The Seattle Kraken came into Thursday's game against Chicago as losers of four of their past six games. And Adam Proteau has three takeaways from the Kraken's defeat.
The Seattle Kraken took on the Chicago Blackhawks Thursday night in the Windy City. Here are three takeaways from the game:
1. Kraken's offense almost completely vanishes, continuing Seattle's goal-challenged pattern of late
In each of Seattle's past five losses, they've scored two goals or fewer, and in four of their past five losses, the Kraken have produced one goal or fewer. Needless to say, this is a troublesome trend. And on Thursday, Seattle didn't score a goal through the first two periods against the lowly Blackhawks.
It took 51:23 in the game for Seattle to score its only goal of the game -- Ryker Evans' fourth goal of the season, to make it 2-1 in favor of Chicago. But a little less than four minutes after Evans' goal, the Hawks re-established their two-goal lead on what would be the final marker of the night.
The Kraken's offense has dried up in particular in the past couple weeks, and Seattle should've been able to generate more offense against the lowly Hawks. Because if all the Kraken can muster is one goal-for per-game, Seattle is going to lose far more often than they win.
2. Newcomer Kakko's first game with Seattle was relatively quiet
In his first game as a Kraken since he was traded from the New York Islanders Wednesday, right winger Kaapo Kakko logged 13:15 of ice time with two shots and no points -- not an overwhelmingly positive first game representing Seattle. But Seattle coach Dan Bylsma likely wanted to ease Kakko into the Kraken's mix.
Kakko had been averaging 13;17 with the Rangers, so his ice time Thursday was in line with that amount. The last thing Bylsma wants to do is to flood Kakko with too much time. Better to keep Kakko where he feels comfortable, and that means giving him fourth-liner minutes to kick off his time with the Kraken, and building him up from there.
3. Kraken continue to stall, and they're now in danger of falling into Pacific Division basement
The Kraken have now dropped three games in a row, and their record after the loss is 15-17-2. They haven't yet fallen into the Pacific's basement, but they're now only four standings points ahead of the seventh-place Anaheim Ducks, and they're just five points ahead of eighth-place San Jose. Oh, and the Ducks have four games in hand on Seattle.
It's not yet time to press the panic button in Seattle, but consdering the Kraken now have three tough road games against Vegas, Colorado and Vancouver, Seattle could find themselves in a much more challenging spot in the Pacific by this time next week.
Sooner or later, this Kraken squad needs to step up and put the team on their shoulders, or playoff hockey may not be a part of Seattle's season in 2024-25. The Kraken can't sit back and play passive hockey, and there must be some urgency to their game. This is what we didn't see from them against Chicago Thursday, and what has to change from them right away.