Are the Seattle Kraken turning their season around?
Two weeks ago, the Kraken were in the midst of a six-game losing streak.
They had dropped eight of their last nine games and fell behind night after night in front of home crowds at Climate Pledge Arena. Head coach Dave Hakstol and his players were visibly frustrated in their meetings with the media. The road out of last place in the Pacific Division was looking longer and longer.
Then the Washington Capitals came to town on Nov. 21, and the Kraken finally flipped the script and earned a 5-2 victory. That win was a turning point. Seattle went 3-1 in its next four games — most recently a 7-4 victory over Buffalo on Monday night
“You’re a little more excited to come to the rink,” head coach Dave Hakstol told reporters in Buffalo after the victory. “You feel a little bit better. In all honesty, there was a stretch ... of four or five games that were probably more complete tonight in terms of our play with the puck and what we did through 60 minutes, but we didn’t get results.
“Really the biggest thing for me is crediting the guys with staying with it, staying together during some of those tough stretches where you’re playing pretty darn well but not being rewarded. It was nice being rewarded tonight individually ... but the biggest thing was the two points for our team.”
In winning four of their last five games , the Kraken brought their captain’s vision to life. In the midst of the losing streak, defenseman Mark Giordano said the key to getting on track was looking at the season in small pieces instead of trying to make up the ground all at once.
“You got to chip away and you got to look at segments — short segments, five-game segments,” Giordano said in mid-November. “I think our coaches put together segments for us, and we got to look at it that way. ... When you are in our position, you’re going to have to grind and chip away slowly. You’re not going to get that gap all in one night. ... We just got to focus on doing the things we’re doing right.”
Recently, that strategy has been working just fine.
After beating Washington, the Kraken topped the Carolina Hurricanes — who entered with the best record in the NHL — 5-2 in the last night of a six-game home stand. Back on the road, Seattle fell to Tampa Bay on Thursday before bouncing back with a victory over Florida the next night.
Entering the match-up with the Capitols, these five games looked like a dangerous stretch for the Kraken. Washington and Carolina lead the Metropolitan Division. Florida and Tampa Bay are second and third, respectively, in the Atlantic. Seattle easily could’ve come out of the last five games even further behind in the standings.
Instead, the Kraken are no longer in last place in the Pacific Division — their 17 points moved them ahead of Vancouver — and they are six points out of the final wild-card spot. It’s not where Seattle wants to be just yet, but it’s a far cry from the nine points it had just 10 days ago.
During their six-game losing streak, the Kraken averaged 2.8 goals per game while giving up 5.1. Those numbers have changed significantly in the last five games with Seattle scoring 3.6 goals per game and allowing 2.2 Seattle gave up two or fewer goals three times during this most recent stretch.
“What it’s been has been the right guys contributing at the right times and at different times,” Hakstol said. “That’s what gives a team confidence. When somebody goes out of the line-up, someone new comes in and contributes. That’s everybody’s job to be ready to come in and contribute in whatever way the team needs on that particularly night and we’ve been able to have that.”
The question now is, can the Kraken keep the success going in December? They’ll face Detroit on the road on Wednesday before returning home for four straight games against Pittsburgh, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Columbus.
This story was originally published November 30, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
