Seattle, WA – Every win streak must come to an end, but for the Seattle Kraken, it came in brutally ugly fashion. The Kraken had their franchise long seven game winning streak ripped to shreds by the Florida Panthers, as Seattle never really got their boat off the dock. After immediately giving up a dangerous chance just ten seconds in, the Kraken stacked mistake on top of mistake until the final scoreboard showed a four-goal defeat. Seattle needs to regroup, work on their defensive structure, and improve their penalty kill in order to start a new streak.
Right out of the opening faceoffs, things began poorly for the Kraken. Two growing issues for Seattle have been their defensive lapses (remember that from the inaugural season?) and penalty kill, neither of which have seemed to show much improvement lately. The Kraken weren’t able to get the puck out of their own defensive zone, failed to restrict Florida’s possessions, and simply could not stay out of the penalty box. Seattle’s penalty kill once went 18-consecutive appearances without a goal, and those days now seem like ancient history. While the Kraken have shown their offensive prowess for the large majority of the season, Seattle’s defending struggles are a constant issue. Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol discussed what he saw in the loss.
“There weren’t many parts of our game that were very good tonight. That’s gonna be a tough way to win a hockey game, that’s just the bottom line… It’s been different things that have caused our specialty
teams to struggle. Our special teams had several opportunities to answer at the right time, and we weren’t either to on either side… it’s not just one part of our game tonight, our entire game was not at the level it needed to be,” Hakstol stated.
While it was to be expected that this win streak was going to find it’s end for the Kraken, the fact that it was the result of two of the team’s biggest issues points Seattle in the direction of where they need to improve. The Kraken have shown on a consistent basis that they are far improved from their inaugural roster, but with where they currently sit the team is not worried just about improvement, but making the playoffs. Seattle is currently ahead of general manager Ron Francis’ three-to-five-year plan to reach the postseason, but considering the talent level and resulting results, the issue can and should be pushed now. Seattle looked like a different team tonight than the dangerous one we have seen through these first 20+ games this season, and Jared McCann discussed that postgame.
“We were a little slow to pucks, didn’t have any jam or finishing our checks. We were not playing the way that we normally do that gives us success. It’s something to learn, we have to reset and refocus, we have to come back down to Earth here… We have a lot of veteran guys here who are able to calm us down and let us play hockey, so that helps,” McCann remarked.
The Kraken will get a day off and a practice day before their next game on Tuesday, December 6th. Seattle will finish up their three-game homestand by hosting the Montreal Canadiens, the team that the Kraken recorded their first ever home win against. Young stars Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and the Canadiens will drop the puck
against the Kraken at 7PM PST as Seattle will look to begin a new winning streak.
