Off the ice, at least, it lived up to his expectations.

Some relatives and friends who normally would not be able to watch him in North America were able to see him play here. And, along with countrymen  Ville Ottavainen, Jani Nyman and Nikke Kokko, he got to show the rest of the Kraken players some of Finland’s culture with a sauna excursion and team dinners where they sampled some of the local cuisine.

“It's a big thing for me,” Kakko said. “Also, for the whole team, I think all the guys were saying it was actually fun to do things over here, spend time with the team. So, that's a good thing also.”

Lambert agreed the bonding experience could be helpful going forward. There will be more challenges over the Kraken’s 66 remaining regular-season games, and they will need to handle them better than they did against the Hurricanes.

“There is some value in facing adversity, coming through adversity together,” Lambert said. “There were moments on this trip where we certainly did bond, and I think that helped us through the adversity.

“But let's be clear. Let's face facts. There isn't one person in the organization that doesn't realize that we went through some adversity here and we've got to be better.”