Seattle Kraken needs to stop the bleeding
The Seattle Kraken is off to a bad start at 4-12-1. We look at one of the biggest factors why.
Seventeen games into the Seattle Kraken inaugural season, it’s not going well. They have won only four times, and Friday night’s 7-3 loss to Colorado is becoming more the rule than the exception. Instead of playing like the 2018-19 Vegas Golden Knights (109 points), Seattle is more like the 1974-75 Kansas City Scouts (41 points).
Porous efense (no “D”)
When Kraken General Manager Ron Francis put the team together before the season, it was built with goaltending and defense at the forefront. In the expansion draft, he selected (or signed) some very good defenseman. Jamie Oleksiak, Adam Larsson, and Mark Giordano would be on any team’s top four. Those three are at the core of what was thought to be a very solid group of blueliners.
To say the results at this point are less than expected is a vast understatement. Oleksiak, Larsson, and Giordano are a combined -16, including -13 over the last two weeks. Jeremy Lauzon, Vince Dunn, and Carson Soucy, the other three main defensemen, are also -16 combined this season. For those scoring at home, forget it because it’s nauseating.
As a matter of fact, only three Kraken with at least 10 games played are even or better, and Joonas Donskoi is the lone member of the team in positive territory at +1.
A Big Hole in the Boat
Every top team has quality goaltending. Few NHL games end up as 6-5 or 5-4 affairs. An “outgun the other guys” philosophy often doesn’t work.
Francis drafted goalie Chris Driedger from Florida and then signed free agent Philipp Grubauer, who finished third for the Vezina Trophy last season. Grubauer and Drieder showed enormous promise as possibly the best duo in the Pacific Division.
The Seattle Kraken yields an NHL worst average of 3.88 goals per game and allowed four or more goals in 13 of 17 games. Grubauer has a 3.44 Goals Against Average (GAA) and 0.875 Save Percentage (SV%), while Driedger is 3.18 and 0.860, respectively.
Maybe Driedger gets a slight pass; he’s coming back from an injury that sidelined him for the first few weeks of the season. Or maybe not because he should be playing better than he is.
Grubauer, on the other hand, has been awful. His career numbers coming into this season were 2.34 GAA and 0.920 SV%. It’s like Grubauer is an entirely different goalie. He sees too many high danger shots, and that’s a factor, but overall he’s not stopping the puck.
That’s the problem with the word promise; it doesn’t always translate to success.
Putting it together
Believe it or not, the Kraken allows the fewest shots against per game at 25.9. Unfortunately, they also give up the most goals per game. It’s easy to blame the goalies. With the way they played this year, they’ve earned their fair share of criticism. Despite the lack of shots against, opponents are getting quality opportunities, and the defense isn’t clearing traffic in front of the net. That combination will devastate any team’s chance to win.
Francis and head coach Dave Hakstol also need to take some responsibility because what’s happening out on the ice isn’t working. Changes in both strategy and execution are necessary, sooner rather than later.
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What do you think about the Seattle Kraken’s inability to stop opponents from scoring? Let us know in the comments section below or on social media.