The Seattle Kraken aren't scoring enough goals, and coach Lane Lambert wants a different approach from his players to begin solving the issue at hand.
The Seattle Kraken will be pleased with their start to the season. They are now 16 games into the regular season and have posted 19 points to go along with a 7-4-5 record.
That's good enough for third in the Pacific Division, trailing just the red-hot Anaheim Ducks and the always consistent Los Angeles Kings. Despite their place in the standings, it almost feels like the Kraken have left plenty of points on the table.
Their five overtime and shootout losses are perfect evidence of that claim. The main reason they are heading to so many extra frames is due to the lack of offense. The Kraken have scored just 40 goals this season, the second fewest in the NHL and their 2.5 goals per game is ranked 30th. They would have had to endure far fewer overtime stanzas if they were able to score more goals.
It's something coach Lane Lambert has acknowledged and is eager to fix.
"Let's just go back to the last three games," Lambert started. "We've had about 187 shot attempts to be exact, and we've had over 100 of those blocked or missed the net. There's your formula to having success. It's to get more of those attempts on net."
Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) on X
“We have great structure in our defensive zone… and we need to get better structure in our offensive zone. We can’t defer to passing. We have to have a shoot first mentality.”
🗣️ Hear more from #SeaKraken head coach Lane Lambert following today's practice.
According to Money Puck, the Kraken have had the third-highest percentage of shot attempts blocked, with 32.25 percent of their attempts blocked. They also have the fifth-highest percentage of unblocked shots that miss the net, with 36.3 percent of their shots failing to hit the net.
The hardest aspect of the NHL is scoring goals, and your defense can be as great as it can be, but if you can't score at an average rate, winning consistently is going to feel impossible, and it's why they accumulated as many overtime losses as they have.
"We have great structure in our defensive zone, and we need to get better structure in our offensive zone," said Lambert about what he can do to help his team score more goals. "There is certainly things we can do; there are things that we talked about this morning, and we just have to try to keep on building on it. We can’t defer to passing. We have to have a shoot first mentality."
Lambert also went on to explain that he believes his team takes too long to get shots away. He continued by saying they are taking fractions of a second too long to do so, but with the speed the NHL game is played at, it's enough time for a defender to get their stick on the puck or put their body on the line to block a shot.
Like every other team in the NHL, there are plenty of things to like, but also plenty of things that need improvement. The Kraken allow the ninth fewest goals per game, and still they have a minus-6 goal differential.
The Kraken will have the opportunity to avenge their frustrating 2-1 shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday when they host the Winnipeg Jets.
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