Seattle Kraken: Expanded break comes at a good time to fix broken defensive scheme

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Dec 23, 2021
Seattle Kraken
Seattle Kraken Head Coach Dave Hakstol.

The expanded NHL holiday break is a good time for the Seattle Kraken to work on their defensive system, which is clearly broken.

Due to COVID-19 breakouts, the NHL extended their holiday break and canceled games scheduled for December 22 and 23. The extra break comes at a time when the Seattle Kraken is going through a rough stretch. A few additional non-game days will certainly help head coach Dave Hakstol, and his staff fix a system that isn’t working.

The Omicron Variant is tearing through the National Hockey League. Ahead of the league-wide hiatus, the Kraken’s home games against Toronto on Sunday, December 19, and Arizona on Tuesday, December 21. They were due to play in Calgary on Thursday, December 23, but that became part of the new holiday break.

It’s time to make the best of a bad situation. Before the postponements, Seattle was 1-4-1 in their last six games. The biggest factor for their failures is defense. The Seattle Kraken allowed three or more goals in 7 of 8 and 9 of 11 games. In six of those contests, Seattle let in four or more.

We’ve written about the disappointing goaltending from Philipp Grubauer as well as the sub-par play of the Kraken defensemen in their own zone. While they have extra time, the Seattle Kraken coaching staff needs to revise or even blow up their entire defensive system and start from scratch.

 

Forwards responsibilities

It’s a misconception that it’s up to the defensemen to keep the opponent from getting scoring opportunities. The forwards are a big part of team defense. It starts with the forwards making it hard for the other team to break out of their zone.

That’s followed by clogging the neutral zone to slow down or stop the oncoming rush. When their opponent reaches the Kraken defensive zone, it’s up to the forwards to not only defend their man but also go hard after the puck along the boards. Seattle forwards, as a group, haven’t executed any of this well enough to make a difference.

Except for Brandon Tanev (98 hits), who plays like the laser system from the red light / green light robot in The Squid Game, destroying everything he sees moving, no other Seattle forward has more than 35 hits. The Kraken forwards have good size. Why not put those big bodies to good use by making the other team fight for every opportunity they get.

2022 Olympics

Because they need to make up postponed games, the NHL also announced that their players will not participate in the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Realistically, this decision affects only two players on the Seattle Kraken roster, goalie Philipp Grubauer (Germany) and center Alexander True (Denmark).

The absence of NHLers may open a spot for Seattle’s first-round draft pick Matty Beniers to represent the United States if NCAA players can attend. Beniers can make a strong case for his inclusion with a solid performance at the World Junior Championships beginning December 26.

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