Kraken Hockey

The Kraken are a team that seems to have slowly lost its fight throughout the season, the feistiness slowly dissipated as the season continued. Brandon Montour is a player that was always willing to play a little dirty and get in a fight. While the team does not need to take extra penalty minutes, it does need to fuel the fire the team started with at the beginning of the 24-25 season. While acquired near the trade deadline, Mikey Eyssimont has been a fighter, the line with him Tye Kartye and John Hayden may not have seemed like it yielded a lot of goals they were scrappy and willing to get into fights. A good fight can change how the rest of the game is played, the Kraken have not always understood when a fight is necessary. A great example of a fight working out in the Kraken’s favor was when Brandon Tanev got hit near the head, lifting his helmet off, after the period ended the team changed and got back into the fight. The Kraken need to look at continuing to fight even when they are losing, fans may understand that losing sucks, but the team needs to be able to try and fight back against a loss.

Philipp Grubauer is a great example of how loss of confidence from the fans can ruin a player’s game. While many fans do not agree with the contract Grubauer got, their active hatred of him has changed how he plays his game. Imagine you’re the first real goalie a team has chosen and slowly the organization has started to focus on looking for new talent rather than trying to work on skills with the current goalie. Not only does he have a lack of confidence, the way the defense plays also changes when he is in net. He suddenly does not get supported the way goalies are supposed to be, yes, he may let in easy pucks, but he makes saves he shouldn’t even have to because the defense gets holes in it when Gru is in net. Goalies are a rare breed; they experience wins and losses as if they are the only person on the ice who played in the game. As someone who is a fan of goalies no matter their team, there have been similar issues seen throughout the playoffs. Stuart Skinner is a great example of fan behavior changing how a goalie performs, not only have they been disappointed in his performance they have also sent threatening messages.

The Kraken need to figure out how to play as a team throughout every game, some games they play like they have been playing together for their entire careers but sometimes they play like they haven’t even met. Certain lines tend to work together every time, like Matty Beniers and Kaapo Kakko always play well together no matter who is playing on the right wing. Not every line has been able to do that, with the head coach Dan Bylsma constantly shifting around the lines it has been difficult to see what lines are and are not working together. The defensive pairings were being moved around so they kept on having to learn a new D partner, Ryker Evans was being moved around a lot, and it never seemed like Bylsma could figure out who was the proper pairing for Evans. I think that while they definitely need to figure out new lines and see what fits throughout the summer training camp, they also need to try and be more consistent during the season so that they play like a championship team rather than out of playoff contention early in the season.

Overall, the Kraken are team with insane potential that needs to work on their issues and figure out what they expect from the team this season. I hope that the team is able to play a harder game that can make us a more dynamic team that has a fighting chance at playoff contention. The Kraken need to be able to change how they are playing the game while also not completely changing the roster, also they still desperately need to sign Kaapo Kakko to a contract extension while also being aggressive in free agency.